Foxes boss plans rethink on tactics to avoid drop
LYDIA Bedford hopes a radical tactical rethink can fire Leicester back to winning ways and Barclays FA Women’s Super League survival against Reading this weekend, writes Aymen Babar of Sportsbeat.
The Foxes host Kelly Chambers’ side at the King Power Stadium tomorrow, bidding to bounce back from three heavy defeats and take one step further towards safety.
Leicester slumped to 9-0, 5-0 and 4-0 losses against high-flying Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City, and Bedford wants to adapt her team’s gameplan against less menacing opposition.
Manager Bedford, below, whose team are four points clear of bottom side Birmingham with two games to go, said: “The way that they’ve approached the last three games is very different to how we know we need to approach Sunday if we’re to get anything out of it.
“So I think it’s trying to switch them back into a thought process around how well we did against the likes of Everton,
West Ham and Birmingham in the last couple of months.
“It’s about bringing back that belief that they had in terms of their in possession qualities, and also how competitive they were out of possession in those games.
“It’s been quite easy to do, to be honest, but it’s just a bit of a shift in mindset.”
Leicester’s last two fixtures are against Reading and Tottenham, while Birmingham have a game in hand at the bottom of the table.
The Blues take on Chelsea, Manchester City and Aston Villa in their final three matches and face a stern test if they are to overhaul the four-point deficit.
Bedford has a near fully fit squad at her disposal and says they’re in a good place as they aim to end the FA WSL season on a high.
She added: “We’ve no major concerns but we’ve had a few players drop out of training today midway through, just precautionary, to try and hope that they will be fine for the weekend. “There’s one that picked up a knock yesterday, didn’t train today, but should be back by Saturday, so fingers crossed we’ll have a reasonable compliment by Sunday, but there’s just a few that we’re erring on the side of caution with.
“The group is in a good place. I think we knew come Tuesday that a change of mindset was needed.”
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