The Liverpool FC Women took to the pitch for their first competitive minutes this preseason as they faced off against Aston Villa. It proved to be a rough outing for the Reds as they fell to a 5-1 defeat. Of course, in preseason the score is really not the most important thing, but losing by such a margin doesn’t leave you with a good feeling.
The match was played behind closed doors, so little information is available. Liverpool did score the first goal of the match, with Marie Höbinger being set up by Lily Woodham from an indirect set piece early in the match. The rest of the scoring went Aston Villa’s way. From the descriptions provided, Villa scored three of their goals from inside the box from open play, and another one from the penalty spot.
Liverpool ran out 22 different players during the match, meaning at least 2-3 academy players took part. The Reds currently only have 21 players on their current roster, including Zara Shaw who is out with an ACL tear.
It’s not too surprising that Liverpool were not at their best. Gareth Taylor was officially installed as manager of the club just a day prior, so there has been little to no time to implement his more expansive and attacking style of play than we saw under Matt Beard. Liverpool also are still light on the roster construction, with very little to no depth in both the fullback and attacking positions.
The squad will now have a full week to begin to implement Taylor’s system before their next outing. The Reds will host WSL2 side Durham next Sunday, August 17 in another closed door friendly. Liverpool will have a final tune up on August 20 against Manchester United.