Taylor defends position as Man City Women manager

Gareth Taylor was defiant over his future and his tactics after seeing Manchester City Women fall to another big defeat in a rapidly unravelling season.

City were beaten 4-0 by Chelsea to slip to ninth in the table with seven points from seven games. They have now been beaten heavily by Arsenal (5-0) and Chelsea twice with Sunday’s game following a 3-0 defeat to the same opponents in the FA Cup two weeks ago.

With just two wins in the league all season, City are in danger of not even qualifying for the Champions League after their latest loss against Chelsea, with eight points now between them and third-placed Brighton.

A large injury list has been a major factor in their struggles so far, but individual errors have characterised their big defeats to the title contenders, and the Chelsea hammering saw some supporters express discontent at Taylor’s management and tactics.

However, the former City men’s academy manager was insistent he feels no pressure, and said he would remain positive as long as he kept seeing good performances from his side.

“I feel fine, I feel the same I always have done,” he said.

“I look at the level of performance, of course we need to be better in the errors we make, but as long as I can see the positives. Even when we’re really short on a number of key players, nothing changes in my mind.

“There’s nothing for me to consider until I’m told anything different. I’m working as hard as I’ve ever done in this period. Obviously there have been a lot of constraints. The players today showed me we’re capable of playing the way we want to play.

“We just need that good fortune, be more ruthless in attack and cut out errors at the back.”

Taylor also defended City’s performance against Chelsea, which started with another high-profile error from third-choice goalkeeper Karima Taieb as the Blues were caught out trying to play from the back.

City rallied after going behind, but conceded again in first half injury time, and Chelsea picked them off to race into a four-goal lead before the hour mark.

“That’s probably the first error we’ve made in build-up play since I’ve been here, whether that’s Ellie [Roebuck], Karima, Karen Bardsley. We’re looking at it in small fractions. In the big games, you might get away with it in other games, but against the top teams like Chelsea they’re going to punish you.

“Our build-up play to the final bit was great from the back all the way forward, we controlled possession in the first period. Players did exactly what I asked them to do, and we spoke about it at half time, the pride in the first half performance. We don’t want to be conceding the goals we did, but the reaction and fightback was very good.

“I don’t think the tactics are to blame. I’ve not harped on about the injuries, they’re a fact. I still believe in this group. It’s not a tactical thing.

“When you are successful in performances, regardless of the result, you’ve not been efficient in both boxes. The way we set up was the best way we thought would get a result. We haven’t got a result so it doesn’t look the best but that was the plan.

“The players were happy with the plan and we felt we could get at Chelsea and create chances.

“We need to move onto the next game, catch up some ground. Chelsea are a good team, good strength in depth. We know we’re up against some strong opposition when we’re not at our strongest in terms of squad depth.

“Nothing changes, the attitude is still to be in Europe. We still believe we can get there. Today if we’d won the game, we’d have been a lot closer. There’s plenty to come, teams are taking points off each other and we need to capitalise on that and get points on the board.”