Jo Potter on Villa: We have got to be clever
Ahead of Sunday’s trip to Aston Villa, Crystal Palace Women Manager Jo Potter reflected on her side's resilience against Birmingham, the mid-week win over Charlton, and how she is balancing player workload at the end of a very busy September.
The Palace boss spoke to the media in her pre-match press conference earlier today, and began by reflecting on last week's 3-3 draw with Birmingham City.
Speaking on the performance, she said: "It was the old cliche of a game of two halves on Sunday. We definitely weren't happy with the first-half and we made a few changes for the second-half, both tactically and in our messages that we were sending across, which we felt really helped.
"I thought the resilience that the players showed afterwards was brilliant, to be able to fight back and we're actually gutted that we conceded a late equaliser.
"If you'd have asked me at half-time, I'd have snapped your hand off for a point. That's the realism of it. But at the end of the day, we're gutted that we've essentially dropped two points."
The Birmingham clash came before another mid-week fixture in the Subway Players Cup, where Palace dismantled Charlton 3-0 at Sutton United.
Potter discussed the importance of a good performance on Wednesday, and how vital that competition could become.
"I think it was a good test for us. It's always a difficult game playing against Charlton, they're one of our local rivals and we had some great games against them last year.
"We have spoken a lot about how the League Cup was a real catalyst for us last season, and the turnaround that we saw.
"I was really proud of the performance and the result on Wednesday," she said.
Sunday's clash will mark Palace Women's seventh game in four weeks.
Potter spoke about how she manages her squad throughout this busy period, and how that affects instructions on the field.
"It's always a balancing act. You're not always going to get it right. We've got to take into consideration the load in a three-game week. What does that look like?
"For example, we can't press for the whole game - we've got to be clever in certain moments.
"We also want to be a team that's on the front foot when we can, but we also want to be a team that can soak up pressure and suffer at certain times too," she said.
Potter gave a positive squad update ahead of Sunday's trip to Villa Park.
She said: "We should have a full squad. We've obviously got Fuka [Tsunoda] back from her suspension, so we have a full squad to pick from in terms of what we've had available for the past couple of months."
Sunday's opponents Aston Villa parted ways with their Head Coach Natalia Arroyo on Tuesday, with ex-Everton boss Brian Sørensen assuming interim duties.
Potter spoke about what she and the team are anticipating on Sunday.
She said: "We looked at what they've been doing over the past few games, and then they've slightly changed a bit on Wednesday night.
"So we can see a few differences in what that looks like and we've at least got a couple of days to work on that. The girls have been great in training today.
"As ever, we'll look at a few things to do with Villa and what they can do against us, but we are trying to focus on ourselves going into this game and what we can do to try and win."
Kick-off is at 14:00 BST at Villa Park on Sunday, click the button below to get your tickets!