Liverpool Women’s head coach Gareth Taylor admitted his side still have plenty of work to do after 4-1 defeat to Everton in the opening game of the Women’s Super League season.
The Reds looked in control early on at Anfield when Cornelia Kapocs smashed in the first goal after just 12 minutes. But Everton responded before half-time, with Ornella Vignola and Katja Snoeijs turning the score around. Vignola then struck twice more after the break to complete her hat-trick and seal the points for the visitors.
Taylor, who was taking charge of Liverpool in his first league match since being appointed last month, said his team must not let the scoreline overshadow the good parts of their performance.
“I think the control we had in the game was very good,” he said. “Then it’s just the four minutes either side of half-time, you can see how quickly the game can get away from you. Disappointing, obviously, to concede the first goal when we were so dominant, but I felt that the players still then got a grip of the game.
“We could’ve been easily better than 1-0. We hit the bar once, post twice, maybe Marie [Höbinger] has had a really good chance. Lots of opportunities. There are a lot of things to improve, and we need to get better and we need to get fitter.”
Taylor stressed that his message to the squad after full-time was to focus on the positives and remember that building a new team will take time.
“You just continue to work hard and be really honest in your appraisals,” he added. “We knew that we weren’t going to be able to come in and affect things really, really quickly. I was actually probably more surprised in the first half at how well we did play. We know this is not a short-term project.”
Liverpool now turn their attention to their first away trip of the season against Leicester City at the King Power Stadium on Sunday, September 14.
