Rehanne Skinner says that West Ham United women’s team will approach Sunday’s Barclays Women’s Super League match against Arsenal in the same way as any other.
The Hammers are heading into the derby at Dagenham on the back of beating Bristol City 2-1 in their previous fixture. Added to that, they secured the services of Marika Bergman Lundin on deadline day, their fourth acquisition of a busy January window.
Speaking to media ahead of the game against the Gunners, Skinner reflected on the business that the Club were able to complete during the window, recent performances and taking on the top sides in the division.
You can listen to the full pre-match press conference by clicking play on the audio player above, or read on for the key talking points…
A successful January window
It’s been a busy transfer window for us. We managed to get our young players out to get opportunities for minutes, which has been fantastic. That was one of the targets that I set when I came into the Club.
The experience and leadership that’s been added to the team is something I spoke about from the start and is definitely part of our wider strategy that we’ve been trying to put in place.
We didn’t spend fully in September, which was because of the timings of things with me coming in. That’s enabled us to work within our budget and then add value in this January window.
It was always going to be tough for the first half of the season, but we’ve been able to evolve the squad and the players that have come in have experience playing in different parts of the world. They’re all going to add massive value on and off the pitch.
We’re delighted with the window, and we feel like we’re in a really good place now.
The deadline day recruit
Marika is a player that has a lot of experience from her time in Sweden. She’s played in the Champions League and has been a real solid player for BK Häcken for a number of years. When you look at her physicality and her capabilities of consistency across what she’s delivered has been really high.
That experience is going to help us and she’s a great age as well to add value to what we’re trying to do on a longer term with the team. She’ll grow with us too, which is great. She definitely fits the culture and ethics of what we’re trying to put in place.
Performances and points
To be honest, I feel like our performances have been pretty good throughout and we’re seeing improvements game on game.
I think what we've what we're getting is just more complete performances. And certainly, the metrics that we use to kind of assess our playing style and the way that we're evolving have gone up with every game that we've played.
Even when we've not got the result, we can see the way that we're trying to play is actually coming off and we can see that individual player improvements are on the up when looking at that.
So, all of those things when they come together, they give you better opportunities to perform and get results.
Taking on the top sides
Every week we approach games in that we want to get as many points out of them as possible. With all of the teams at the top, it’s already been proven that teams can take points off of anybody in this league. You have to turn up and be at your best on the day and give it everything that you’ve got.
I think the way that the players are working together, bonding as a group and the mindset that they have, it shows that we’re capable of creating an upset and, at some point, that will come.
If it’s this weekend, then fantastic, we’ll take that. We just have to keep working towards what we’re trying to achieve. We have to believe we’re going to get points out of every game, so that will be our approach this weekend.
Team news
Unfortunately, Abbey-Leigh Stringer picked up an ankle injury last Wednesday against Birmingham City. That will probably take her out until the end of the season. If we can get her back before that then we’d be delighted, but that’s the position we are in at the moment.
Everyone else is available for the game at this stage.
