Amber Tysiak has called for West Ham United women’s team to take the positives from their second half display against Manchester United on Sunday afternoon.
Whilst the Hammers lost 5-0 at Leigh Sports Village to The Red Devils, they did perform to a much better standard for the large majority of the second half.
It was a poor first half display that would ultimately mean that it would be a long afternoon in Greater Manchester, as Geyse, Millie Turner and Nikita Parris all scored before referee Phoebe Cross sounded for half time. Injuries to Honoka Hayashi and Viviane Asseyi during the first 45 minutes disrupted the flow of the game too, as the Irons went in 3-0 down at the break.
In the second half, Rehanne Skinner’s side caused plenty of issues, with Riko Ueki a constant threat, alongside dangerous set-piece deliveries from Lisa Evans as United fell deeper into their own half. The home side would add two further goals near the very end through Lucía García and Melvine Malard, much to the disappointment of Tysiak and her teammates.
“We’re all really disappointed,” she told whufc.com. “You don’t come to Manchester United and lose 5-0, and obviously that’s really tough for us to take. It was a really hard first half for us, we were all searching to try and find some rhythm and to try and play, but we made things really difficult for ourselves because we didn’t go and fight for every ball.
“But then in the second half, we played better and were able to create more chances and really give Manchester United a game up until the end. If we take some of the chances that we had early on in that half then I think it would have been a different game.
“We have to try and take the positives from the 40-minute spell where we played well into next week against Aston Villa”.
The women’s team are six games into the 2023/24 Barclays Women’s Super League season, and have picked up four points from their matches so far, which has seen them already face three of last season’s top four.
Whilst Tysiak says that improvements need to be made in their overall performance heading into Aston Villa, she believes that this isn’t the time to be panicking about their form.
“Everyone needs to get home, have a good sleep and process the game. We’re still early on in the season and there’s still many games to come. We have to watch the game back, learn from the things that we weren’t able to do effectively today and move forwards.
“We’re still building as a team, playing in a way that’s different from what we were used to last season, so that is going to take time. I think we’ve already seen an improvement, and now it is about taking that to the next level and doing it consistently in matches.
“If you look at this league, there are always results that are unexpected, everyone can beat everyone on their day, so we I don’t think we have to be too worried, we need to make sure that we regroup and learn from this game.”
Tysiak was making her first start of the season on Sunday and is hoping to get a run of matches in the side having struggled with injury setbacks since arriving from Oud-Heverlee Leuven in her native Belgium in January.
“It’s nice to be back out there,” the defender explained. "Obviously, I’d have liked to have helped the team to some points today, and that’s definitely my aim moving forward.
“I want to be able to stay fit and healthy and work hard for the team. Hopefully I can begin to do that in future games.”
