Inside Liverpool Women’s season: ‘Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong’

“It probably hasn’t felt as desperate as it’s looked.”

Liverpool head coach Gareth Taylor, of course, knows how desperate it has looked. In the hours leading up to Liverpool’s unexpected 2-0 win against then-fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, the prospect of a victory was uttered by some players’ family members and members of staff inside the BrewDog Stadium in St Helens as a plea to fate itself.

No wonder then, when substitute Mia Enderby met Jenna Clark’s cross perfectly in the 92nd minute, putting Liverpool 1-0 up, the cries of celebration spilled out before the ball had officially crossed the goal line.

Because it had been a long wait. Twelve games without a Women’s Super League (WSL) win, the fifth-longest winless drought in WSL history, the joint-third-worst start to a new managerial tenure. A run of 282 days without a WSL win.

“Fisky (captain Grace Fisk) said to me after the win how emotional it was,” Taylor, who joined in August, says two days later from his office at Melwood overlooking the training pitches. “The players on the pitch, the injured players in the stands, we’ve wanted a good moment, just something to cling onto.”

Liverpool remain 12th out of 12, albeit now one point off West Ham United and Everton in 11th and 10th and two off Leicester City in ninth. Some results have been encouraging, such as the back-to-back league draws with Brighton & Hove Albion and Chelsea in November, the latter during which Liverpool limited the reigning champions to just one shot on target while registering a marginally higher expected goals (1.13 vs 1.11), suggesting the quality of their chances was similar.

Others dispalys have felt more dispiriting. The 9-1 League Cup quarter-final drubbing against Chelsea is the obvious pick, but more agonising are the narrow defeats. Five of Liverpool’s eight league defeats this season have been by one goal, with the winner in three of those — Arsenal, Manchester City and London City Lionesses — arriving after 86 minutes.

Taylor is not hiding from the dire form (this interview was set up weeks before Sunday’s win), nor the fact Liverpool are still entrenched in a relegation battle, having to reckon with the very real possibility of facing the third-best WSL2 side in a one-off play-off match for top-flight status next season.

No one at Liverpool finds the situation acceptable or satisfactory. Yet there has been no panic internally, nor shouts from players or hierarchy to abandon the plan.

Managing director Andy O’Boyle, appointed last March following the exit of Russ Fraser, appointed former Manchester City manager Taylor to help bring a possession-based style of play that would attract fans and players and there was an acceptance that patience would be required. The change in relegation format permitted some latitude in timescale.

“It just feels like everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong,” says head of recruitment Rob Clarkson, who officially joined Liverpool one day before the close of the summer transfer window.

There have been mitigating circumstances: injuries, a depleted forward line, new-style teething problems, the exits of winger Olivia Smith — for a world-record fee of £1million ($1.34m) — and captain Taylor Hinds.

Interspersed, however, are less excusable ones: the delayed appointments of Taylor and Clarkson in the summer, not replacing Smith, a subsequent “nervous” scramble for signings in a limited market, leaving a threadbare square more vulnerable to injuries.

But there have also been factors that feel crass to include in a list such as this.

There is no speaking about Liverpool’s season without touching on the deaths of former manager Matt Beard, 47, in September, two weeks after the season began, followed by kitman Jonathan Humble, 44, one month later.

Their sudden passing left a club already reeling from the death of Diogo Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, having to deal with resilience, despair and exhaustion shortly after the season began. Beard, who lifted the WSL title in the 2013-14 season with Liverpool, left a profound and indelible mark on Liverpool’s infrastructure, staff and squad, setting standards that re-established Liverpool as a top-flight club, as well as recruiting and nurturing young talent, including Smith.

Humble, who spent six years with Manchester United before joining Liverpool in the summer, was described as a “gentle giant” by Boyle.

Liverpool’s league match with Aston Villa was postponed the weekend following Beard’s death. O’Boyle was described as “exceptional” by numerous people at the club in ensuring ample help was given to those affected, including former players who returned to the club to attend funerals. Bereavement counsellors were brought in on both occasions and made available until the end of the year to help staff and players process the events.

While the club granted time and space to players and staff, football continued.

“It was hard because, being in such quick succession, it just felt like, ‘What’s going on here? What is happening?’,” says Taylor, who knew Beard well throughout the pair’s managerial careers and shared phone calls regularly. “You support each other and step forward together, but the thing with grief is that it affects people in different ways. It’s not something where you can go, ‘Come on, guys, we need to move on now’.

“I wouldn’t say it was the sole reason we were struggling but you could feel it.”

“Certainly, Andy and Gareth, it did take them away from football, trying to deal with the situation with the players, with the family, with the grief,” adds Clarkson. “You try to get through it but you obviously never get through it completely. It’s always going to be there.”

Eventually, though, football had to be spoken about, particularly as results continued to falter. By the first week of November, Liverpool had yet to pick up a point and ranked among the league’s worst attacks. External questions regarding their style of play and a lack of investment in the summer grew louder.

Abandoning the possession-based style espoused by Taylor was a non-starter. O’Boyle’s decision to appoint Taylor as permanent head coach, following the sacking of Beard in February, came from a desire to redefine Liverpool’s style of play.

Embedding a new style would require time in training, particularly given the “bottom-heavy” defensive foundations of a squad built to play Beard’s preferred 5-3-2 and 5-2-3 over the years.

However, a six-month non-compete stipulation in Taylor’s contract with Manchester City, with whom he parted ways in March, meant Liverpool needed to wait to attain his services. According to multiple sources familiar with the deal, who asked not to be named to protect relationships, a small fee was ultimately paid to City to formally appoint Taylor in August, a month before the contract expired.

The non-compete clause coincided with a delay for Clarkson, too. He did not officially join Liverpool until September 3, one day before the close of the summer transfer window.

While O’Boyle had overseen the sales of Smith and Hinds to Arsenal, as well as the signings of full-back Lily Woodham, midfielder Kirsty Maclean and Scottish midfielder Sam Kerr, the delayed appointments of Taylor and Clarkson meant necessary conversations about summer recruitment plans became last-minute.

Liverpool eventually made four signings on deadline day — permanent deals for Sweden striker Beata Olsson from Swedish side Kristianstad and Spain full-back Alejandra Bernabe from Chelsea, and the loan signings of Risa Shimizu from Manchester City and Emilia Szymczak from Barcelona.

“We were late,” says Taylor. “We were aware of that and we knew the difficulties that brings. I was confident that when Rob landed, we’d start to work together really well, but when you’re at that late stage of the window, the player availability is really low, particularly for what you want. So we were in a nervous mode to add to the squad.”

A review of the summer window in September underlined that time had been wasted in not pursuing targets earlier.

Even so, according to multiple sources close to players, there was belief and excitement in Taylor’s style and the manner in which he wanted to implement it. However, a lack of pre-season meant players were learning through trial and error in competitive matches, they say. A lack of personnel to execute the style also became a growing concern among some players, particularly when injuries became more rampant and results continued to falter.

In October, strikers Sophie Roman Haug and Marie Hobinger sustained anterior cruciate ligament injuries within weeks of each other, depleting an already shallow front line. Kerr, who signed a permanent contract in the summer following a successful half-season loan spell from Bayern Munich, has been out with a back injury since November. Szymczak made just one appearance before the midfielder’s loan spell from Barcelona was cut short due to a shoulder injury sustained while on international duty with Poland.

Defenders Fisk, Hannah Silcock, Gemma Bonner, Lily Woodham and forwards Leanne Kiernan and Olsson have all spent extended spells on the sidelines. The consequence has been an over-reliance on players with little experience, such as 20-year-old Enderby, who has started 11 of Liverpool’s 13 league matches this season, after just four last season.

Regular meetings between Clarkson, Taylor, O’Boyle, assistant coaches Chad Gribble and Amber Whiteley and former player Niamh Fahey, appointed technical coordinator in October, took place to identify key targets by November, from young players with sell-on value, fitting more line in with the recruitment model of owner Fenway Sports Group (FSG), and experienced players with immediate impact.

Clarkson, who worked previously with Taylor at City, spent multiple weeks in Sweden, Belgium and Germany scouting talent in person in tandem with the club’s data models. Fahey is described by those involved as integral to the recruitment system, particularly given her breadth of knowledge.

In total, Liverpool have spent over £1m across six signings this transfer window, including striker Anna Josendal, goalkeeper Jennifer Falk (on loan from BK Hacken), winger Alice Bergstrom, forward Aurelie Csillag, midfielder Denise O’Sullivan and forward Martha Thomas (on loan from Spurs). The pursuit of another midfielder before Tuesday’s deadline to provide cover for Japan midfielder Fuka Nagano during the Women’s Asia Cup in March — which coincides with league matches against Leicester City and Everton — remains ongoing.

O’Sullivan, Bergstrom, Falk and Csillag played crucial roles in Liverpool’s win on Sunday. But that the winning goal arrived through Enderby from the bench was its own form of vindication.

“That 9-1 defeat to Chelsea, we had so many missing, but it was a reality check that we’ve got a lot of work to do,” says Clarkson. “Against Spurs, it looked and felt like a very different team. The more competition for places, the more everyone has to raise their level. That’s what every successful team has.”

Against Spurs, Liverpool’s performance was its most convincing this season. The press was ferocious and organised, with the number of box entries and chances created being higher than any league performance this season. Liverpool struck the woodwork three times.

Consistency remains key. Liverpool have seen a sharp drop-off in both their attacking and defensive underlying numbers, as shown by their rolling xG for and against (below).

And while their xG difference relative to the rest of the league indicates they should probably have a higher points total (Liverpool have conceded the fewest goals in the bottom half of the WSL), they are still ranked as the league’s second-worst attack (10 goals, only fewer than Leicester’s eight).

For all of Sunday’s joy, the season turns on “survival”, Taylor says. Relegation rivals Leicester and West Ham have spent heavily this window. Nine games remain. This weekend brings a trip to fourth-placed Manchester United, followed by Aston Villa and reigning champions Chelsea. Liverpool’s season ends with a double header against Manchester City and Arsenal.

Challenging discussions have taken place between Taylor and various members of the hierarchy, analysing where compromises can be made stylistically.

“But I’ve never felt at any point that myself and the people at FSG have been misaligned,” Taylor says.

“There’s no doubt we’ve had some difficult things to contend with on and off the pitch but the behaviour of the people here, the unity through all these difficult moments has been probably the proudest thing I’ve been associated with.

“Some of the things we’ve experienced, there’s no course that prepares you for that.

“We know each of these last games is going to be like a final for us. We need to treat it that way. But I feel confident we’re in a better position to take on those games.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Liverpool, Women's Soccer

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