Rehanne Skinner says that West Ham United women’s team have been able to use their break from competitive action positively as they prepare to get back to business this weekend against Liverpool in the Barclays Women’s Super League.
The Irons were without a fixture last weekend, which Skinner said allowed the players time to come back feeling refreshed for what is another big game in their quest to continue building on positive recent results.
Indeed, Skinner will be hoping to see her side pick up more points at Prenton Park and show similar performance levels from their 1-1 draw with Manchester United last time out.
Skinner was speaking to media in her pre-match press conference on Thursday, where she also spoke about picking up further points, the Reds, Viviane Asseyi’s form in 2024 and gave an update on team news ahead of the contest.
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…
Using the break positively
[The break without a fixture] has actually worked out really well because it’s enabled us to give the international players a little bit of time back and feel refreshed.
Our Australian and Japanese players have had some really long journeys during the last international window, and they have another break coming up soon, so it worked out well for us.
We’ve been able to get everyone back in this week really fresh and training this week took an obvious upward turn as a result of that as well.
Moving up the league standings
We’re going into every game with the aim of picking up points and moving up the table.
Liverpool are where they are in the standings because they’re doing a really good job and they’ve been getting results, which has put them in a different position to where we are.
We have to go into those games with no fear, we have to go and play the way that we want to play, and this is another opportunity to do that. It’s another game, and the last couple that we’ve had, it’s a platform for us to build from as well.
We played well last time out against Manchester United, which is at the forefront of people’s minds, so I think we’re going to continue doing what we’ve been doing and try and pick up some more points.
Asseyi’s recent form
Since coming back in January, I think she's been superb. I mean, it’s an interesting conversation, and it probably brings up all of this scheduling conversations that we have. But, you know, the carryover after the World Cup with her and all of those things takes a little bit of time.
She knows that what she's doing now is what she's capable of. And we maybe didn't see as much of it in the first half of the season. But she had a good break over Christmas, she came back really determined, and I think she's been superb since then.
Team News
In addition to Abbey-Leigh Stringer, Kristie Mewis will not be available this weekend.
Kristie has had a tendon issue in the past - it had been progressing nicely with her featuring in some games since joining us, but unfortunately, the issue has flared up so Kristie will not be part of the matchday squad on Sunday. The Club will be managing the injury and support Kristie in her recovery.
