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Post by Everton News. on Aug 15, 2020 14:55:11 GMT
In his latest column for evertonfc.com, Willie Kirk reveals the encouraging signs he has witnessed during his team's pre-season training programme, outlines the wealth of qualities Sporting and Commercial Director Sarvar Ismailov has brought to the Club, and makes the case for an expanded Women's Super League...
PRE-SEASON POSITIVES
I’ve been very encouraged by how our pre-season programme has gone so far.
We’ve stepped it up recently, playing some 11v11 in-house matches. You can see the players beginning to take on the information we’ve been giving them.
Those matches have been great to watch. The quality has been really good and the physical scores are very impressive.
The physical performance coaches are very happy with the GPS numbers we’ve been getting so early in pre-season.
Fitness levels are building and relationships between players are improving, in terms of the new players settling in.
It’s been really positive and we’re looking forward to getting some friendly games under our belts now. We’ve got our first one on Saturday away at Leicester City.
AMBITIOUS ISMAILOV’S IMPACT
We’ve brought in five quality new signings so far this summer – and I’ve got to pay tribute to the team around me in helping to bring those players to the Club.
Our General Manager, Aaron Little, and (Recruitment Analyst) Lawrence Shamieh have put in a lot of work.
And our Sporting and Commercial Director, Sarvar Ismailov, has made a big impact.
He’s got really good connections across the commercial and sporting sectors. Those connections can open doors for us in the football world and in terms of investment.
He is very straight to the point and very ambitious, which I like. We are quite aligned in that way. You know exactly where you stand with him.
GAUVIN’S CLASS APPARENT
Our newest signing, Valerie Gauvin, trained with us for the first time on Thursday.
She looks good.
She’s a little bit behind physically compared to where the rest of the squad are, but that’s to be expected.
Already she is showing signs of the reasons why we brought her in. She produced a really good finish in the practice game at the end of the latest session.
I’m confident she’ll get better and better.
READY FOR EXPANSION
We’ve got a 12-team Women’s Super League again this season, but I do think there is scope for expansion.
Things have improved since I first came down to England to work for Bristol City, when it was an eight-team league.
The season was so spread out, it just wasn’t enjoyable. We’ve been crying out for more games.
And when more teams get added, it becomes more enjoyable. As coaches and players, we just want games. I certainly think the calendar would allow more matches.
And I think there are more than enough quality players for 14 top-flight teams rather than 12.
The league has got such a pull now for foreign talent and there’s certainly enough good homegrown players coming through.
When you look at teams the size of Liverpool, for example, being in the Championship, I think the WSL is ready to expand.
BRITISH TALENTS GAINING STATESIDE EXPERIENCE
The strength of the homegrown talent is enhanced by young players coming back from scholarships in the States.
We normally are aware of them when they leave the country. Many of them are in the home nations’ Under-19 squads heading into the end of their college time here.
Then they’ve got a choice to make – do they sign pro terms with a club, combine training with going to university, or go to America and get both?
A lot of them decide to go down the US route, so we just keep tabs on the better ones – like Sandy MacIver, who we signed in January.
We knew Sandy was due to return last year and we managed to bring her back to the Club – she’d previously been here as a youngster.
We know there are some good players across there.
That’s another reason why think we can facilitate 14 teams, because you’ve got these young English players coming back from the US and looking to play professional football.
JOY OF FATHERHOOD
I became a father for the first time just recently to a little boy, Finley.
It’s brilliant. An amazing feeling.
Finley’s been great so far, he’s only two weeks and three days old but he feels like as if he’s been part of our lives for so much longer than that.
I’ve always struggled to switch off from work but having an expanded family is great for that. There’s myself, my fiancée Jade, the dog and Finley now.
I really look forward to getting home now and seeing Finley, finding out how his day’s been from Jade and making sure she is okay.
We all need that distraction from work sometimes, to have a break from the stresses of what we’re trying to achieve every day.
Everton FC
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Post by Everton News. on Sept 13, 2020 10:16:46 GMT
In his latest column, Everton Women manager Willie Kirk praises the collective maturity and intelligence his team displayed in their 4-0 win over Bristol City in last weekend's WSL opener, explains how the Club's summer transfer business has boosted performance levels across the Blues' entire squad, and outlines the key challenges Tottenham Hotspur will provide in Sunday's showdown at Walton Hall Park...
FEARLESS BLUES
We started the WSL campaign off with a very encouraging performance against Bristol last weekend.
We put into practice what we’ve been working on all the way through pre-season, in terms of moving the ball. I thought we moved it at a very good speed.
We played at a high tempo, we sped the game up at the right times and slowed it down at the right times.
Our game-management was very good, which was probably the most pleasing thing about the display.
It never felt like a ‘first game of the season’ performance, because normally you see some nerves – it can maybe take the team 15 or 20 minutes to get into the game.
But I felt we started the match really well and then continued at a high level. It looked like our third or fourth game of the season, rather than the first. That was really impressive – the players didn’t show any nerves at all.
SEAMLESS TRANSITION
We scored four very good goals on Sunday, with Lucy [Graham] getting a couple and Simone Magill taking her volley really well to put us 1-0 up.
It was great to see Valerie [Gauvin] come on as a substitute to score, too. It’s huge for strikers to get off the mark as quickly as possible at a new club.
That was good to see and she’ll definitely benefit from that.
That goal was just a very small snippet of what she can do. She has got lots to come and hopefully a lot of goals to score for Everton.
All our new signings look as if they have been here for a year already, not just a couple of months.
That’s huge credit to the group that were already here for being so welcoming – allowing these new players to settle in really quickly. I think their transition has been quite seamless.
RISING TO THE CHALLENGE
We brought in seven players this summer and, obviously, we’re trying to improve the squad’s quality all the time.
Any time we do make signings, questions are asked of the current players – and every question has been answered so far.
There was no chance every new signing was going to start every game.
There were a few [new players] on the bench at the weekend and that’s because the ones that were already here were of a high standard.
It’s been really pleasing to see the group’s response to the quality we’ve added.
SPURS’ PHYSICAL TEST
We have our first home game of the season on Sunday when Tottenham come to Walton Hall Park (1pm kick-off).
It will be a physical test for us. They are aggressive and direct in their play. We expect to have to face up to that in abundance.
It’s important we impress our own style on the game.
We had two difficult games against them last season. I thought in one of them we were excellent, when we beat them 3-1 at Southport. That was probably our most complete performance of the season.
In the return game at their place we were 2-0 up and comfortable and then we allowed them back into the game and they got the draw out of it.
We’re feeling confident ahead of Sunday but it’ll be a tough game for us. We’ll need to be at our best to get another three points.
Everton FC
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Post by Everton News. on Sept 24, 2020 15:42:49 GMT
In his latest column, Willie Kirk previews Sunday's FA Cup quarter-final against Chelsea at Goodison Park (1pm kick-off) and reveals his confidence his team can deliver a performance that makes people "sit up and take notice" of the Blues' progress...
MAKING A STATEMENT
Sunday’s game is going to be a great occasion.
It’s a shame we can’t have our fans at the game, but that is life now. The next best thing is having the game going ahead at Goodison and putting on a performance.
The game is live on evertontv and we’ll hopefully have a big following watching us there.
We know our fans will be supporting us from the comfort of their homes and we want to put on a performance that they’re proud of and give them a semi-final to look forward to.
All the feedback from people who have watched our first two WSL games (a 4-0 victory at Bristol City and a 1-0 home win over Tottenham Hotspur) is that they have been impressed.
That will hopefully continue after Sunday and people will be talking about us even more. I think we’ve gone slightly under the radar.
Hopefully, after Sunday, people will really sit up and take notice of this Everton team and what we could achieve this year.
PRIMED TO PERFORM
We’ve had the international break for the past week-and-a-half, and we’ll all get back together as a full squad on Friday.
It is a short turnaround in terms of playing the match on Sunday, but it won’t be different for Chelsea.
If we didn’t have that problem, it would mean we didn’t have players of an international standard. It’s a challenge we’re used to.
We have kept in touch with the players while they’ve been away, so it’s not like they’ve completely forgotten about Everton. I think two training sessions before the game is enough to get us where we need to be.
A lot of the players have had successful international matches – personal performances and team results.
They will come back in a good place, while the players that have been here at USM Finch Farm have trained really well.
PERFECT RECORD – BUT WE CAN IMPROVE
We’ve won both our WSL games so far and produced two very good performances. The exciting thing is, in every area of our play, I think we can improve.
Our press can be better, our ball retention can be better. From the chances we’ve been creating, I think we can have a higher percentage of shots on target and a higher percentage of goals scored.
Our fitness levels have still got another 15 or 20 per cent to go, too, before they are at their very best.
Possibly by the next international break, in another month or so, we’ll be in a place where we feel performance levels have got to where they should be.
TOTAL BELIEF
We’ve got to go into Sunday’s game with confidence. Chelsea have got full international players – top, top players – but so have we. More now than ever.
We are wary of Chelsea’s strengths but we’re also aware of some of their weaknesses.
We’ll be looking to not just nullify their attacking threats but create chances and score goals of our own.
We go into the game in a confident place and the players absolutely believe they can win the game and get us into the semi-final.
Win or lose, it will give us a good gauge of where we are and what further improvements we need to make. As league champions, Chelsea are the yardstick for every team in the country and they have signed world-class players this summer.
In terms of our ambitions, if we win the game on Sunday, I think it can really be a springboard for the rest of the season.
I am confident we’re going to have a good season anyway, but by beating one of the top teams so early on in the campaign, I think it could be a real shot in the arm for us and give the players that extra bit of belief that they can compete with anyone.
Everton FC
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Post by Everton News. on Oct 22, 2020 23:25:03 GMT
WILLIE KIRK COLUMN: CUP FINAL PREP AND REASONS FOR EVERTON'S FLYING START
In his latest column for evertonfc.com, Willie Kirk discusses how his squad is preparing for the FA Cup final a week on Sunday in the midst of an international break, the key factors behind the Blues' outstanding start to the campaign, and why managing Everton at Wembley will be a career high....
We have a lot of players away on international duty at the moment but, for the players who are still here at USM Finch Farm, we’re using this week to make sure, physically, they are in a good place, as well as trying to improve them on an individual level.
And in the background, we’ve been working on organisation in the build-up to the cup final and analysing Manchester City.
It’s a little bit strange for the players with us this week, because we have so many away with their countries.
We have dropped a couple of incentives into training, though. When the players are getting tired, we’ve told them, ‘Look, imagine it’s the last five minutes against Man City at Wembley’.
But next week is when the real cup final prep will begin.
FIERCE COMPETITION DRIVING SUCCESS
We’ve had an excellent start to the season – four wins from five matches in the WSL, as well as reaching the cup final.
Competition for places has been key. The players have been absolutely fantastic with their application, pushing each other every day.
The players know they have to perform in training, never mind in games, just to get on the pitch. The training intensity has been superb. It’s allowed us to play in a certain way.
As a team, they have been very impressive. There has not been one individual who has stood out, it’s very much been about the group.
For the most part, we’ve been very solid defensively and we’ve also got a lot of attacking firepower.
Goals are being spread around. That was an area we had to improve on from last season and all the statistics show that we have. We’ve had nine different goalscorers already this season.
The difficulty for opposition defences is they don’t know where the threat is coming from. That threat can come from the left-hand side one minute, then the centre or right flank the next minute. That’s certainly something we’ve capitalised on.
WHY TACTICAL AWARENESS IS KEY
Technically, you look at Man City and they have a squad full of top, top talent.
But I think we’re capable of matching them.
Technically, we have got a lot of good players, too. We’ll continue to improve and we’ll need to fine tune some things.
Our players are in a fantastic place physically, with their pace, strength and power.
Against City, we will need to be tactically astute and tactically flexible.
If we’re to get the result we’re looking for, we will have to be very switched on and have cool heads at the right times.
‘MORE THAN ELEVEN’
Picking the starting XI for the cup final will not be an easy task, because we have so many players in good form.
It will be hugely disappointing for some players, there’s no getting away from that. But you could start and have a bad game or come on in the last five minutes and score the winner.
Everybody has to understand there could be a role to play for them, put that disappointment to the side, and make sure they’re ready to play their part in the game.
We have players who have experience of being left out of the starting line-up, but have still had an important impact as a sub. We’ll make sure those experiences are shared among the group.
SAVOURING THE OCCASION
Managing Everton in an FA Cup final will be a very proud moment for me – right at the very top in terms of achievements in my career.
It’s a massive shame that we won’t have supporters there.
For me, there’s a personal disappointment because I’d have loved my new-born son to be there. If we were to lift the trophy, he’d be the first person you want to see. You want to cherish those moments and pictures in the future.
But, from a professional perspective, I will be very proud to manage this team at Wembley – and it is certainly something I won’t be taking for granted. FA Cup finals don’t come around every year, even for top teams.
We need to savour the occasion – but we’ll enjoy it a whole lot more if we win.
Everton FC
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