for the handful on here who are interested it seems our ladies team manager is allegedly under the cosh...
Manchester City are in their toughest period since joining the WSL and all eyes are still on Gareth Taylor
Manchester City women
By Katie Whyatt Sept 30, 2021 5
Manchester City needed that. Their 6-0 FA Cup win over Women’s Super League newcomers Leicester would have been welcomed on any normal occasion, but in context, it is a huge relief.
Not only because they won with four substitutes on the bench, Jill Scott at centre-back and Alex Greenwood as the last defender standing in a back line held together with sticking tape. But because of everything that came before, and everything that is still to come given the scale of the challenge still facing City.
The immediate relief is that they are still in the FA Cup that, despite their early league form, means a chance of silverware looks very possible.
To put it simply, the opening few weeks of the season haven’t been much fun. Their run of one win in five reached what manager Gareth Taylor will hope is its nadir with Sunday’s 5-0 defeat against Arsenal — the heaviest defeat since City turned professional. Ominously, they will play Chelsea twice in the next two months.
This is the club’s toughest period since joining the WSL. A 12-team league makes it almost impossible to catch up after any slip: City’s two defeats render Arsenal’s perfect start more untouchable still. They also fell out of the Champions League at the first round: they were handed the toughest draw, against Real Madrid, but the defeat still cost them €400,000 (£346,000).
No reprieve looked forthcoming, given the mounting injury list that, at the last count, was four outfielders short of being a starting XI. To recap, in case you’ve missed a name or two, City are without goalkeepers Ellie Roebuck and Karen Bardsley, Hayley Raso, Lucy Bronze, Chloe Kelly, Esme Morgan, Steph Houghton and Demi Stokes.
No one could have foreseen that many casualties but the fact that City’s website listed just three full-backs on the eve of the season probably indicates how shallow their squad is. Their summer window looked impressive with a flurry of big-name arrivals, but that one of the richest women’s clubs in the world could not fill its substitute’s bench is troubling.
“The recruitment staff come under the microscope with the depth compared to Arsenal and Chelsea,” one source told The Athletic. “I don’t think they felt they went big in the summer — just what was needed to stay at that level.”
Taylor is not believed to be under immediate pressure from the club, the source added, with the list of casualties — City are understood to have been informed of rules omitting cup-tied summer signings Alanna Kennedy and Ruby Mace from Wednesday’s FA Cup game against Leicester after the transfer window closed — helping to buy him time.
The Olympics adds to that, too. Out of the top WSL clubs whose stars competed at the tournament in Tokyo, one could argue that City paid the highest price. They contributed twice as many players to Team GB as Chelsea and Arsenal, and had more current players at the tournament than either of their top three rivals. City started just four Team GB players for their first game of the season against Real Madrid, and Chelsea likewise rested their main Olympians for their 3-2 defeat against Arsenal.
Added to their London rivals’ superior squad depth, plus their superior pre-season preparations — Chelsea managed three pre-season games and Arsenal two, whereas City managed none — the elite clubs have to be concerned about an international calendar that will take in five tournaments over the next five years for European clubs.
Unsurprisingly, the Chelsea manager Emma Hayes sprang to Taylor’s defence: “A European Championship is next summer, and some of us might have 10, 11, 12, 13 players in that. If you didn’t win the league and you’re expected to compete (in the Champions League) within two weeks of that, it’s not acceptable. It’s not acceptable on the players.”
Yet with hindsight, Taylor’s position raises questions about the compatibility of the wider aim of City Football Group’s (CFG) to develop its existing coaching staff alongside the running of an elite women’s team. Taylor’s appointment was in the same vein as that of Nick Cushing, a youth coach promoted from within to manage the senior women’s side.
Taylor was previously the coach for City’s under-18 boys’ side. Cushing was a coach in the boys’ academy until he began to crave greater responsibility around the launch of the women’s team, assuming the role of manager in November 2013. This model extends to some degree across CFG’s men’s sides, with Rodolfo Borrell, City’s academy technical director from 2014-2016, now Pep Guardiola’s assistant.
Although well-regarded by other coaches at the club, and an appointment that fits with what City tried previously, Taylor possessed no first-team managerial experience or any specific experience of women’s football. The potential stumbling blocks were not flagged at the outset as vocally as they were when Phil Neville became the England manager with the same shortcomings.
The head coach role of Manchester City is likewise one of the most coveted roles in women’s football and perhaps more questions should have been asked at the time. Sources told The Athletic that some players have struggled with the transition to a new coach after so long under Cushing.
Cushing left City in 2020 for a new development opportunity within CFG as an assistant coach at New York City FC, but there were teething problems during his time with the women’s side even for a manager who went on to win six trophies in six years. A four-game losing streak occurred early in his tenure and City, one of the first clubs to move into some semblance of full-time professionalism, struggled with the logistics of that transition. And that was before the rest of the field joined them in strengthening.
There are greater expectations on Taylor and tougher competition, all of which will increase scrutiny on those occasions when City face less obliging opponents than Leicester.
(Photo: Chloe Knott/Manchester City FC via Getty Images)
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by johnny crossan » Sun Sep 26, 2021 12:32 pm 
