Every word of Renee’s pre-West Ham presser

Renee Slegers held her pre-West Ham United press conference at the Sobha Realty Training Centre on Thursday.

Ahead of Friday night's 7.30pm kick-off, our head coach was asked about the latest team news, how we've reflected on last weekend's 4-1 win over London City Lionesses, and what to expect from the Hammers.

Here's everything she had to say on the following subjects...

on the latest team news:

So Leah Williamson is still not available. Otherwise, everyone is competing for selection.

on how Leah is doing:

She’s OK, she’s doing well. Especially when you’re rehabilitating, you have to do what you can every single day and get one step closer to the pitch, and that’s what she’s doing. She’s positive, she’s working hard, so she’s doing well.

on how impressive Olivia Smith has been so far:

Well of course, I was already impressed before we signed her. She’s been having a rocket career coming from Canada, the US and Portugal and then one season in the WSL making such an impact for Liverpool. So, really impressed with her and, like I said, she adds new things to our game with the type of player that she is. We’re really happy with what she’s bringing to us and she’s also very young still, she’s just turned 21. What’s important for us is that we support her really well because she’s still very young. We see so much potential and she’s already contributing a lot and I think you saw that last Saturday.

on if she could be the missing piece of the jigsaw to close the gap to Chelsea:

We’re just looking at ourselves and what we think we need in our team and I think what we want to do is build so many layers in our game that we can bring to a game, whatever is asked from us and whatever is needed; I think we’re really close to that now.

on what to expect from West Ham away:

A very hard game. I know historically it’s always been a hard game for Arsenal to go to, it’s a hard ground. They play a type of football that they believe in and they’re very disciplined in the way they do things. But we’ll have to be that as well. Of course we believe in ourselves and our own qualities but we'll go there with humility because we know it's a hard game and we have things to prove for ourselves. So we need to understand the setting and the opposition. But at the end of the day we look a lot at what we want to bring to the game tomorrow and that's what we'll focus on.

on what threat Shekiera Martinez poses up top for them:

Yeah, she's really added something to their game. If you look at her contributions in the second half of last season, she's been very impactful for them. She brings a lot. She brings full threats. She's a threat in behind. She has physicality and a high work rate. So she's definitely a player that we'll have to deal with tomorrow.

on needing to win games against these teams:

For us, what we said at the start of the season is that we want to find ways in everything we do every single day and we want to bring consistency. I think what we've tried to do in pre-season is to create clarity in what we need to do to be able to get there. I think every single game will be a test for us because if you want to bring consistency, you have to be consistent over the whole season. So that's on us and that's what we'll focus on.

on if we’ll handle Martinez by using player-to-player marking, like Tottenham Hotspur did last weekend:

Yes, and that’s what we’re expecting them to bring, so we’ll have to be ready for that. That’s the type of game they want to play. Well yes, other teams have plans to exploit weaknesses and to stop strengths. Of course, we had a look at that game, but we will do what we think is right for us tomorrow. We always want to respect the opposition and look at what they will bring to the game but then play off of our own strengths.

on what kind of music our style of football is like:

Well, I did say rock and roll football but that was created more by the opposition than by us but we had to deal with it. So I acknowledge I said rock and roll football! My music taste is very broad so I can listen to rock and roll. But, no, baroque, no. I think jazzy. My grandfather was a fan of jazz and Dixieland music.

on what she saw in our pre-season game against West Ham:

We played two league games against them last season and especially towards the end of last season, I think they performed really well and played to their own strengths and made it really hard for us. You see similar things in the pre-season game. I think they’ve tweaked a couple of things and changed a couple of things but I think we have quite a good idea of who we’re going to play against tomorrow.

on taking momentum into this game from our win last weekend:

This game tomorrow will be a different game. Of course, we're going to play away and I think West Ham plays in a different structure. So I think we'll need to use other tools in our toolbox tomorrow, but of course, we always have to be prepared for any scenario.

on what the vision is for Katie Reid this season:

Yes, so we have a really good squad. I'm really, really happy with the squad and there's competition in all positions. That's where we wanted to get to. We're driving things forward. We're going to need everyone. There's a lot of games to play this season. Like I said, against London City Lionesses, Katie Reid was the right player for us and she did that really, really well, but we have so much quality in the squad and also with the other centre-backs, so I'm just really happy with the quality of the squad.

on if it’s become harder to maintain a strong identity in the WSL while being unpredictable:

I think those things can go hand in hand. I think what we've tried to do in pre-season is create clarity in our identity, what we want to be and what we want to look like and how we do that. I think we have a good idea but I don't think it means that you have to be one-sided in everything you do. I think that's the nice thing about the WSL. It's getting better every year and you have so many different styles of football and I think you also see that every team is trying to do better and better in every phase of the game. So, like I said, you're more multidimensional. You can do different things depending on what's asked of you in the game. It's just a really good and challenging league so I'm really happy I'm in this league.

on how we’ve looked at addressing issues of conceding goals from the end of last season:

Yeah, there's been a couple of games, huh? West Ham included, West Ham at home at Borehamwood. But don't forget all the clean sheets that we've had last season as well. I think we've had a lot of clean sheets. We keep a clean sheet against Barcelona in the Champions League final. So I wouldn't say it's a trend for us. I see other trends in those games and that's something we've looked at and that's all linked back to what I said previously about bringing consistency to everything we do across the whole season.

on if we’ve worked on the fluidity of our midfield combinations over the summer:

We've tried to develop our game, yes. I think some things you see are player-dependent. So we want to play to players' strengths but I think against the questions that London City asked us we had to do certain things to beat the press and I think that's what you saw in the game on Saturday.

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