Women's Team 2020/21

[HelloCity]

Steph Houghton has been a great defender for City and England. She’s 32 now so not quite at the level she once was. I think the women start to feel the age difference a couple of years earlier than in the men’s game.

 

[bluealf]

Steph Houghton has been a great defender for City and England. She’s 32 now so not quite at the level she once was. I think the women start to feel the age difference a couple of years earlier than in the men’s game.

Her personal life won't be helping either, as you would imagine, an awful illness to deal with.

 

[Gray]

Our biggest weakness now seems to be in central defence (where've I heard that before). Not convinced that Houghton and Bonner are really good enough. Steph seems to have some real lapses of judgement with passing out from the back and Gemma has never really been great in that department imho.

I sympathise with Steph she has a lot going on in her private life, that can not help.

 

[bluealf]

From Sunderland and rumoured to be in a relationship with Keira Walsh

Not a rumour

 

[HelloCity]

Her personal life won't be helping either, as you would imagine, an awful illness to deal with.

I agree. I wasn’t going to bring it up but she’s done amazing under the circumstances.

 

[better dead than red]

Steph Houghton has been a great defender for City and England. She’s 32 now so not quite at the level she once was. I think the women start to feel the age difference a couple of years earlier than in the men’s game.

A good number of women on the US women's team would maybe disagree with you.

 

[HelloCity]

A good number of women on the US women's team would maybe disagree with you.

The US women are so good that even as they regress they’re still better than a lot of the competition. Like how Messi will still be a top player when he’s 34/35.

 

[Bigga]

Pretty much. Taylor seems to be more determined to play out the back and compared to everyone else now that we've signed Bronze the CBs are a step down in that regard. And given they're naturally going to have a lot of the ball it means they either recycle it uselessly or give it away a lot unnecessarily. They're both good defenders imo but Houghton is increasingly error prone. The other issue is that Taylor seems to not be playing White up top, which I understand but Stanway isn't the alternative to fill that spot.

Otherwise it's looking good, certainly once they get up to speed with the tactics.

Yes, I agree and also what I meant when I said about her 'digging us out of the shit'. She's mainly error prone because the mid don't quite know how to find the space the men do, therefore she's forced, a lot, to try a 'Hail mary' pass or threading it 'through the eye of a needle' and it's irritating, but I don't blame her for wanting the ball out of possession.

It's a DM/ MF issue that needs to be addressed.

By the way, I like that Ellen White is not and out and out striker now as she's a very good false 9 who has an eye for a deft pass; the kind she'd like for herself.

I just wish Georgia Stanway could learn from her, which is clearly never going to be the case!!

 

[kev20971]

Our biggest weakness now seems to be in central defence (where've I heard that before). Not convinced that Houghton and Bonner are really good enough. Steph seems to have some real lapses of judgement with passing out from the back and Gemma has never really been great in that department imho.

I've thought why not play Steph as a sweeper behind Bonner and Megan Campbell. Think both Bonner and Campbell are good central defender with Steph as extra cover . Also allow Bronze and Demi Stokes (or possibly Alex Greenwood ?) to bomb forward too ?

 

[nmc]

I've thought why not play Steph as a sweeper behind Bonner and Megan Campbell. Think both Bonner and Campbell are good central defender with Steph as extra cover . Also allow Bronze and Demi Stokes (or possibly Alex Greenwood ?) to bomb forward too ?

if we are going to experiment with a sweeper - Walsh is probably the best candidate - much better range of passing.