Gareth Taylor has questioned the timing of Liverpool’s trip to The Emirates this weekend, just a few days after his players have returned from international duty.
The Reds have a midday kick-off against Arsenal on Saturday that has left Taylor with a tight turnaround to prepare his team.
The Liverpool manager also has to contend with two fresh injuries with captain Grace Fisk and Sam Kerr missing out on Saturday’s game.
Fisk picked up a calf injury with England and Kerr pulled out of the Scotland squad with an ongoing back injury.
Taylor said: “We’re obviously trying to get in as much information as we can, as you can imagine, with this game being brought forward to a Saturday, it gives us limitations on training.
“We have a few little issues just to tidy up before we can completely know for certain who we have. But with Fisky, unfortunately this weekend’s game will be too soon.
“It’s a blow because Sam’s been vital to what we do and we’ve had to ask a lot of the squad the last few games in terms of the depth and what we’ve been dealing with.”
Taylor has raised concerns about player welfare after seeing Liverpool’s postponed game against Aston Villa moved to next Thursday, just a few days ahead of another trip to the capital to face West Ham on the Sunday.
He said: “I think more concerning would be the decision from the FA to put in the game next Thursday night, so close to the Sunday game. It’s really tough to take as they talk about players and the welfare of players.
“We just manage it game by game. We just play, recover, very little training in between and a lot of travel. There is not loads in terms of options where we can change the team much.
“I think it’s just attack each game as it comes. We know that we’re playing three away games, which includes three overnight stays. So, you know, it’s probably as big a challenge as you could probably face.”
Liverpool travel to The Emirates after a three-game unbeaten run with a win against Sheffield United in the League Cup and two hard fought draws in the WSL.
Arsenal come into the game after a win against Real Madrid in the Champions League before the international break. But, similar to Liverpool, their last two WSL games have been draws.
Timing aside, Taylor is excited to play one of the top WSL teams. He said: “I don’t really have an issue when you play against the best teams in the WSL with what we have, because the pressure is all on Arsenal and not on us.
“Expectation levels for us will be low, but internally they’re not because we know what we’re capable of, we know what the demands are, we know what we demand of the players, and the standards here, day by day, are really improving.
“The challenge is big, but that’s the type of challenge that we look for and we’re excited about, but we certainly have a specific game plan like we did against Chelsea, which we’ll try to hurt them in certain areas, both with and without the ball.”
