“We have an opportunity as a league to make that slot ours” - Martin Ho previews Brighton clash

Spurs boss Martin Ho, spoke to the media ahead of his sides clash with Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday.

Martin Ho previewing Tottenham Hotspur V Brighton & Hove Albion

Starting off with team news, Ho confirmed that Spurs’ ever present defender from the last two seasons, Molly Bartrip was back in training, with “this particular game coming too soon for her”, according to her manager, with the team being the same as last week, aside from the longer term absentees of Ella Morris and 

After scoring in the first game of the season, Spurs’ Beth England has recently been deployed at more of a number ten role, behind the ever improving Cathinka Tandberg, with her manager insisting the experience of England playing slightly deeper will only benefit her. 

“Me and Beth have spoken about it and with the stuff, how our players evolve and grow through their careers and also how we can enhance our knowledge and understanding, finishing qualities and how we can get her in the best positions to affect the game.” 

“Beth has a wonderful back to goal ratio and links up really well with it, she can use her experience of when to move, when not to move behind the backline, her link up play through the centre of the pitch is so key for us, with it about five or ten yards lower than she’d usually play. The opportunity to use her in that position is something we can help her evolve her game with.” 

Unfortunately, the Women’s game was once again overshadowed two weeks ago, when Spurs’ Jessica Naz revealed she was subject to vile and abhorrent racist abuse following her performance levels in Spurs’ early games of the season, with it being the third high profile case, following Lauren James and Jess Carter calling it out in national forms over the summer too. 

Speaking on Naz and the authorities’ job, Ho added, “More importantly, Jess is good, bright character, big smile and big personality. She has a big group of players and staff around her and a wonderful club that gives her that support. We have to make sure we keep pushing as a collective to put things right, the authorities and social networks are doing their due diligence and we have to make sure we find the right way to deal with them.” 

Back on the pitch, Spurs’ preferred midfield pairing seems to have been the duo of Evelina Summanen and Drew Spence, both playing regular minutes next to each other this season in a position where Spurs seem rather stocked. 

“There's quite a few in there, but Drew and Evelina played together at the start, built a good relationship and helps with the diverse experience they have got. Drew is vastly experienced in this league with Evelina being the same too, both have international experience and their skillsets and characteristics both complement one another.

“They’re both good with the ball, but both have different ways of using it, Evelina is brilliant at breaking up play with Drew being combative and good 1v1. When a relationship like that is building you do want to continue it, but that’s not to say any of the other players can't break in or step in, it's the right pairing for each game and we have to find the different balance.” 

Finally, this season has seen a marked and major increase in varied kick off times in the WSL, with a 12pm Sunday kick off slot seemingly becoming the norm for the league, at the hands of TV rights holders, with Ho expressing a preference for an earlier start.

“Last time I was in the league at (Manchester) United, we always used to have our home games at twelve o’clock but that was more to get the edge on if teams want to travel the day before, if they don’t want to. Early kick offs I prefer, but I think it’s unique to the league now. It gives it a really clear point in the fixture schedule that this is when we kick off, which in my opinion will generate more audience and interest.

We have a very clear opportunity as a Women’s Football League now to make sure that that time, is to us and moving forward we can build a commercial interest.”