MORE BITE. MORE SPITE. LCL v Spurs FA Cup tie previewed

Two young head coaches – Spurs Martin Ho (35) and London City Lionesses Eder Maestre (39) – go head-to-head in their first season in the WSL.

We hear from Ho and Maestre as they preview a mouthwatering London derby and Monday night’s FA Cup match in their own words.

MARTIN HO

After you beat Villa 7-3, their head coach Natalia Arroyo said you were cruel, and I wonder if that’s something you’ve changed in the way you play. So Spurs players now have that mentality and that’s something you might use in the cup?

Martin Ho: Yeah, I wouldn’t say cruel, because it’s not a word I like it, but I’d say ruthless.

We’re a little bit more ruthless and we have a bit more edge about us.

I think we were willing to do the work that maybe we haven’t wanted to do before.

We have a little bit more bite about us and a little bit more spite in certain parts, which you have to have, because then you become harder to play against.

I think having another coach say that maybe speaks about where we’ve come from as a team and where we’re going.

There’s still lots of work to go in that.

But I think we were, in the game, spiteful and ruthless with what we’ve done.

But there’s still large areas, as I’ve said before, that we can be better at.

When I speak to Eder Maestre about playing against you, he’ll say similar things about trying to make the players forget they know the others, they have Kumagai who knows your players really well, they have to put that aside. I wonder how you get them to do that, just as he’s trying to do with his players.

I think you have to try and change.

Yeah, you know one another, but I think we play against each other.

A lot of players play against each other, week and week out and season on season and going into this game, that’s no different.

The players will know one another, whether that’s through playing with each other clubs, playing with each other nationally.

But we just have to remove that – for that 90 minutes, 120 minutes, whatever it is – we have to remove that kind of friendship and make sure that we’re competitors for that time.

And if we do that – and we will do that – we’ll make sure that we give ourselves a chance to win it.

If we go in too friendly, then we’ll be too nice, and you don’t give yourself a chance of getting the results.

Watching LCL quite a bit this season, people like Freya Godfrey (above) have been immensely impressive.

I think she might be the most improved English player there is.

So I don’t know where you see the dangers are from them and how you can counteract that.

Yeah, definitely.

I think Freya’s been a player who since she’s gone to London City has definitely shown she’s a key player and valuable player within their team.

She contributes to a lot of their goals.

You’ve seen the assist she got for Nikita Parris on the weekend.

And they’ve got lots of dangerous players and wonderful players in their team now.

They’ve invested heavily and they now are really good with attacking threats.

But yeah, Freya is probably one of those players who we know can open us up, and she did when we played them last time.

I think she got Player of the Match against us. She cut inside and scored, and we have to make sure that we nullify those threats as much as possible, from Freya as well as other players.

If we do that we give ourselves a chance, but we’re under no illusion. It’s going to be a tough game.

EDER MAESTRE

What did you think of Spurs 7-3 win over Villa?

Eder Maestre: Well, a very uncommon result.

This shows the potential of Spurs to be a very punishing team.

I was speaking with Natalia [Arroyo, Villa head coach, who Maestre has worked with] and how she suffered in the game.

She explained to me that Tottenham – with every chance they have to punish you – have that mindset to kill you in the box.

So we need to be aware of that.

Yes, she called them cruel.

So when you look at Spurs, what do you think of their strengths and their weaknesses? How can you beat them?

I think Spurs are a very talented team.

They have very strong players in the front line.

One of the key points would be trying to avoid ball losses in the build-up because their counter-attacks are very, very nice, very dangerous.

So trying to be safe in possession, trying to avoid risks… and trying to play in the opponent’s half. Trying to get the defence set up correctly and trying to avoid counter-attacks.

I think they can suffer a little bit in the back of the defensive line.

If we are able to attack and take advantage with the players who we can move with the ball, I think the gaps could appear. And if we are able to take advantage of that, maybe we can boost them in our recovery runs.

Martin Ho (above, right) told me he’s trying to make Spurs more ruthless, harder to play against.

So how can you get your own players to be like that?

Yeah. I very much said it’s gonna be different, but we need to push… as we faced City and United, and we need to understand that we are in a good way.

When we see Tottenham, we recognise the words that you are mentioning.

This competition is different to the league, with different energy and we need to be ready to face that kind of team, not only in that role that you are mentioning; it’s because they are very clinical in the way they can score every action when they reach the box.

That’s the point, trying to have confidence, like we faced against United and City, as I said before, and trying to think the things we train during the week will be key points to overcome Tottenham.

Last question, I know you grew up loving English football, so what does the FA Cup mean to you?

Not only for me; I think for the club as well.

It’s very special because it shows the world a knockout competition with a unique chance to beat the others; a competition where we see a lot of uncommon results.

It’s the underdog teams’ competition – and that’s why all the romantics of this sport love it.