Manchester City make the journey to the King Power Stadium on Saturday to challenge bottom-of-the-table Leicester City in the return of Women’s Super League action.
Manager Gareth Taylor will look to extend his unbeaten streak to 16 games in all competitions as his side take on Leicester for the third time this season, despite the recent exits of Ruby Mace and Vicky Losada.
Upon Mace’s loan move to the Foxes, Taylor said: “It will be really good for her to go out and get some game time. I think with Yui Hasegawa coming in and Laia Aleixandri coming into that position as well in that holding midfield it was obviously going to limit Ruby’s game time so I think it [the loan move] made sense.” Mace will not be able to face her parent club in the fixture at the weekend.
Losada departed the club even though she had six months left on her contract, Taylor explained: “Unfortunately she felt that she wouldn’t get game time here and wanted a new challenge which we obviously never want to keep a player who’s not happy or wants to go and fulfil another desire.”
But City continue their fight for WSL top-three contention after two devastatingly dominating cup results in reply to the flat performance against Aston Villa two weeks ago tied at one-a-piece. the Citizen's destroyed Bristol City 6-0 in the League Cup and pummelled Sheffield United 7-0 in the FA Cup fourth round just days after.
Taylor said: “I think the last two games, forget goals, our performance has been top level. Okay albeit against two championship teams but I think they’re the most tricky games when you start to think they’re going to be easy but it's all about the performance.
“And our performance against Villa, we’ve spoken about it, wasn't up to the levels to give us an opportunity to win three points. People talk about ’dropped points’ but it's so difficult and these teams are improving massively.”
Leicester have made five new additions to their squad in the January transfer window and come into the game chasing their second win of the season, after beating Brighton and Hove Albion convincingly 3-0 earning their first points of the campaign to date.
They are yet to beat the Sky Blues, having suffered heavy losses in their previous three league meetings 4-0, 4-0 and 4-1, yet held Taylor’s side to a narrow 1-0 win three weeks ago in the Continental Cup where Filippa Angeldahl found the net in the dying minutes of the game.
Ahead of a potentially new outfit in Leicester, Taylor said: “Nothing changes on our approach, we concentrate on this game and it’s one we’re looking forward to.”
Manchester City vs Leicester City fixture will be held at the King Power stadium kicking off at 11.30am on Saturday, February 4 and is also available to watch via Sky Sports.
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