Phillips: The expectation will raise for everyone going into next season

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Albion boss looks ahead to an exciting season ahead with optimism and eagerness to build a competitive squad.

Heather Miller

2023-06-11T06:00:00Z

Phillips wants to build a strong squad during the summer window.

Melissa Phillips reflects on the tail end of the season after Albion secured their place in WSL and the women's first-team head coach looks forward to a season full of opportunities.

Your main objective coming in as the new WFT head coach was to stay in the league, which you achieved, but what do you think was another big success for you coming in?

The biggest success would have to be our clean sheet that we picked up against West Ham because that was the squad’s first clean sheet all year and since March 2021. So, the clean sheet embodies the mindset shift that we were trying to achieve in such a short space of time and that was the next biggest goal.

In order to stay in the league, we had to make a good account of ourselves and really start to thrive in our performances on the things that we can control on and off the pitch.

We wanted to make sure we were more competitive and operate at a higher level. The clean sheet came off the back of a run of games where we didn’t play well, and it really did embody the grit and resilience to be more competitive in the league.

Melissa Phillips was announced as Albion head coach in April.

Did you find that shifting the mindset of the squad was one of the biggest challenges coming into this role?

I did expect a lot of challenges just based off the nature of how the year went. It’s always going to be a challenge when the results haven’t gone the team’s way, there’s been 12 points dropped since being in a leading position.

The performances have been there, but it was just the ability to tip the pot, a lot of it was going to be the transition of management to management within the season. What happens within that transition is that you have a loose set of standards because there’s different standards being implemented, and the consistency of delivery and operations just wasn’t there.

The game is 90% mental, that’s more or less what we did – we developed our tools to stressful situations, positive energy and coping skills.

It all boils down to belief, performing well comes from your confidence and belief. We needed to players to know what their strengths were and how that added value to the team.

It’s a really important summer for you and the rest of the coaching staff. What’s your main objective and the biggest thing you need to get right during this period?

I absolutely love the summertime. Not because I don’t love the season but it’s time to plan, prepare and build processes. The most important objective is recruitment. We want to bring in high calibre professionals and players through the door who are the right fit from a cultural and style of play perspective.

The most important thing about their fit is that they share values and ambitions with the club. In addition to recruitment, the biggest objective off the pitch is that we as staff need to level up our operations and performance environment so that the quality in which we deliver holds players to a higher standard on a consistent basis.

It’s our job to make sure that our discipline and standards are consistent throughout the entirety of next season. Pre-season really is a fresh slate for us to establish our standards and consistency to habits that will allow us to play at a higher level in the season ahead.

What qualities do you want any new signings to possess that they can implement into this squad?

It’s more important for me as a coach that players add value as a human and character because when times are tough that’s when you need people to stand up. Whilst the football is important, it’s the quality of people we have in the building that make the success that we want to achieve.

The character piece is really non-negotiable within our recruitment in terms of having players with that drive and desire to come in to stretch and grow, that’s something that the club values is that we’re constantly moving forward.

We have to become more athletic on the pitch, we need to bring in high quality athletes who have experiences at the top level. If we want to be a top four team, we have to bring in players who knows what it looks like at that level.

The Albion boss is eager to build on positive end to the season.

We've had players leave, and you're looking to bring players in, but what's the expectation for the players remaining?

The expectation of every player returning is that they focus on their development areas throughout the summer and come in with a mindset that’s ready to be stretched and challenged.

We want them to be pushed in the off season so that they come in even one per cent better than where we left off last season because we have to grow exponentially from where we were last year to where we want to be. In order to do that, it takes everyone’s individual commitment towards the team objectives.

The expectation is that the players do come in fit and hungry, ready to work hard and challenged in the new season because the standard will be higher. Bringing in players of similar mindset and ambition is a mixture for success because you put a collection of likeminded people who all want to achieve the highest level together, they stretch the ceiling.

The expectation will raise for everyone going into next season.