Matt Beard Talks Preseason Preparation and Facing Arsenal in the Opener

Liverpool ended their first season back in the WSL at a respectable seventh place out of 12 teams. On Sunday, they are finally back in action after a long preseason. They faced strong competition in the lead up to the WSL returning.

Manager Matt Beard wrote in his column on the official site about their preseason and the big game against Arsenal that starts the new season.

“We have played against some of the top teams in Europe,” Beard said about their We played Atletico Madrid, who beat Manchester City a few years ago in the Champions League, we played City, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain, so we have really tested ourselves. I wanted to do that because I think we learn more in these tougher games compared to others we might be more comfortable in.”

The results weren’t ideal. Liverpool lost five of those six games, only beating Leicester in the last game of the preseason. It’s better to win the last game than the first. Hopefully that bit of momentum will help them on Sunday when they take on Arsenal.

They had a similarly tough start to last season when they faced Chelsea in the opening game. They prevailed then, and will look to grab another shock victory.

Beard sounds enthusiastic to take on this challenge with his new team.

“We start the new WSL season on Sunday and we are all excited and can’t wait, and what a game we have taking on Arsenal at the Emirates[...] Obviously it’s a tough one for us to start with against Arsenal and I think they have sold over 50,000 tickets so far for Sunday so it’s going to be a great occasion.”

A giant stage is set for the Reds to start off their season right.