By Laura Hunter

Copyright skysports

“What we’re trying to create at Liverpool, and it’s going to take a little while, is to have the best pressing team in Europe.”

The statement is deliberately bold from Gareth Taylor. It’s prefaced with all the usual caveats: time, investment, the right recruitment decisions. But the new Reds boss is clear in his intention to transform Liverpool.

This will not be an easy task. Taylor lost his first two Women’s Super League matches in charge while shipping five goals – as Manchester City head coach it took the Englishman 24 league games to suffer multiple defeats. And trying to embed a specific style while getting necessary results to ward off talk of pressure is hard in a league so unforgiving.

While at City the expectation might have been different but Taylor’s philosophy was enduring. “We’re not daft, we’re probably not going to be able to see what you saw from my team [at Man City] previously, at this moment,” he says from Melwood, ahead of playing Aston Villa live on Sky Sports on Sunday.

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“I was brought to the club for a specific reason – we’re trying to create an identity for Liverpool. When you have that it’s quite a unique selling point, we believe this is the best way to win games.

“It’s not just to play good football, it’s a style and a way of building as a team to get good outcomes.”

The optics of losing back-to-back games to start a new job are of course unfavourable. Dating back to last season, Liverpool have actually lost their last four league games. But Taylor is calm, already able to spot his footprint on performances that might not have earned any points but at least suggest his ball-playing ideas have landed soundly.

Liverpool completed 634 passes in their most recent 1-0 loss at Leicester, recording more than 500 successful passes in a game for the first time in the club’s WSL history. Their 73.5 per cent possession share is their second most ever in a league match. And their touch count (1,615) is the highest in the division after two played.

“I’m not one to go on stats, but they are showing us different to what the results are,” Taylor emphasises. “We’ve been dealt two harsh scorelines for what we put into the games. But it’s also to be expected because we are trying to implement new things.”

To become the best pressing team in Europe would be to oust the likes of Arsenal and Barcelona – each of the last two recipients of the Champions League trophy – from the top spots. There is no quick or easy way to do that. We’re talking about masters of a very specialised craft.

Liverpool have recovered the ball in the attacking third 16 times this term, the fourth most efficient side in that category behind Brighton, Arsenal and Man City – for whom a high press is second nature. The Reds rank second for forward passes made overall (375), but bottom of the pile in terms of forward pass percentage (29.88).

Work to be done, then. “I did stress, in terms of our evolution, that there could be a few bumps in the road in the early part. That’s natural. I don’t want it.

“This is a style to try to dominate games. Players have taken on the ideas we just need to push for some results that makes everyone feel we are going in the right direction.

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“It becomes a decent selling point for attracting players. Over the next few seasons our recruitment in the market is going to be key because we’ve lost good players in the summer from last season. We were late in the market, late in my arrival, and that halted a lot of progress at an important time.”

Taylor’s City team always topped the passing metric charts, so it’s no surprise Liverpool have begun in the same vein. But such a tactical shift requires perseverance and patience. “We have to get stronger, fitter, be able to repeatedly sprint to be able to do it,” Taylor acknowledges. The WSL’s 22-game season is of course notoriously short.

And the measure of success invariably goes well beyond the subjective assessment of his side’s ability to run down opponents. It relies on tangible results. The proof of the pudding is always in the eating. “There’s no title for pressing, but we want to be as aggressive as we can,” he adds.

His first win since being appointed to the role back in August, six months after the sacking of Matt Beard, cannot come soon enough. His imprint is apparent, now it needs properly backing up.

Watch Aston Villa vs Liverpool live on Sky Sports+ from 11am on Sunday; kick-off 12pm