Robert Vilahamn’s pre-FA Cup Semifinal Press Conference (12/4/2024)

By Rachel Cohen

On Friday afternoon, ahead of Spurs Women’s biggest ever game: a home semifinal against Leicester City to be held at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the Manager Robert Vilahamn spoke to the press. He confirmed that there were no injury concerns and was optimistic about his team’s chances. He reflected on the importance of getting loud support at the game, and talked about how Leicester would be tricky opponents.

The upcoming semifinal

Vilahamn said that he was confident Spurs would raise their game playing in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. “I just hope we can bring so many fans to the stadium and make sure we do this together because we play for them. We don’t play for ourselves and we want to make sure, we can have a lot of fans at the stadium and make them proud because if we can reach the the final, we need them because they actually give us that extra energy.”

He commented on the importance of supporter engagement in getting a win at the stadium in the December North London Derby “We heard them all in that attack [when Martha Thomas scored the match-winner]. So it was kind of a goal together with them. And I think we want to have that feeling again.”

Vilahamn confirmed that there were no new injury worries and that as of Friday all Spurs players (including the recently injured Martha Thomas and Molly Bartrip) were available for selection.

He also said that the team had had “two really good weeks with hard training” that had focused on development prior to the international break, that those players who had remained with him had continued training well, and that no players on international duty had picked up knocks.

Sunday’s opponents: Leicester City

In discussing Leicester City, Spurs’ opponents in Sunday’s semifinal Vilahamn pointed to how they set up defensively, something that meant that Spurs normally excellent pass-completion was about ten percentage points lower than usual during the last match-up between these teams: “Leicester is defending in a very different way which basically is kind of player by player oriented so they they’re very aggressive to do that. And if you have a bad pitch, if you have a bad first touch or if you have a bad day, you can easily do mistakes. And so, so of course you need to be very sharp when you play against that kind of defense work.”

He added that Leicester are “doing a good work there. They have good players who understand how to do it.” But also reflected that “on the other hand, we won that game and we find a way to create a few chances so I’m feeling like we’re taking steps every time we play against different opponents, but Leicester is a special team because they defend in a special way.”

Overall Vilahamn was optimistic about Spurs’ chances for the semifinal, however:

“Every new game is new and lives its own life. But we know that we are a good team that can beat Leicester of course and that’s what we focus on: To have a really good performance because then we’re probably gonna win the game. [If] they’re having a really good day and we have a bad day, we can lose this game as well. So we need to focus on having a good day and make sure we play the way we want to.” 

A squad that is ready

Spurs’ last two outings were both 1-0 wins. Vilahamn talked about this as showing the team’s strength of character, but also demonstrating growing squad depth: “I think all these kind of wins, when you win in the last minute is building some kind of strength within the squad. …This also shows how good quality we have in the squad because both these games people have come in from the bench and have a huge impact.”

Talking about what the more senior players had to offer Vilahamn commented that “we have a few very good leaders in the squad who’s been around before and they can absolutely help the younger ones.” But then went on to highlight the importance of younger players who were “a little bit more naïve” and so “just go for it”.

Focusing on the win

Vilahamn contrasted league games where “it’s very important to look good and improve the play” and where his emphasis has been to “always only focus on the performance” and a semifinal which is “more a you win or you’re out. So we need to make sure that this game is a different story. Yes, we’re gonna have a good performance; yes. We’re gonna try to develop the way we play; but the main thing in the game on Sunday is to win. …and not [worry] extremely too much about the performance.”

He said that if Spurs win on Sunday there will not be too many celebrations. Because “We need to keep focusing on the final. And of course it’s a good thing to win the semifinal and reach the final, and we should, you know, be proud of ourselves. But I don’t celebrate. I wanna celebrate when I win in the finals.”

The bigger rebuild in progress

Vilahamn talked about this being a ‘rebuilding year’. With the upcoming semifinal as “proof that we’re doing right stuff. I think this is a bonus that we’re in the semifinal. We didn’t really expect to go this far in a cup”

Talking about the rebuild Vilahamn highlighted that it would not suddenly get easier at the end of this year even if they are currently on track. “So I would say after this year [if] we finished top six and we still have this performance then we are …a little bit above the the schedule, but then it’s like the next step will be even sharper. Then you need to go into details and sign perhaps a few more players, but you need to develop the players we have to take the next step as well”

Summarising this he said that “We are in a good spot. And I also feel like the players and the fans and everybody’s buying into it in a very good way, so I’m very happy where we are, but we have a long way to go though because we want to be winning stuff.”

Closing the gap on the top teams

Asked about whether the fact that one of Spurs or Leicester would become a new FA Cup finalist this year and what that meant for the wider game Vilahamn suggested that it was “good news for a lot of people in this country”. He explained, “I think everybody wants to have a competitive league and more teams that can beat each other. I think it’s getting quite boring in some of the leagues in Europe [where] it’s only two teams fighting about it. And of course I like it when I’m one of the teams we’re talking here. But also I we need to have more teams who compete so we can build more fans to the stadiums and more different players and so on. So I think it’s very important both for women’s football but also for us.”

Final thoughts

In less-football-relevant news Vilahamn said that he’d gone to watch James Blunt at the Royal Albert Hall” over the last couple of weeks, which “was amazing” and that London as a whole was “amazing”.