By Rachel Cohen

Totthenham manager, Robert Vilahamn, was upbeat ahead of the club’s first ever FA Cup Final, talking about the team’s journey to this point, preparations for the final and about how Spurs are now increasingly competititve. He also praised the contribution of his backroom staff.

1. No new injuries

Vilahamn confirmed that all the squad was fit and had been training today (Thursday). That is good news for Spurs, not only in terms of starters but in terms of having strong options off the bench. It does mean, however, that there will be some players, maybe some who have played an important part in the journey to the final, who are available but do not even make the bench. Obviously Grace Clinton cannot play because Spurs’ opponents are the loanee’s parent club, Manchester United.

2. He’s going to play attacking football

Asked about whether he would continue to focus on outscoring his opponents rather than defensive solidity Vilahamn confirmed that, “It doesn’t change. I want to entertain our fans. I’d rather win 5-4 than 1-0. And the main thing though, it’s also their self-confidence. So if you score five goals, you get a lot of happy players who score goals, but you get a sad goalkeeper and some defenders that doesn’t like to receive four goals so you need to find the mixture. We want to be attacking team.”

He did acknowledge that in a final “everything’s about winning” and that might mean resorting to a more direct style of play as happened against Leicester. But at the end of the day “We still want to play our style. We still want to score a lot of goals. So hopefully we can do both.”

3. Manchester United are favourites, but…

Vilahamn described Manchester United as “favourites” because they “were there last year.” But also noted that they are no longer top three in the WSL this year and that Spurs are “taking steps all the time” and the last game between the sides (a 2-2 away draw) showed that Spurs “can compete against them.”

Given that he said that “We feel like we have everything to win in this game and that we have a good chance to win.”

4. Spurs are competitive

Vilahamn in talked about the team’s ability to compete as stemming from the Conti Cup North London Derby (3-3) as well as victory over Arsenal in the league (1-0). ‘we started to build trust in the group that we are already competing. If we nail everything we can: with a good defence and actually using the chances we get.” He also pointed to the win over Manchester City and draw with Manchester United to suggest that “It’s not only one time, it’s four or five times where we compete with the top four teams”.

5. Advice from experienced players

Vilahamn said that he’d started this week with a meeting in which he’d asked his players who had played in a final, some of whom have won a final, what their advice was. And that the main thing they had told the other players was “Keep focusing on the same way we do. Don’t overthink anything. Keep the process this week; we’re going into this game in a normal way.” And that this had “helped the team to prepare and to focus on a good week with good training”, because he suggested “the game will come.”

6. This is his first experience with VAR

The FA Cup Final is one of only two domestic women’s games to have VAR. What that means remains to be seen. And while some of Spurs’ international players will have played in tournaments in which there is VAR, Robert Vilahamn along with many of Spurs’ players will not have experienced it. Vilahamn did not rush to judgement at this point. He noted that VAR slowed the game down and did not like how it affected the “feeling” of the game while also conceding that it made it “more correct.” But the priority is to “adapt to the way that we’re going to use it on Sunday”.

7. Visualising the Final

Vilahamn talked about the squad’s trip to Wembley earlier this week as enabling them to visualize the final, noting that “Life is easier if you have explored or visualized it before”

“We try to do a lot of things to make sure they are as prepared as possible without overdoing it, because we still need to work with football tactics. So how we’re going to press and how we’re going to play? But a lot of it is how you feel and how you can handle the pressure. So I think it’s a good thing that we went there.” 

8. Praising the backroom staff.

Vilahamn has previously said how much ex-Interim Manager (and Assistant Manager under Rehanne Skinner) Vicky Jepson has aided his adjustment and he reiterated that praise, describing her as having been ‘huge’ and ‘helping me a lot’.

He noted that while he gets all the glory there is a team of 20-25 staff who are playing important roles behind the scenes.

“When you look at Tottenham Hotspur’s women team and their staff, I’m very, very impressed with how many good people collaborate …So for me it’s so easy to come to work every day because you have all these people who want to develop and improve and they want to come with new ideas. So that’s the main thing. I would say it’s a lovely environment to work in.”

9. Spurs’ Organic Journey.

Vilahamn nodded to the journey that Spurs have been on in rising up the football leagues through promotion. “I think that’s the main thing here, that organic journey that this club with women’s football have taken. I mean it’s not so many years ago that they played on those pitches and [were] semi-professional.”

As part of this he recognised that there are players still in the squad who played in the Championship with Spurs. “It’s quite cool that those players are actually still here and actually going to play at Wembley. I think it’s quite cool to be a part of a Club that have that history that started on the ground.”

While Spurs are, arguably, a big club, and could and should have invested more in the women’s team earlier, Vilahamn’s comments point to differences in how Premier-league backed teams have worked within or, as happened with Manchester United, been parachuted into the women’s football pyramid.

10. The men’s team goalkeepers are lovely

Okay, he didn’t say that they were lovely but did say that they had all come over to wish the women’s team good luck in the morning. Hopefully a few men’s players will make it to Wembley on Sunday.