Tottenham Hotspur head coach Robert Vilahamn is calling for a shorter winter break in the Women’s Super League (WSL) to keep the players “momentum”.
The 2024/25 campaign returned at the weekend after a five-week break and Spurs celebrated with a 1-0 win over Leicester City at Brisbane Road.
However, after the game Vilahamn described his club’s performance as “rusty”. In today’s address to the media, he blamed the length of the winter break, judging it to be “too long”.
“We were supposed to play a friendly against Charlton [before the season resumed] but that was canceled because of the weather,” he said. “Our [FA Cup] the match against Everton was also cancelled. We had really tough days with the temperature and the pitches were not safe to play on.
“I think a five-week break is too long. I think if you want to have momentum in this league, with the fans and the media, then we need to have a little bit of a shorter break to make sure we stay on the momentum.”
Vilahamn went on to express that he thought many of the performances from the first games across the league since Christmas were “rusty”.
The first victory in 2025. ✅ pic.twitter.com/XnmlPiZSy1
— Tottenham Hotspur Women (@SpursWomen) January 19, 2025
“I think a lot of teams didn’t really have a perfect first half, and then in the second half a couple of teams did really well,” he said. “Obviously Chelsea were very good.
“What I mean by rusty is you have to make sure you play under pressure and with each other on the court against an opponent you don’t really know and that takes time.
“You need a few times before you do that. In a normal pre-season you have three, four or five games before you go into the first game. We haven’t had many games and you can tell that the players don’t really know how to deal with pressure, emotions and relationships in the second half.
“It wasn’t a good decision. We played and tried. I’m happy we tried, but there was no quality. It’s not because they don’t have quality, it was just because of the rustiness.”
Tottenham are preparing to face West Ham United at Brisbane Road on Wednesday in the quarter-finals of the League Cup.
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