Arroyo looks ahead to Leicester

Aston Villa make a trip across the midlands tomorrow afternoon as they return to Women's Super League action.

The Villans face Leicester City at the King Power Stadium for their final fixture before the February international break.

Head Coach Natalia Arroyo sat down with Villa TV to preview the encounter.

Here is what she had to say …

On returning to league action:

"We are excited to play the league again, it’s the competition that measures our ability and hopefully we take the confidence that we got from the win against Brighton to give our best performance possible.

"But we also need to keep improving especially in attacking patterns, I expect the team to be a little bit better as we have had some days to train and to prepare ourselves to create some chances against Leicester.

"They’re (Leicester City) defending good, they will be a tough opponent and a direct one.

"We are fighting as the same, in the bottom of the table so it’s a very important game for us."

On the team's style of play:

"I still love our out of possession performances, I think we need to be a very aggressive team without the ball.

"To use the talent we have in the squad and to enjoy being on the ball we need to defend well, we need to defend aggressive and we need to have this energetic way of playing without the ball and understanding when we need to stay a bit and be more reactive and then when we need to be more proactive.

"So, I don’t want to forget the out of possession phase but with the ball we need to do things, and I think we have the talent to do that in different positions.

"I think we have good options to build the best creative team as possible.

"I like our fluid we can play so it’s now trying to find the balance between that."

On the need to collect three points:

"I can’t ignore that we need points and that these direct matches are especially important but of course, I’m here to build something that is not short-term and that needs to be mid and long-term.

"And with that way, you can have the result that you want or you can have another result but I still try and focus on our performance.

"Every team needs time to understand what the new coach is bringing but we cannot ignore that we need to win at Leicester.

"But I would really like that we are able to get the three points by playing well and still doing things well with this energy, with this aggressivity, and this understanding of timings.

"I love that the team are giving their best in every single action but we need to manage our energy so that we are really fresh to impact in the key actions of the game.

"We will try our best from the first minute and let’s see after the game if we smile, if we’re happy with everything; the result and the performance."