Liverpool Ladies have appointed Gareth Taylor as their new head coach.
Liverpool have been with no everlasting head coach since Matt Beard was sacked in February, with Amber Whiteley taking interim cost for the rest of final season.
Taylor was axed by Manchester Metropolis Ladies in March forward of their Ladies’s League Cup remaining in opposition to Chelsea.
The 52-year-old had been accountable for the membership since 2020 and led Metropolis to an FA Cup win that yr and League Cup success in 2022. Underneath Taylor, Metropolis missed out on the 2023/24 WSL title to Chelsea on purpose distinction.
Liverpool start their Ladies’s Tremendous League season in opposition to Merseyside rivals Everton Ladies on Sunday September 7, dwell on Sky Sports activities.
LFC Ladies managing director Andy O’Boyle mentioned: “I am completely delighted to welcome Gareth to the membership.
“This has been a really detailed course of and it was clear that Gareth was the excellent candidate. He has a confirmed observe file of constructing profitable, identity-driven groups and his capability to develop gamers and assist them attain the subsequent stage is second to none.
“We have a very clear vision of how we will return LFC Women to the upper echelons of the game and this is a crucial step on that journey.
“We would like our workforce enjoying with a transparent identification as a Liverpool workforce, enjoying Liverpool soccer in entrance of passionate Liverpool followers.
“Gareth shares that vision and we believe he has the qualities and experience to deliver it.”
Evaluation: Taylor’s capability to develop gamers a spotlight for Reds
Sky Sports activities’ Vicki Hodges:
Regardless of main Man Metropolis to 2 main honours throughout his five-year stint, with FA Cup success in his first yr in cost in 2020 and League Cup glory two years later, the WSL title finally eluded Gareth Taylor.
The timing of his departure earlier this season – merely 5 days earlier than the Ladies’s League Cup remaining in March – a showpiece they misplaced to Chelsea, may need been unusual timing however hinted in direction of a breakdown in relationships off the pitch.
His league file at Metropolis, having by no means completed outdoors the highest 4, was blemished by a bitter switch wrangle with ahead Chloe Kelly this January – which noticed this summer season’s Lionesses hero pressure an preliminary mortgage transfer to Arsenal. And from that second onwards, the writing seemed on the wall for Taylor.
A desire for top possession and urgent, Taylor’s predictable and infrequently cussed fashion turned a part of the issue, the place inconsistency noticed them end outdoors the Champions League locations.
Taylor’s capability to develop younger gamers, having labored on the membership’s academy for 9 years earlier than his head coach appointment, nonetheless, could have impressed Liverpool.
Liverpool’s Olivia Smith joined Arsenal for £1m earlier this summer season
Following the sale of the primary £1m participant within the ladies’s recreation, Olivia Smith to Arsenal, Liverpool will look to a few of their youthful gamers to assist them construct on their seventh place end final season.
Sky to point out practically 90 per cent of all WSL video games from 2025/26
Sky Sports activities shall be embarking on a brand new five-year partnership with the WSL, displaying practically 90 per cent of all Ladies’s Tremendous League matches from the 2025/26 season.
Reigning champions Chelsea shall be aiming to safe a record-extending seventh straight WSL title – however they are going to possible face a serious problem from European champions Arsenal, who’ve made a summer season assertion by signing Liverpool’s Olivia Smith as the primary £1m participant in ladies’s soccer.
The 2 Manchester sides Metropolis and United shall be hoping to compete as nicely, with Metropolis, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur among the many golf equipment starting new eras with new managers.
There may be additionally a brand new face within the WSL within the type of London Metropolis Lionesses, who turned the primary impartial membership to be promoted to the ladies’s soccer top-flight.
However with new relegation guidelines forward of a league enlargement to 14 groups, this WSL season guarantees to be not like another.
