‘We know that we’ll have to be at our best’ – Ho comments on Spurs’ fixture against Aston Villa | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur head coach Martin Ho says that his side must be at their best at both ends of the pitch when they play host to Aston Villa this weekend.

The Lilywhites take on The Villans at the BetWright Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Ho said that Spurs must be on top form if they are to come out of the clash with three points.

“We are in a good position, they’re in a really good run of form,” Ho said. “They have a really good side, a good manager and have picked up some really good results. The performances have definitely matched that and we know that we’ll have to be at our best.”

Spurs go into the game on the back of consecutive clean sheets but Ho says that his side have to be strong at both ends of the pitch this weekend.

He said “We know that Natalia’s [Arroyo] teams are very aggressive and on the front-foot. They defend really well when they’re in their own half but they’re also very dynamic going forward; they’re very aggressive with the ball, they play very aggressive in terms of going forward and they have a lot of good movement off the ball in the mid-to-attacking third. They build-up very calmly within their own half.

“We know we have got to make sure that we defend in the same way. What we’ve got to find is a consistency in the performances defensively. We need to be comfortable with suffering without the ball but also, we need to apply ourselves when we are aggressive and front-footed higher up the pitch.

“The players go into the game full of confidence, especially defensively, but we know that we need to add more to our game going forward in that mid-to-attacking third in terms of chance conversion, chance creation and trying to make sure we get on the end of more balls in that part of the pitch.”

Commenting on recent clean sheets, Ho heaped all of the plaudits on his players for their hard work and commitment.

He said “I pride myself on the art of defending which is maybe lost in the fancy side of football at the moment. I want us to be organised, hard to break down, hard to beat but also, having a passion and desire for wanting to defend.

“A lot of credit goes to the playing group, they do a lot of work on the pitch. You can only encourage it so much and give them the framework to do that, they have to find the desire to want to defend.

“We do a lot of work defending one-v-one and a lot of work on defending in and around our box because it’s the closest part to the goal. We make sure we give them the tools and confidence so that when we are doing things well, we can show that as best practice but a lot of it comes from the players; they train hard, work hard, put themselves in-front of the ball and goal, so you have to give them the plaudits.”

Tottenham Hotspur’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Aston Villa kicks-off at 12pm on Sunday afternoon. Tickets will be available on the day at the BetWright Stadium.