Matt Beard has confirmed striker Katie Stengel could return to action against Chelsea this weekend as Liverpool look to bounce back from their defeat to Manchester United.
Stengel was ruled out of last Sunday's clash after picking up a knock in training and her absence was keenly felt as the Reds were on the receiving end of a 6-0 mauling at Leigh Sports Village. Beard later branded the performance as "embarrassing" and offered an apology to the travellling fans, but the Liverpool boss is confident his squad will be able to put the result behind them when they travel to Kingsmeadow on Sunday.
"It was a tough afternoon," Beard said, reflecting on the United game, "I said what I said after the game and we’ve sat down and had a really positive week training.
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"There’s been a good response. I’m not going to let one performance in a year-and-a-half ruin a team that’s performed week in, week out. It was a tough afternoon, especially being against one of your North West rivals, so from that perspective we were obviously desperately disappointed with the result and the performance level.
"But it’s happened and we need to use that frustration, anger, embarrassment- whatever word you want to use - and take that forward into the remaining games."
Chelsea were beaten 2-1 when they faced Liverpool on the opening day of the season, with Stengel netting twice from the spot to seal the three points. However, the clash at Prenton Park is the only blot on Chelsea's copy book so far this term, with the Blues currently on a 16-game unbeaten run in all competitions.
"Chelsea are on a good run," Beard said. "They’ve had a great Champions League campaign as well. We know it’s going to be a tough afternoon but we’ve played them once, we’ve beat them once, so we can take confidence from that day but we need to make sure we give a good account of ourselves on Sunday and respond in the right way.
"I’ve been pleased with the response in training, it’s been fantastic this week, and we’ve just got to make sure we take that into Sunday."
In addition to Stengel, who returned to full team training on Wednesday, Liverpool will hope to have January signings Fuka Nagano and Miri Taylor available for this weekend's trip to West London, pending FA approval. The duo both join the Reds from the National Women's Soccer League in America and will help to bolster Liverpool's options in the middle of the park.
"(Fuka) is a wonderful football player," Beard said. "She’s technically very, very gifted. We’ve seen in training how good she can be but it’s going to take some time for her to settle into the team and into England.
"When we were aware of Fuka’s availability and that she was interested in coming to England and we watched more of her, it was a no-brainer for us. In Japan she played in a midfield three in a holding role, in the national team she does the same but in America she played in the 10 and she was so creative so she can do both which is great for us because it gives us that bit of flexibility."
On Taylor, Beard added: "Technically she’s a very gifted player, she’s very athletic and she’s confident as well. I’m really pleased with all of the players we’ve brought in in this window. They’re going to improve the team and improve the competition for places as well."
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