De Pauw ‘curious’ to see how Aston Villa fare against Spurs | OneFootball

Aston Villa manager Robert de Pauw admits that he is curious to see how his side fare against Tottenham Hotspur this weekend.

The Villans play host to Spurs at Villa Park on Sunday afternoon in what is the club’s first home fixture of the new season.

Both Aston Villa and Spurs are aiming high this season. When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Aston Villa boss De Pauw spoke positively about Spurs before admitting that he is curious to see how his side will measure up against The Lilywhites.

“I really like the club, it’s a beautiful club and I think we are quite similar in our ambitions,” De Pauw said. “They have a good coach, some good players, interesting players.

“I am curious to see how we match up against them.”

Aston Villa suffered a cruel 1-0 defeat to Chelsea on opening day. The Villans matched the Barclays Women’s Super League champions in many respects over the course of the 90 minutes. De Pauw has identified some growth areas for the team this weekend.

He said ‘We have worked a lot this week on switching sides in the right moments. I think there were opportunities to find the overload on the other side against Chelsea. We did not do that as well as we would’ve liked, so this is something that we will work at. The efficiency in-front of goal is also important, we could have been more clinical. These were the main things to look at.”

While Spurs are a very different opponent to Chelsea, De Pauw says that Aston Villa’s focus remains the same. He is keen to see The Villans build their own mindset and on-field consistency.

He said “If you want to be a top team, you have to be calm in all circumstances and turn up the fire when needed. That’s the process, we want to do the same against every opponent, no matter where we are and no matter who we play. You have to bring that consistency in the way that you play and how you approach things.

“I strongly believe in building rituals with the team but also for players themselves to prepare them for every game. If you look at Rafael Nadal and how he approaches his games in tennis, he has clear rituals that he focuses on. This can help you very much in how you get into games, how you get the right mindset and focus.

“These are things that we are working on. Of course, I have only been here for a short time and there are still things for players to address and work on in more detail.”

Aston Villa’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Tottenham Hotspur kicks-off at 4.30pm on Sunday afternoon. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.