{"id":476210,"date":"2025-10-05T16:25:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T16:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/476210\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T16:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T16:25:11","slug":"liverpool-and-west-ham-nine-games-nine-losses-for-dire-wsl-bottom-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/476210\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool and West Ham: Nine games, nine losses for dire WSL bottom two"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nine games, nine defeats. Three goals scored, 24 conceded.<\/b><\/p>\n

The combined records of Liverpool and West Ham United in the Women’s Super League make very bleak reading<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With nearly a quarter of the season already gone, it looks like two mainstays of the league in recent campaigns will be scrapping to avoid finishing 12th.<\/p>\n

Both will be grateful there is no automatic relegation. With the WSL expanding to 14 teams in 2026-27, the bottom side will play the third-placed finisher in WSL2 for a top-flight spot next year.<\/p>\n

But that will be of little comfort for two teams who, despite their status and history, look ill-equipped for this campaign.<\/p>\n

While their records are similarly unimpressive, the reasons for their struggles differ. Two-time top-flight champions Liverpool’s problems lie primarily in attack, while West Ham have defensive woes too.<\/p>\n

The Reds came into this campaign with a new manager, Gareth Taylor<\/a>, who replaced the late Matt Beard in the summer.<\/p>\n

Beard’s sudden passing<\/a> – which led to Liverpool’s WSL fixture at Aston Villa being postponed – will no doubt have impacted many in the squad, who knew and played under him.<\/p>\n

In football terms, Taylor has also had to do without Olivia Smith. The Canadian forward was a key player last season, scoring seven times in the league, but became English football’s first million-pound player when she left for Arsenal<\/a> in the summer.<\/p>\n

But Taylor’s issues after four games are more than just individuals. The squad overall is painfully light on that most essential commodity – goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nine games, nine defeats. Three goals scored, 24 conceded. The combined records of Liverpool and West Ham United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,179,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-476210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-liverpool","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115322494999234601","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}