Plus: Lessons from Man Utd and Man City defeats; how minor changes have helped Spurs; January signings of Matilda Vinberg, Charli Grant and Amanda Nilden; Watch West Ham Women vs Tottenham Women live on Sky Sports Premier League from 6.30pm on Sunday; kick-off 6.45pm
Friday 19 January 2024 15:18, UK
Tottenham Women manager Robert Vilahamn's first few months in the Women's Super League has certainly been a whirlwind.
"I came from Hacken, working the whole first part of the season, then started right away here so I didn't have a break for the whole year," he says of his 2023.
And it was a three-week period before the winter break that thrust him into the WSL spotlight - for the right and wrong reasons.
Vilahamn was forced to defend his style of play - which the Swede describes as exerting 'control', 'doing brave things' and having a 'high tempo' - after a 7-0 thrashing by Manchester City in November, marking Tottenham's biggest-ever WSL defeat.
It was followed by a 4-0 defeat to Manchester United in the WSL where - as they did against Man City - Spurs continued to persevere with Vilahamn's vision, despite the damaging scorelines.
Speaking ahead of Sunday's WSL return against West Ham, live on Sky Sports, Vilahamn reflected: "Manchester City was not as bad as the result says. If you look at stats and positioning wise, how we create chances and how we tried to press them, there's some good things and the players really are brave to do it for 90 minutes.
"But then you represent Tottenham and you're not supposed to lose 7-0. The fans and the club doesn't deserve it.
"I learnt a lot about how I need to make sure they understand collectively how to defend. Manchester City's wingers are very good, for example, their No 9 is very good, so we have to accept that we need to defend sometimes.
"We tried to add that to the Manchester United game. It started quite good with that, but they scored four goals and we kind of lost the way we play that game just because we focused too much on that."
It led to some questioning why the manager would continue to play in a way that was not yielding the right results and appeared to be almost the antithesis of his planned style.
But Vilahamn remained adamant that he and his players would not change the game plan - and his approach went some way to vindication in a historic 1-0 win against Arsenal in their final game before the winter break.
"I 100 per cent understand [the criticism]. I understand why I might look stupid when you lose 7-0 and protect how I want to play," he said.
"But if you want to do something in the long term and you want to stick to a plan, you need to believe it. If I'm not believing in it, then who should believe in it?
"For me, I know this is going to work in the long term, but I cannot lose too many games in a row so I need to adapt somehow. But I totally get it, in this business, you need to have results as well and it's fair that I should have criticism for that game.
"But I will always learn, I will always have mistakes - I'm going to probably have other losses and everything - but for me, it's more to show the mentality that we know what we're going to do and we're going to make sure we develop every day.
"Sometimes you need a knock to take new steps and that knock helped me to do that, but also make me show when we beat Arsenal that I know I'm doing the right things for the squad.
"I know that the players really liked that we didn't change formation or tactics [against Arsenal], because now they believe in it even more.
"I think it's actually a good thing, not a good thing that we lost 7-0, but coming back from that shows that we're doing this for real now, we're not going to go any other way. That's why I was hired, that's why I want to work here and that's why I took this job."
Their first-ever North London derby victory also saw Spurs keep their first clean sheet of the season, with Vilahamn adding: "We didn't dictate the game, but we found ways to win it and defend. We are not a top team yet but we can beat the top teams, but we want to push ourselves to that point where we can dictate against them."
Just as Vilahamn did against Arsenal, he has actually not tweaked too much since his summer arrival, despite Tottenham finishing ninth in the WSL last season with just 18 points. If they win against West Ham this weekend, live on Sky Sports, Spurs will equal their entire points tally from last season.
And again, his approach comes back to working each day and playing each game with a clear game plan, which he believes will ultimately bring results and success.
Vilahamn explained: "I think they were struggling last year with finding their way to play and finding a way to win games. For me, it was not finding ways to win, it was more showing them how we're going to play and we're going to win with this in the long term.
"I've tried to make sure they have a really clear game identity, a way of playing, trying to bring trust into that and not changing too much. If we're going to enjoy and play in the best way, you need to know what you're doing every day and if you change too much, it's hard to do that.
"So the biggest change was to not change anything, to actually have a good plan that we're going to stick to and this is the way we're going to do it.
"Then I think my leadership is very much giving trust, listening to people, making sure everybody feels good. I really want to make sure we have an environment where you dare to succeed, you dare to fail and then you keep going.
"So hopefully, the players enjoy that because I want to be in that environment where you feel like you need to push yourself and be brave. I would say those two things are the most important things. I'm not sure what they did last year but for me it's a very clear identity in how we want to play."
Three players who will need to adapt to Vilahamn's style are January signings Matilda Vinberg and Charli Grant, alongside Amanda Nilden, who was announced as Spurs' latest arrival late on Thursday.
The Tottenham boss will have been well aware of all three from his native Sweden - Vinberg and Nilden internationals for the country and Grant playing her club football there for the last two and a half years.
"We looked at the squad when I signed and what we needed to rebuild, how we might make sure of this turnaround to play the way we want to," Vilahamn said of his January arrivals.
"I didn't want to bring too many plays in August because I wanted to use the players we have, see how can we improve them and that's what we have done. Then you need to bring new energy and new talented players to make sure in the long run, we can have good competition in each position and what fits the way you want to play.
"Charli is a really athletic full-back that I followed and she has a very good national team game for Australia against England [at the Women's World Cup]. Even if you played in a middle team in Sweden, I knew that when she plays in the national team, she has a really high level.
"She needs to adapt, I'm not sure she's a 90-minute player in every game in the beginning because it's a big step from Swedish league to here, but in the long term, she's going to be a really good player in this league.
"Matilda is one of the top talents in the Sweden national team and had a really good season last year with Hammarby. She's also one of those where I can work with her for six months for the next season to make sure that she adapts to the league.
"She already showed really good minutes against Sheffield United [in the FA Cup] and she will be on the pitch one way or another most of the games this year. But she's going to grow into it because she's still young, moving to a new country and everything.
"But they fit the way we want to play, they have the right mindset and they are very athletic. They are very social so it was very easy for them to connect with the players. It feels like they've been here for a long time but it's only been a few weeks so that's a really good thing for this group because they are very welcoming to new players.
"They are the future for women's football. We scouted them for a long time so I'm very happy that they are here."
One of those areas that already has plenty of competition is in goal. Czech Republic international Barbora Votikova made her WSL debut against Arsenal, and has now started the last three Spurs games either side of the winter break.
It has left Jamaica No1 Becky Spencer watching on from the sidelines, but much as he has done since coming into Tottenham, Vilahamn appears to have a plan for his two stoppers.
"When you have good goalkeepers, the one was playing is No 1 when she plays," he said.
"Barbora played in the last few games and right now, she's the first goalkeeper, but you never know that. Becky Spencer played eight games in a row before with amazing games as well.
"So if Barbora plays on Sunday, she's the first, but now I have like these two national team goalkeepers, I cannot just say, 'Becky, you are No 2 and you are No 1 now'.
"But it's really good combination because there are different goalkeepers with different attributes. Becky is very good with her feet, Barbora is very good in the air so they have different styles.
"That can also be useful for me when we're going to play different opponents and so on."
It remains to be seen which goalkeeper will line up against West Ham on Sunday, live on Sky Sports, as Vilahamn takes charge of his first game against the Hammers.
He will face former Spurs manager Rehanne Skinner too, with West Ham making three stand-out January signings as they battle relegation.
Discussing the game, Vilahamn added: "Rehanne has been in this game for a long time so it's got to be a tough away game. I think they will want to show that they are better than they showed in the other part of the season.
"Hopefully we can dictate the game, but they've also brought new players and it's a derby. I have a respect for West Ham and I think they can be better in this part of the season.
"But we are in a good spot with new energy in the squad as well so we have a good chance to go there and hopefully win."
