“Mary’s situation is due to some issues in the pre-season in consistency in terms of game time to provide us the real confidence to afford this tough competition,” said Maestre.
“Hopefully, we have two very strong keepers in the squad, and Elene is doing a very good performance, so it’s about understanding and trying to show Elene that we can keep trusting her, if her performance is still good.
“We are gonna have a very good competition between each other, and I think this competition will push them to their best.”
Competition is rife throughout the London City squad, with a host of high-profile summer signings joining the squad. Danish international Janni Thomsen made her debut for London City against Manchester United after moving from Utah Royals.
“It’s big,” Thomsen chuckled. “It almost speaks for itself when you look at the squad, and there’s only 11 players that can start matches. But I think it’s a lot about building culture and building the team.”
One of the more experienced players is London City vice-captain Danielle van de Donk, who scored against Manchester United and twice in pre-season. After struggling with injuries last season, the Dutch international has made an impressive start to the new campaign.
“I’m very glad of seeing her enjoying being important in the team and scoring, because she has this soul of a scorer,” Maestre said.
London City now travel to West Ham, a match which Maestre sees as a very different challenge from their opening victory over Manchester United.
“We need to be humble, because every game in this competition is very tough,” he said. “Even the other day, we can think that Tottenham had an easy win, [but] it will be a real problem [if] we think we are gonna have this kind of game against West Ham this weekend.”
Tottenham Hotspur beat West Ham 3-1 in their opening game, but Maestre is wary of underestimating the Hammers’ rapid forward line.
“West Ham want to feel very strong, playing home, so we need to be very aware of the capacities, because they have some very talented players, Riko Ueki or Viviane Asseyi in the front, so they are able to win every duel that they have, so we need to surround the players involved in these kind of duels.
“We are working hard, trying to understand the most critical spaces, considering the footage that we show in [West Ham’s] games against all the teams. So hopefully we are gonna reach the chances to break the lines as we were able to reach against United as well.”
Spain winger Lucia Corrales will not be available for the West Ham game after sustaining a rib injury last weekend, although Maestre hopes she will be back in training next week.
Despite the team being in its early stages, the players appear to have gelled quickly.
“For me, it’s about talking on the pitch,” Thomsen said.
“It’s about learning each other. The more you’re playing together, training together, when you work together and throughout the whole summer, I think we have been working very hard to make those relations sit together, and we are not done yet.”
Thomsen also believes the club’s growing fanbase will play an important role as London City continue to establish themselves in the WSL.
“The fans and the crowd mean a lot to us. As a new club, it may be even more important, because we have to build this from scratch and selling out the stadium at the first game is so big for us.
“It’s hard to give back, but we do our best on the pitch to give them something to come back for every weekend.”
