by Matt Beard looks out over Liverpool’s historic Melwood training grounds from his corner office. The room, which belonged to Jurgen Klopp before the men’s team left the site, specifically women’s manager Beard, has little personal touch except for one precious item hanging on the left wall.
It is a picture of his father, Michael, who died in 2022, which the 46-year-old says was the worst time of his life. When the painting is mentioned in conversation, he takes a moment to compose himself. It was personally painted for Beard by his former general manager at Boston Breakers and Bristol City, Lee Billiard, currently Aston Villa’s head of women’s football, as a birthday present. Beard’s appreciation of that gesture – Billiard is a “fantastic guy” – echoes what his current Liverpool colleagues have been saying about him throughout the day: that he’s a “family man” who cares deeply. about the people he works with.
“I have to treat them like they are mine. It is important that I look out for them. The person comes first,” Beard says of his staff and players. “Here, no one is above anyone. For me, it’s important that everyone feels valued, so I do the morning routine like to say to everybody when I come in, just make sure they know, whether they’re in the kitchen or the physio room or the ground staff…” Beard then talks excitedly about goalkeeping coach Joe Potts and partners striker Shanice van de Sanden both giving birth recently. “Your job is your job. Family comes first.”
This softer side of Beard disappears completely, however, if he feels that his team is not performing on the grass. That is reflected in Telegraph Sport being given a rare opportunity to watch a full training session, as Beard prepares his side for Saturday’s FA Women’s Cup quarter-final at home to Leicester City.
“There is no second step movement, come on!” Beard barks, between multiple expletives, before turning to assistant performance analyst Noah Sansbury and saying: “I need that.” The film will be replayed for the players in their team meeting the day before the game. Beard’s frustration eases when the drill, aimed at beating Leicester’s expected press, starts to click nicely later on.
‘Melwood brought us closer together as a team’
Sansbury is filming the session with a camera on a very tall extendable pole which he is doing well to balance. It is one of several new training facilities at Melwood, which the football club bought back for the women’s team last year after previously selling the site to housing developers – last season they shared a training base at Tranmere.
Fieldside, during the session, physical performance coach Danielle Williams is getting live GPS data from trackers on each player, monitoring how far and how fast they run. Inside, state-of-the-art facilities include a sauna, steam room and plunge pool.
“There are a few phases to the project here,” explains Beard of plans for Melwood. “The next step is to put cameras in, so we can film the training from now on [Beard’s office].”
In his first spell as Liverpool manager, Beard led the club to back to back Women’s Super League titles in 2013 and 2014 while sharing ground with Widnes Vikings. He can’t help but laugh at the contrast in environment: “Widnes Vikings trained in the morning and we would train in the afternoon. I probably had an office that was smaller than this for me and all my staff. We had one physio, we didn’t have any doctors – I think for two of the three years I didn’t have a general manager. It is night and day from the professionalism of the setup.
“Melwood brought us closer together as a team. [When training at Tranmere], the players would probably come in at the time they were there, but here they have breakfast together so the bond is much closer. But I also think that because of Melwood’s history, that little bit of extra responsibility has been put on our shoulders a little bit, because of the people who have worked here, played here and trained on those pitches – now we have a chance to write our own history here.”
The canteen is Beard’s favorite part of the building because of the camaraderie. He starts with an omelette at about 9.30am – one of dozens ordered by the kitchen staff – and raves about “those little gnocchi things, they were pretty” that he likes at lunchtime. A look behind the scenes, however, shows that this place is about much more than the food.
This morning, strength and conditioning coach Colm Smith is in the gym keeping a close eye on each player’s load. On the top floor of the gym are motivational quotes from Muhammad Ali.
In the reception area, the team’s trophy display is being installed. Painted on the nearby walls is a breakdown of the history of the women’s team and Melwood, where midfielder Missy Bo Kearns used to watch the men’s team train as a teenager.
‘It would be great if we could get our fans to Wembley’
The field appears to be richly rewarded. Sunday’s 4-1 win at Aston Villa moved Liverpool level with Manchester United in fourth place – they have already accumulated more points this term than they did last season.
“We’ve made good progress,” says Beard. “If I look at last year, there were a lot of challenges, it came down to the injury list at the top of the pitch. We wanted to make sure that history would not repeat itself. We have good depth in the squad this year, which has allowed us to progress, and everyone has fitted in as they have here for many years.”
Liverpool have not been in the FA Women’s Cup final for 28 years and if they get past Leicester it would be their first semi-final appearance in seven years. Beard is keen for success, adding: “We used the Conti Cup [League Cup] a little different this year, because we had more depth, there were players we wanted to use in the Conti Cup to give them minutes, but in the FA Cup we want to go as far as we can. I have experienced Wembley with West Ham [as manager in 2019]. It is an incredible event. And we’ve got great fans so it would be great if we could get them to Wembley.”
Beard’s affection for the fans was reinforced by his time away from the club: “When you come away from the football club, you realize how special it is. I remember at a fan forum once a fan was telling a story about going to the [2005] men’s Champions League final, and as he told his wife the car was stolen, but it wasn’t, he sold it so he could pay for the flight, the ticket to the final and everything. Football comes first in this city, I’ve never seen anything like it. That’s great. It’s special to me because it’s a special place, it really is. I love the city, I love the people.”
