Laura Kaminski on WSL preparations, team news & season targets…

Laura Kaminski believes Crystal Palace are in good shape to take on their first-ever Women’s Super League season.

The Eagles’ head coach – whose first year in charge culminated in a historic Championship-winning final day, and the club’s first-ever promotion to the top-flight – is confident that she, her staff, and her players are doing everything they can to be a competitive outfit among the elite this season.

Kaminski will herself make a WSL debut as a head coach when Palace kick off their campaign away to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, 22nd September (14:00 BST), before our first-ever WSL home game – against Chelsea on Friday, 27th September (19:30) underneath the Selhurst Park lights – for which tickets are now on sale.

In a feature-length sitdown interview, read on to discover Kaminski’s thoughts on Palace’s pre-season so far; injury news updates; her thoughts on Palace’s ten summer signings so far; the role she foresees the Eagles’ committed fanbase playing this season; and her targets for the exciting season ahead…

Lots of preparations, lots of hard work and lots of hours are going in, to give us the foundations we're going to need to prepare ourselves for the next step.

We're taking it very seriously and we're leaving no stone unturned. We've researched and obviously recruited a lot of new players and the staff, together with the players now in pre-season, have been working extremely hard for what's next around the corner.

We have two players injured at the moment: Hayley Nolan has had an anterior dislocation of her shoulder.

She will miss the start of the season, but this will give her time to complete her rehabilitation and to stabilise and support her shoulder for the future.

Elise Hughes is also injured as we know, but she is progressing well with her recovery and rehab from that ACL injury.

All our other players are currently gearing up towards the start of the season as normal.

We’ve brought in a few now, so the group is growing. It does take time for those players to settle, but I feel like the environment that I pride myself on every day, and that the staff work really hard to uphold, gives them a place where they can enjoy their football, and be happy with their living circumstances – which is again really important.

We're comfortable and happy with the way that they've embedded into the group. They've really added a lot of value to us, and we're looking after them and trying to help them to settle in and explore London as their home now.

You look for technical, tactical talent and the physical capability to be able to move on to the next level and sustain that throughout the year. But most importantly for me, and I think for my philosophy and the club's background, is people. I really want to emphasise that we've recruited people who are fantastic characters, great personalities and can really add that extra 5-10% that I felt I had last year from the group.

I had fantastic people in the promotion year and that's what helped us get that over the line. That doesn't change this year. We're going to need good people that can stick together and fight together.

We know the challenge is going to be difficult for us, and I'm looking for characters that can cope with that and rise to the top and create some great memories and perform well to sustain our position in the WSL.

On bonding as a team…

I've said some thank yous to the existing players that we're continuing on the journey with, because they've been absolutely fantastic at welcoming new faces and making them feel at home.

I've also said thank you to the new faces that we've had that have really added value and really made a significant effort to go out of their comfort zone and get to know the new people in the group.

We’ve all got to know each other really well, which is going to be really important for togetherness down the line when things are going to get tough, so we need to have each other.

We had a really busy week. It was productive – we didn’t waste a minute.

It was really difficult physically for the players. We settled in in the first couple of days after a long flight, long travel. The first training session was a little bit frustrating because we know we've got high standards but unfortunately we were paying the price of a long flight, but that's the whole point in going there.

The facilities were excellent for us to use but the heat and altitude for us in terms of developing the players' physical capacity was absolutely crucial. As the week went on I was really pleased with the standards lifting and us growing into the week.

We ended the week really positively with some really strong training sessions which led us into the fixture against Utah. For a long period of the game, I was pleased with the performance against Utah, but it's given us some information along the lines of the latter stage of the game and what we're going to need to do to physically be prepared to last the duration of games and more.

We knew that our pre-season this year had to look different to the years gone by. We know that the physical challenge is going to increase dramatically, and we had to do something to prepare us for the moments that are ahead of us. I really wanted to push the players not only physically, but mentally, in terms of their resilience.

I think they adapted to the camp really well under difficult conditions. The heat out there is quite extreme, so they did really well. It was a fantastic use of pre-season and I expect to reap the benefits later down the line.

I'm really looking forward to it. It's a new challenge and obviously I've never managed before in the WSL, but what I have done in the background is always think about it for myself. Have I done everything that I can, in the time that I've been given, to prepare myself for those moments, to prepare the players and the staff for those moments?

I feel like I've researched and prepared everything that I need to and I've done everything I can to be confident, standing on the sideline for the first game, that I'm ready, the staff are ready and the players are more than ready to take this challenge on. We'll be ready.

I'm really looking forward to those games, as are the players. We're building through pre-season but as ever we're desperate to play a competitive fixture. There's no other feeling like it.

Two London games to get us going, one away, one home, and I'm especially looking forward to Selhurst Park under the lights. That's going to be a fantastic experience for us and also the fans.

The fans will be absolutely imperative this year to the season. They'll be fundamental in every game. Even out in America there were some Palace fans that I met after the game, and having that support and feeling backing you in every game, is going to be really important for us.

I urge people to come down and support the group, because it's really important to the staff and players.

I think we're going to need to be on our toes with some changes. I think I've been more than prepared for that from the get-go.

Last year we had the luxury of consistency in the shape and formation, where we scored a phenomenal amount of goals and had a lot of success. Players understood the system and performed well in it and also the rotations from the bench fitted that system.

I think with so many new bodies coming into the club, we've really got to be flexible with the system, and I often think that maybe one system won't be enough for us.

We need to have more than one in our locker and progress that way. Pre-season has given us some opportunity to trial some different shapes and formations to fit the style of play, to fit the philosophy and ultimately the skillset of the players that are coming in the building. I feel very strongly that having more than one string to our bow will eventually pay off.

There'll be opportunities to trial different shapes. It's important for the players to have some consistency. I've got to be careful with the way that I do it and the staff are more than prepped for that.

The players have bought into that. There's going to be mistakes, there's going to be successes, and we've got to analyse those and make sure that we select the right system for us. That will take time to settle and grow, but the players are so quick at taking on board information and really buying into it and applying it.

I've had a fantastic response from the group so far. They've been fantastic at absorbing new information and running with it. That's exactly the sort of team that I need to take on the challenge that's ahead of us.

Aimee’s been fantastic for us. She almost played every minute of every game last season and she's been pivotal. What a fantastic person and a pleasure it is to work with Aimee every day and to see her grow and develop.

We have to remember she's still young, she's still developing, and in my opinion she was one of the best centre-halves in the Championship. Now, it's about my support and the staff’s support and enabling her to help her take that step and perform in the WSL.

I'd like to thank the staff. The transition is never easy and I think they've all stepped up to the plate in that sense. Having things settled behind the scenes has been key for us last year, so now we're not having to make too many changes going into this season.

That settled, calm staffing unit is really important to welcome new players who are travelling from all over the world to come and join this club. We've got all the provisions in place to help and support the move and get them settled and ultimately thinking about football, which is what they're here to do.

Success for me is competing in every game. We need to be in every game and we need to make sure that we're performing, and we're concentrating and focused on the aims and objectives of the performance to enable us to obviously try and get something out of every single game that we play.

Moving on is going to be really important, so it's week by week, game by game. That worked really well for us last year and I'll definitely be taking that theory into the new season.

We believe that we can get something out of every game. We've got that confidence and we've got that belief and ability in the group – and we want to stick to that.

I think the table will speak for itself as long as we perform on the pitch. We want to get as many points as we can.