It’s been a summer of change for the FA WSL champions, with no fewer than four additions to the squad and in the final third in particular, Cushing has afforded himself an abundance of options.
The manager wanted to create a team which carried a plethora of offensive threats, so in came Nadia Nadim, who arrives in January.
The trio of new recruits complement the existing talents of Melissa Lawley, Nikita Parris and Jane Ross, as well as a defence which conceded only four goals on their way to a maiden league title.
It’s therefore no surprise to hear Cushing assert this is the most balanced squad of his City tenure and now, he wants to see them deliver.
“The evolution was to try and build a team that would really cause the opposition problems in the final third, whether that be from central or wide areas,” he explained.
“The key driver for this is to try and add balance to the side where we can be adaptable and create goals from all areas of the pitch.
“That balance should give us the opportunity to become a better team.”
Having been crowned unbeaten champions in 2016, some could be forgiven for questioning how a team tops that.
The Blues certainly stated their intention to do so with a 4-0 win over Yeovil to kick off the new campaign and for Cushing, improvement means not only a continuation of success, but to do so convincingly and in a certain style.
“People would look at the way we’ve built the team over the four years and see we’ve been defensively solid.
“Now, the offensive players we’ve added will really bring us on as a team.
“From day one we wanted to be an exciting team but we understood that would take time.
“We’ve almost built the foundation now and we have to push on and make sure we become more exciting, play better football and score more goals.”
