Eva Olid hails 'massive' improvement in Hearts Women players after move to 'full-time' training

Eva Olid hailed the “massive” improvement in her Hearts Women players as the head coach gets ready to welcome Hibs to Tynecastle Park on Wednesday evening.

Hearts Women's manager Eva Olid will see her side welcome Hibs to Easter Road on Wednesday evening. Picture: SNS

The club announced last week they’ve moved to a more professional training set-up with the majority of the squad now coming in five days a week as they seek to improve both the fortunes of the team and help the players grow.

The change was implemented a few weeks ago and it’s already reflected with an improvement in results and performances. Hearts go into the derby with victories in each of their last two games.

"With this scale of training we see a massive difference in the girls,” said Olid, the head coach. “If we compare to earlier in the season with training three days a week to now five days a week with gym sessions, the change is incredible in terms of how they're improving physically, technically and tactically. You can see it in the league games as well. It really is incredible how they are improving.

"The girls are so happy. We do have a few players who are working full-time and can't make two of the sessions. It's on a volunteer basis but everyone who can come, does come. It's a good feeling knowing everyone wants to train and is motivated to put the work in.”

Olid also hopes the move to five days a week will help attract more experienced players in the transfer market. Hearts currently have one of the youngster squads in the league with all but a handful of players in their teens.

"Training just three days isn't good enough for the experienced players,” Olid said. “Five days a week is OK. I would like to train more, but you can see the difference.

“We need experienced players. We have a lot of players who are very young. They can learn so much from playing with experienced players. They can also learn from each other and it's important to have a good mix.”

A bumper crowd is expected in Gorgie for the second SWPL1 encounter between the Edinburgh derby rivals this season. Hibs were victorious when the two sides met in front of a 5,512 crowd at Easter Road in September.

Hearts have improved since then and they go into the match with confidence they can cause an upset, but Olid insists the most important thing is the people coming to see the game are entertained and want to return to women’s football in future.

"We want to put on a competitive game. This is the most important game, that we put on a spectacle for the support,” said the Spaniard. “We will be trying to get the three points. Obviously the table says Hibs are in a good position. They have experienced and very good players, but I think we've worked very well as a team this last month and we can be stronger if we play like a team.

“It's not so much about people coming to support us as much as it is people coming to support women's football. This is where we want to arrive: that as many people as possible support women's football. This is the way women's football can grow.”

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