‘Beard made you feel like best player in the world’

Ex-Liverpool player Natasha Dowie reflected on the influence her former manager had on her career and said Matt Beard “made you feel like the best football player in the world.”

Few players were as close to Dowie as they were to Beard, who passed away on Saturday at age 47.

Before eventually reuniting with the Reds again in a loan spell before calling it quits her career in September 2023, the former England striker joined the Beard on four separate occasions, moving from Charlton Athletic to Liverpool and the Boston Breakers.

He understood that I would run through a brick wall for him and that I would do the same. Because he was the kind of manager that made you feel that way, I would do anything for him.

Dowie was a member of Beard’s Liverpool team that won back-to-back Women’s Super League titles in 2013 and 2014, putting an end to Arsenal’s nine-year dominance of women’s soccer.

Anyone who had played under Beard would have said he was one of the best managers they had ever worked with and that those two years “were the best of my life.”

Dowie will remember him as a pioneer who “always did it for the love of the game.”

The 37-year-old continued, “It wasn’t long ago, three years ago, when I was playing at Liverpool that Beardy was watering the pitches at Tranmere.”

That’s what I admired most about him. He never attempted to fit in with the situation and try to be a different person. He never attempted to do so. He was referred to as old-fashioned. He was simply Beardy, not him.

Before each Sunday’s WSL and WSL2 games, there was a minute’s silence before kickoff.

Before Liverpool’s men’s side played Southampton on Tuesday in the third round of the Carabao Cup at Anfield and Burnley, where Beard had most recently been manager, other tributes were held.

Former Germany international Julia Simic, who now coaches the West Ham youth team and trains with Eintracht Frankfurt, wants to apply what she learned from Beard to her own methods.

According to Simic, “Matthew’s strongest arm was the player management,” the consideration he gave to everyone. There are many ways to become a good manager, including developing the best environment, managing effectively, and being tactically very strong.

Simic, 36, fondly recalls her time working for Beard, particularly when they reached the Women’s FA Cup final together in 2019.

She said, “I remember him saying he wanted us to reach the FA Cup final when we were sitting in front of our brand-new team.”

We ultimately made it to Wembley and faced Manchester City as the only underdogs. We lost the final, but after speaking with him, I asked, “Matt, why didn’t we win?” and he responded, “I made a mistake because I said we wanted to win the final, but I didn’t say we wanted to win the final.”

“The journey was finished or the goal was reached with us being in the final.” He was always trying to please himself by demanding everything from us and himself.