Georgia Stanway pauses for a moment. "I'm not afraid to say it," she says, almost to herself as much as to anyone in the room. It's her own short affirmation that this, the eve of a World Cup semi-final against the tournament co-hosts Australia, is the right time to open up on how she has dealt with problems in the past and now knows how to remain calm.
"Once or twice a week, I speak with a mentor and that's something that I've done for a few years now. I'm not afraid to say it." Then the pause. "I went through a time at [Manchester] City where it was a little bit up and down in terms of my mentality, my position. Everything was changing, and that person was my go-to in terms of getting clarity on my position [and] what I wanted to achieve in that season."
It was at the start of the 2020-21 season and the postponed Tokyo Olympics was a year away. "My goal was to get to the Olympics," says the Bayern Munich midfielder. "I set out a plan at the start and was like: 'This is what I want to do, this is what I want to achieve? Whether it be goals, assists, whether it be making sure my house is tidy on a weekly basis - just random things that seem like successes.
"I managed to achieve that goal and I just thought I would carry it on from then. This tournament, I've spoken to my person in the evening before [each] game. That just allows me to process the information that we've got from England, know the work is done and just go out there and play my game."
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