Arsenal Women finished pre-season in style with a 6-0 home win over Tott*nham at Meadow Park. Manager Joe Montemurro spoke to Arseblog News post-match.
On Jen Beattie’s threat at set-pieces…
[Joking] I think you answered your own question there! I think you might have asked a rhetorical question! Jen has all the tools to be dangerous from set pieces, the first two goals were worked setpieces. We looked at areas where we could hurt them and that was one of them. But with players like Louise Quinn, Jen Beattie and some of the midfielders we’ve got, we should be pretty dominant at setpieces this season.
On how he sees the defensive midfield role with Dominique Bloodworth gone and Lia Wälti injured…
We don’t usually play with a six or two sixes that sit there and wait anyway, we always rotate and our tens can drop in our eights can drop in, so it’s quite fluid. With DvD, Kim and Jill Roord in there at the start it worked very well today. Once Jordan gets her fitness up too we’ll be able to really rotate in those areas. But Lia Wälti is not far away either so I am going to have some headaches in the next few weeks.
On whether he will add any more players before the transfer deadline on 5th September…
We’re happy, we did a lot of the work early on in the window on purpose to integrate the players as quickly as possible. We know what we need and at the moment we’re happy with the breadth of the squad, we know we have lost Dan Carter which is a real miss but we have some really good young players and we’ll give them an opportunity.
? Back in Nov 2018, @JordanNobbs8 ruptured her ACL and spent the remainder of our title-winning season on the sidelines…
281 days later, she’s back on the scoresheet with her first shot at goal ?
We’re so proud of you, Jordan ♥️ pic.twitter.com/RwInNM17eF
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) August 25, 2019
On playing two WSL sides to finish pre-season…
We played West Ham last week and we did it this way on purpose. We probably played Bayern and Wolfsburg too early, if we played them now we think it would be a different game. We’ve had five or six weeks of pre-season now, we played Bayern with a few days of training, we played Wolfsburg with six days of training.
We played Barcelona with the major block of players who were at the World Cup not long back. We knew we were a bit behind in those games, but now we’re really happy with the way things are going and to be honest, we don’t want to peak now. We want a little bit left in the tank and today was a good showcase for where we are and what we still need to do.
On playing Fiorentina in the Champions League…
They’re the favourites, they’ve been in the competition recently and we haven’t for five or six years now, they know what it’s all about and we don’t yet. But we’ll be prepared, part of playing Wolfsburg [in Austria] was just to travel with the group and get an idea of what is involved, that was all part of the planning. The plan is not to contain in Florence and try to win here, the plan is to try and win in Florence and come back here and try to win again.
Arsenal 6-0 winners. @JillRoordNL with the Hat-trick. @ArsenalWFC x @oranjevrouwen ? pic.twitter.com/Bl2HGabe60
— Samantha Miller (@samantham7PD) August 25, 2019
On studying for his coaching badges in Florence when he was younger…
It was a great honour to study there and be invited, it was a very exclusive course the pro-license in Italy and probably in the top three or four places to study in Europe. Their coaching methodology and their vision of football is unbelievable and it taught me a lot. The Italians are clued up and they know it’s about 95 or 96 minutes and not just playing well for small spells.
On his first experience of a North London derby…
It’s great to see another big club in the WSL and another big Premier League club investing in women’s football, but they’re in the big-time now so they need to play with the big teams so let’s see how it all develops, but we’re looking forward to having more North London derbies this season.
What do we think of Tottenham? …….
Just need the men to repeat this next week.
Absolutely. Women’s team setting the bar for the men.. again.
Always nice to thrash the spuds.. whether it’s the men or the women.. well done ?
Brave of the Spuds to take on the Champions on our own patch. From an Arse perspective absolutely all positives. Brilliant day, healthy crowd, Jordan back and raring to go, every player had a decent game, Jill looks a real powerhouse of a footballer with a finish to match and last but not least Spanking the Spuds feels good no matter the gender.
Really happy got the goals to stake her claim for the first 11 and for her confidence. COYG
Jill
She won’t get the plaudits but I thought leonie maier was excellent today. She linked up really well with Lisa Evans on the right (first half particularly). Looking forward to watching them this season.
It was the perfect day to be a Gooner….fan and player. I thought every single one (subs as well) marked-up 8 plus but as you pointed out with Leoni on the right (and Kat Veje on the left) linking well with Lisa, Katie, Beth etc down the flanks we looked solid and threatening the whole game. Poor Spuds I “almost” felt sorry for them?
I didn’t! In 90 minutes I can remember Manuela catching the ball once and tipping one over the bar and Fran Stenson pushing one shot round the post. The girl Gunners were absolutely dominant right across the park from kick off until the end. 6-0 wasn’t flattering the Arsenal team and it could easily have been more if it had been a bit cooler. Had to laugh at the group behind me though who were giving Gemma Davidson a hard time for going flat on her face every time Vikki went anywhere near her! They obviously do not remember when… Read more »
Oh yeah Leonie Maier looks the real deal making those runs in that heat!
Well done ladies!
Andlets hope thelads can only replicate even half of what you have done next weekend!
Despite the poor result this weekend, you can only laugh at good fortune with Spurts losing to the team we beat last weekend and United getting shattered by Crystal Palace.
Still in top 4! 😀
Over to you Unai, get the tactics right por favor.
Well done ladies, always nice to get one over the Spuds !