Arsenal were 3-0 winners over Everton in the WSL on Sunday afternoon thanks to goals from Katie McCabe, Lotte Wubben-Moy and Frida Maanum. Jonas Eidevall spoke to the press post match. The first three questions are from Arseblog News, the others are from other journalists…
On the omission of Lia Walti, Anna Patten and Jen Beattie from the squad…
The prognosis is that they are all short term, they all have a chance to play on Thursday.
On the Heath, McCabe, Miedema triangle on the left hand side that caused Everton so many issues today…
When you watch the game you see that we were pressing Everton to get them to go over to their left and when you do that, you open up spaces on their right and we saw that many times today and when you have the quality of players you are talking about there, yes, you will cause problems for the opponent. We were able to get many two versus one and three versus two situations on that side, especially in the first half.
On preparing for Everton to play in a back five or in a back four (they have used both this season)…
We prepared for both, yes. Our analyst Johnny Dixon showed us that it’s pretty equal between when they play a back five or a four four two diamond so we prepared for both scenarios. But to be honest, it didn’t make a huge difference to our plan. We still looked at exploiting the same spaces whether they were playing a back four or a back five. Sometimes they change in game too so we needed to be prepared for both scenarios and we were.
On Katie McCabe being able to play left-back and left-wing so effectively…
She’s so versatile and to be honest, she has played a little bit as an attacking midfielder for us this year as well. I think she’s been brilliant when she has been doing that as well. In all those positions (winger, full-back and attacking midfield), she will give you the pace, give you the dribbles with her left foot and obviously her crosses and finishes.
She can play in a lot of different positions. What I like about Katie is that she can bring different things to the team depending on where you have her in the starting position. So, as a coach, sometimes you can fit her into a position where you think it will fit the match picture.
— Tim Stillman (@Stillberto) October 10, 2021
On Katie McCabe’s set piece delivery to the back post- a move that has worked on several occasions now…
With structure around the set-pieces, to be honest, the staff have been working with set-pieces worked with the team already last season as well. From our part, it’s our goalkeeper coach Sebastian Barton and our assistant coach Leanne Hall that makes most of the work around set-pieces. They also work with it especially last spring, when Sebastian was appointed. I am also having an eye onto it and it’s a process together, but those are the two that are working with it in detail for preparation and execution. It’s really nice to see that we score so many goals from it and we are solid defensively so far, so I think that’s important if you want to be a winning team.”
Lotte Wubben-Moy heads home for Arsenal and they double their lead! ⚽⚽
📺 Watch the #BarclaysFAWSL clash live on Sky Sports Premier League pic.twitter.com/cnviYlFqpV
— Sky Sports WSL (@SkySportsWSL) October 10, 2021
On playing good football and getting results…
I would say getting results without good football is boring and playing good football without results is pointless. We are happy to be able to do both.
On bouncing back from the Barcelona defeat…
I hoped we would show a good reaction, yes. We came together and looked at the game, why it happened, what we need to do better and what we needed to learn from. There was no blame, we use it as a lesson learned and we go forward.
On the lessons learned from Barcelona…
It comes down to two things, being able to defend better and having to defend less. It’s hard to defend against Barcelona but the more you have to defend, the harder it is. We have to be better with the ball so that we don’t spend so long defending.
Oiiiiiiiii!!!! 🔥🔥🔥
Stunning from @FMaanum 😮 pic.twitter.com/2KMZWDVJJW
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) October 10, 2021
Tim, thank you (and Arseblog) for your excellent coverage of the Women’s team – I’ve only really dived in this season and now I have twice as much Arsenal. Watching them boss games in the WSL and having such a depth of talented competitive players does take me back a bit to past Arsenal men’s teams, and I love that Eidevall prefers a deeper squad – these players are all clearly valuable assets to the team. I wondered why Walti wasn’t in the squad today, and of course an injury makes sense – amongst all the great players on display… Read more »
Two things I have been impressed with so far: our increasing threat from set pieces and our defensive shape without the ball. Keeping this many clean sheets so far is not a fluke. On to Thursday, now
Katie McCabe is on fire at the moment!
I never really got what the whole new manager bounce was about until we signed Jonas 😍
Not that I believe the gains and improvements are short term only btw…. But damn his starting with the team has made an immediate impact, put the bounce back in everyone’s step.
I like this starting XI a lot and the way we slowly but surely overpowered them in the first half!
Hoping we go with a similar lineup against Hoffenheim, maybe Mead starting ahead of Parris or Heath. Gone was the lack of confidence/sense of insecurity against Barca, great to see everyone switched on and top of their game!
We most likely would have lost to Barca anyhow we played. But the way we did last week, like you observed, lacked confidence. It really was bad. I’m excited to see how the second leg goes. Hopefully, we have 3 wins in the bag before then.
1) Everton are a Classy team
2) Solid Defense through out
3) Between Miedema, Mead, McCabe, Maanum and Heath…these gals crack the sh$t out of the ball on shots…wow, the velocity 😮
4) Frida’s goal…..no words
Eidevall has built us a very strong, resilient that seem to know what they’re doing and how to get things done. This gives me full confidence in a title challenge this season. I’m definitely much less afraid of playing Chelsea these days. I think the next level to unlock will be Barca level of football. For now, I think we can compete well with anyone else in Europe apart from Barca. We still need to see it, though. Hopefully, this team does not repeat the failure of The Invincibles in Europe.
Eidevall is looking like one hell of an appointment. He’s getting the best out of this team and we’re not even missing DvD. I thought she was a big loss but we’re looking really strong.
DvD was quite a loss. I really wish she had stayed. But bringing in Parris, Iwabuchi and especially Heath more than made up for it. Nikita is a very quality and proven player in her own rights. Mana is a prodigious talent and would probably have filled in the shoes left by DvD on her own. Tobin is, well, Tobin – world-class in all ramifications. Her signing alone would have been achievement on its own. When you add Frida – a young, highly-rated CM – and Boye to the mix, it was impossible to miss anyone that left in terms… Read more »
I think Mana Iwabuchi has helped in that regard. She is equally relentless in pressing, can PASS, can shoot, can play in different positions, is a proficient dribbler, and looks like a wonderful person off the pitch.
Only 3-0 when our rivals won 4-0????? What blasphemy!!
Joke aside, professional win without needing to step up too much. Just what we needed ahead of Hoffenheim. Most impressive stat was everton’s 1 shot on target.
Nice to see Maanum finally doing what she has been doing at Linkoping. Hope many more to come. The more we spread our goals around, the better.
I was hoping Kim could come off even earlier to give her a breather. But at least she has no international duty.
To rotate heavily and still make light work of Everton is impressive. Chelsea did the same and struggled against Leicester. It’s great to see that we are better this year in terms of squad depth.
We do have a deeper squad this year than Chelsea. We could field two strong 11’s. I was watching the 2nd half of their game and was surprised to hear the commentator say that they attacked even better in the 1st half than when their key players came on in the 2nd. Experience eventually won them that game.
Yup, rotation and careful management of game time is going to be key. I think earlier subs will help in conserving players, as well as give players rhythm to slot in whenever needed.
If you use two different lineups, then you essentially have 2 different teams. But the constant subs help to build different connections and combinations, which help make rotation seamless.
First game I didn’t have a chance to watch yesterday, but that goal from Frida. I don’t know where it was, but I said Frida is going to score some worldies for us! And yesterday she delivered. A hell of a signing.
And the way she picked the top corner…. if you watch closely, you will see her look up for a split second, pick her mark, then let it rip….real beauty with incredible pace
I figured i’d ask here, so I bought a reserved ticket for the Hoffenheim game, I selected the seat and everything, but didnt commit it to memory because I figured the ticket would have the seat number on, but it doesnt, how do i know where ill be sitting
You can sit where you like with the exception of the East Stand where there are some seats reserved for members.
So usually I buy the category 2 unreserved sit anywhere ticket, this time I got In early so got a category 1 reserved east stand ticket, but my ticket Just says reserved ticket but with no seat number even though I selected a seat on the website
Yes, there seems to be a glitch in the online booking system….surprise, surprise!
It should make for an interesting time on Thursday evening with a few hundred people milling around to find a seat. I wouldn’t want to be the the East Stand gate steward trying to sort that out🤷
Seems they sorted it, been emailed a ticket with the seat number this morning
Almost right Tim! Members reserved seats in East Stand don’t apply on Thursday as CL games are not included in the membership.
What is with the full field camera/camera person at Meadow Park?
Contently in and out of focus…makes watching on your phone (my only option) so frustrating….
Alas, there’s no upper tier so the camera is on the roof but it’s difficult to get a proper panorama of the pitch. Just a ground that wasn’t build with TV cameras in mind and they can’t really afford to significantly modify it yet.
Got it.
Thanks
Great atmosphere at MP yesterday. A few observations …. If you stand behind the goal during the warm-up you see Frida hitting shots like that time after time. A very good defensive performance: Leah was impeccable, Lotte had her best game this season, Noelle isn’t one of our big-star names but she’s quietly very effective. Kim is here, there and everywhere; if you only see highlights you don’t realise just how much she does every minute she’s on the pitch. Now for Hoffenheim – got my ticket!
And I should have added that one of the best moments was all of us singing “We love you Maria, we do”.