Arsenal were 4-0 winners over Coventry United in the FA Cup on Friday evening at Meadow Park, thanks to goals from Stina Blackstenius, Beth Mead, Nikita Parris and Vivianne Miedema. Jonas Eidevall spoke to the press post-match, the first four questions are from Arseblog News.
On Leah Williamson and Mana Iwabuchi not being in the squad…
Mana Iwabuchi was unavailable due to an injury and Leah Williamson was just rested, it was a good opportunity to give her a rest before a hectic period.
Jonas’ assessment of the game…
I was pleased from a structural point of view against the defensive formation we were playing against. We saw how they played against Birmingham in the Conti Cup and we knew it would take a lot of successful passes to disorganise them and to open them up. The way we moved the ball well and the positions we took up were good. We did that better in the second half than the first half so i was quite pleased and it was a good opportunity to see some of those players who haven’t had so many minutes lately. It showed the strength in depth we have too.
Some fancy footwork from @lilkeets and @SBlackstenius is there to head to home!#WomensFACup @ArsenalWFC pic.twitter.com/MYZr00OHmj
— Vitality Women's FA Cup (@VitalityWFACup) March 18, 2022
On what we said to the players at half-time…
Many times in the first half and we facing forward in the wide spaces and if it’s a wide forward coming in, a full-back coming forward or a 10 facing opposite side, the pass Coventry wanted us to play was out to the wide player in that situation. There we got a little bit caught, we started passing wide instead of getting into the central spaces or looking for central combinations or switching play, we didn’t get crosses in or dribble and engage the line of defence. We didn’t do that enough in the first half, we had the positions and the opportunities but our decision making was too much to go into the wide spaces. That was the difference between the first and the second half.
Instant impact from @bmeado9!#WomensFACup @ArsenalWFC pic.twitter.com/0eWKtyYKX9
— Vitality Women's FA Cup (@VitalityWFACup) March 18, 2022
On Jordan Nobbs finishing the game on the left…
Initially, we wanted to play with wingers who would be wider and to have one v ones. But they had their wing backs really low and we saw that we could get our wingers into the half spaces instead and let the full-backs take on the wide position, which enabled a wide forward to come into the half spaces and that suits Jordan very well, so we decided to see that for the last twenty minutes or so.
On the triple substitution just before the hour mark…
That was more from a loading perspective, some players have been playing heavily, some players are coming back from injuries. With the bench we had there was no point in risking anything.
Adding to her earlier assist @lilkeets gets on the scoresheet for @ArsenalWFC!#WomensFACup pic.twitter.com/UWkmf5l3xh
— Vitality Women's FA Cup (@VitalityWFACup) March 18, 2022
On getting a comfortable win ahead of a big week…
It definitely helps. We’ve got used to scoring a lot of goals again in this period, we are averaging nearly four goals per game now which is great. It also adds another game to look forward to this spring, we are in a good position in the league, we are in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and now we are one game away from Wembley. It is a nice position to be in.
On Stina Blackstenius’ start to life at Arsenal…
She works very hard, she adds a lot to the way that we play. The first goal is a good example of the work she will do. She is involved earlier in that sequence and then you can see how incredibly hard she works to get back into a position to attack the cross and it’s the consistency of that work that gives you a lot of goals as a number 9 and she has that consistency of trying to get into good positions and she just needs to continue to do that.
Coming from deep, a bit of Miedfieldema magic!@VivianneMiedema gets @ArsenalWFC's fourth!#WomensFACup pic.twitter.com/LeqQR3DG0N
— Vitality Women's FA Cup (@VitalityWFACup) March 18, 2022
18.Williams; 26.Wienroither, 20.Boye (3.Wubben-Moy ‘81), 5.Beattie, 15.McCabe; 12.Maanum, 10.Little(c) (13.Walti ‘56), 8.Nobbs; 14.Parris (1.Miedema ‘66), 77.Heath (9.Mead ‘56); 25.Blackstenius (19.Foord ‘56).
Fun to watch… when the FA Player is working.
It kept freezing and I had to restart it about 30 times to get through the game.
Thought Frida and Wienroither had a good game.
I had the same issue in the 1st half but then downloaded the app for the 2nd and smooth sailing. Watching via the website was the culprit!
On the game itself i found that Frida’s form is still spotty at best, not the same as the 1st half of the season.
I’ll give the App a try then. Thanks for that…