Arsenal fought back from a goal down to draw 1-1 with Juventus in Turin on match day three in their Champions League group thanks to a Vivianne Miedema equaliser. Jonas Eidevall spoke to the press post-match. The first two questions are from Arseblog News.
On whether he has any regrets over Arsenal’s missed chances…
I think we could have won with the chances we created but sometimes football is like that. I am happy with the performance. We came from a really tough game with Manchester United and we have a tough situation in the squad with injuries and I am extremely proud of the players and the team that we can come here and get back to our way of playing, against a very tough team. Like you said, we created enough chances to win the game and that shows that our performance was good and that is something we can build on for the Everton game.
On the decision to play Jordan Nobbs on the right and Frida Maanum as a number 8…
We were thinking about how the game is going to be, Juventus are very good at overloading in the wide areas, they have really good wingers in Bonansea and Beerensteyn. You need to have central midfielders that are able to provide cover for the full-backs constantly. Frida is one of our players who can run the most and covers the most distance, so she gives us that option.
I was, of course, i could see we might lose something offensively because she has been playing so well in the number 10 position. But i don’t think we did, we had some really good moments with her taking space with the ball and you can see she is playing with a lot of self-confidence and turning, facing forward with the ball. Her performance pleased me a lot tonight.
Vivianne Miedema LEVELS it for Arsenal 🔴⚪️#UWCL LIVE NOW ⬇️
🇬🇧 🎙 👉 https://t.co/e6ycWm3kki
🇮🇹 🎙 👉 https://t.co/8LPCW6nR3x pic.twitter.com/BlOootKoG2— DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) November 24, 2022
On responding to going behind…
I think it should give our supporters pride too. It is one of our fundamentals, we have three fundamentals and one of them is 100% no matter the result or the situation. We have an obligation to always play 100% and compete in every second of the game. We are doing that and I am proud of that.
On what he learned about Juventus ahead of the reverse fixture in a fortnight…
It’s probably too early to say and of course it will be a different game because we are going to get some players back into the squad. I have the utmost respect for Juventus, they showed they are a very good European team. There is a reason that not many teams come here and win, I am happy with our performance. I told the players afterwards i don’t think we could have expected to create many more scoring opportunities, that would be naive. We did well in that regard and on another night we would have had enough quality to put the game away.
On the benefit of Vivianne Miedema’s recent rest…
Very pleased with her goal. There is always the balance between freshness and having continuity in the training and playing. We need to strike that balance. You can see that Viv was fighting really hard today with the team on the pitch. In tough moments in the game, we kept thinking positively, we kept thinking of the next action, we kept thinking team first and that was really pleasing to see.
I really think we need to consider in women’s football when we see the calendar, how we put the players health first. They are constantly going between really competitive games at club level, onto international level. It has taken a lot of my time thinking about it because my gut says that we are not creating something that is good for the players.
My idea was to have protected periods for the players with no club football and no international football for a period. At the moment there are players who get barely any vacation and it’s consecutive, year after year after year. It’s great if we’re going to have more competitive games but let’s have a calendar that allows players to recover so we can keep the quality too.
1.Zinsberger; 26.Wienroither (16.Maritz ‘79), 3.Wubben-Moy, 7.Catley, 15.McCabe; 13.Walti, 12.Maanum, 11.Miedema, 8.Nobbs(c) (5.Beattie ‘64), 19.Foord; 25.Blackstenius.
One interesting observation: we’d had a succession of corners from the right, all inswingers taken by Steph. It was obviously a tactical decision to put the ball on top of PPM. However, Juventus defended well. Steph was just about to take another corner from the right, but Frida ran up to her and they agreed to change. The trajectory of the right-footed outswinger left PPM in no man’s land and Viv was perfectly placed to score. I’d be interested to know who took the decision to switch to Frida; my guess is that it was on her own initiative.
PPM has a tendency to step out to outswingers, which obviously leaves the goal exposed if she doesn’t get to the ball.
Maybe Joe practice was counting with Steph taken all corners, good pickup mate.
That’s a really interesting observation because even before that corner that lead to a goal, Maanum ran to Catley to have a brief chat.
Player welfare but barely playing Iwabuchi, come off it. Jonas you are having a laugh.
We were by far the better team, if Stina had taked all of her 3 clear chances and Caitlin scored hers we would have produced another thrashing in CL ! Having said that, after Saturday’s result that was a good performance 👍
Yep! Lots of teams play Juve and come away with less than we have. Apart from a decent play by the Dutch girl where she outmuscled Lotte and Laura and cooly slotted past Manu they did not create much considering they were the home team!
Hopefully everyone returns home fit and well ready to beat Everton.
Does anyone have any thoughts on the refereeing? I don’t really have any comments which, I think, means she did a good job.
Agreed! She let a couple of shoulder to shoulder challenges go but anything with a hint of nastiness like stamping on Katie’s back while she was on the floor was dealt with swiftly and efficiently.
If only all referees were up to that standard!
👏Iuliana Demetrescu
Thought it was Audrey Hepburn?
Good referee, there were quite a few nasty fouls and she mostly got it right on the yellows imo.
It was also good to see Viv celebrate her equaliser in her own understated way.
Perhaps the holiday was what was required since she looked more like she wanted to play in this match and put in a decent shift for the team.
With all the injuries, and the need not to overplay certain players, I can sympathise with the team selection. I should also say that I missed the first half but saw all the second half, which, from the reports and other comments, wasn’t as good for Arsenal as the first half. But I do think that reverting to a more orthodox midfield position is not good for Frida Maanum. If she’s going to play she needs to be in the advanced midfield role where she has looked like a monster in recent matches. How you sort that out with all… Read more »
I think part of the problem is that Frida is just really good at a lot of things so I’m tempted to see how good she can be at being an 8 .She used her physicality well too keep the ball n tight situations and bullied people off as well. And it may be a good thing long term because Kim cant play forever and we may need someone who can occupy that role somewhat similarly. I think we won’t have a problem scoring goals or creating chances if frida isnt playing more advanced but we will miss out in… Read more »
maybe, she already played for Lia when Wolfsburg kick us out of the Champions League, she doesn’t feel comfortable on the sides, as an emergency solution maybe is ok, but she has a lot of future in middle forward no reason to waste it, we need to get naturals 6 and 8.
I think ideally yes but apparently there’s a shortage of elite players in those positions so maybe we take a bit of opportunity cost.
I thought Frida did really well at 8 & the 442 allows Mediema to do a bit of 9, bit of 10 a la Bergkamp. I liked it personally
It’s probably more difficult than I think for a player to change positions, but Laura Wienroither appears to have the attributes to be a DM. I was trying to think of someone who moved to that position from RB – and then the moniker of one of the regular contributors here provided the answer – Peter Storey!
You have a good memory to remember Peter as a full back!
Ah, those were the days way before squad numbers and only one named substitute allowed! 🙂
Were you at the 1971 FA Cup semifinal at Hillsborough where he scored both goals including a 90th minute penalty?
Unfortunately not! I had a Highbury season ticket back then but as a young fellow m’lad I was dependent upon my father to get me to games and since he ran a mini cab business we didn’t get to many fixtures away from home particularly longer trips like Hillsborough. We lived near the Dartford Tunnel then so it was far enough to get to Highbury really!
We were at White Hart Lane that season for half of the double though!
Frida has certainly grabbed the opportunity to become the forward midfield force in the team. Physique, stamina, intelligence. A bright future with AWFC.