Arsenal’s Frida Maanum has been voted into the PFA WSL Team of the Year, where she is joined by Brazilian defender Rafaelle, who departed the club for Orlando Pride this summer.
Maanum was voted as the Arsenal Supporters Club Player of the Season and was nominated for PFA Player of the Year after a season which saw her score nine WSL goals- more than any other Arsenal player- and notch four assists.
Brazilian centre-half Rafaelle was also acknowledged by her peers after a stellar season on the left side of the Arsenal defence. The PFA WSL Team of the Year was as follows: Earps (Manchester United), Batlle (Manchester United), Le Tissier (Manchester United), Greenwood (Manchester City), Rafaelle (Arsenal); Hasegawa (Manchester City), Maanum (Arsenal), Reiten (Chelsea); Kerr (Chelsea), Shaw (Manchester City), Daly (Aston Villa). Aston Villa’s Rachel Daly, who finished top scorer in the division, won the overall POTY prize.
Arsenal face Linkoping next week in the UWCL qualifiers and all of their players have returned from World Cup duty to full training, with new signing Laia Codina in tow this week too. Brazilian winger Gio is still likely to depart the club on loan before the end of the transfer window, options in the WSL and abroad have been explored this summer according to our information with a decision likely to be made soon.
Thanks Tim, Gio natural position is winger or in the center? I know she played right wing for us. I reckon Laia can play also #6, not sure. finally, congrats to Frida and Rafa.
She largely plays wide but can play through the middle.
Can’t really argue with that list. There are players who I would prefer, but all of that “team” are worthy of inclusion. Except Le Tissier, not sure about her!
Very well deserved!
Oh any any update on Beth and Viv?
The club posted about Beth the other day, she is back in training… just.
I also read a couple weeks ago that Viv has started running on it a wee bit. She’s apparently a month behind Beth, which you’d expect given she did her ACL a few weeks after Beth.
side note, it seems Teyah Goldie has just done her other ACL now.
I get where the management are coming from with Gio but we’re not blessed with that many fit / rested players at the moment so I would have thought if she stays with us she’ll get game time.
I’m not sure she’s that much use to us at this stage of her development. Needs that full year on loan, IMO. For the CL qualification we need to be relying on experienced players. The only players we will definitely be missing are Williamson, Wienroither and Miedema (injury). We will have players who haven’t had a proper break but at least we will have a lot of them, so JE can rotate. That’s my take, anyway.
Yeah agree, I don’t think last season was good for her with the injury at Everton and I don’t think we should have called her back. Even with the injury crisis she got very little game time and wasn’t even included in the UWCL squad. I think it was a bad decision to recall her, we should have left her on loan to develop.
We’re banking on Beth’s return. If Beth stays fit Gio would get very few minutes with us, but even if Beth takes some time to get up to speed we have enough cover there that Gio would likely still only get late sub appearances. I agree with Tim, she needs a season of regular minutes.
I wish Jonas could Integrate Gio. She has the hallmarks of a great striker given game time (and a sleek name to go with it)
She’s what, 20? No rush. Her time will come. Players develop at different rates, it’s important to tailor their programme for them.
Are there any talks at all going on about Elin Rubensson, the Swedish midfielder?
She would be a very good signing for our midfield.
The best player overall in Sweden during the world cup along with Amanda.