Arsenal forward Beth Mead is in contention for her first minutes since rupturing her ACL last November as Arsenal take on Aston Villa Women at Emirates Stadium on Sunday. The England and Arsenal forward needs to come through training on Saturday in order to make the match day squad.
It has been a long road to recovery for Mead, who came through a training game with the youth team on Wednesday, and in his pre Aston Villa press conference, Jonas Eidevall talked about his delight at being able to slowly re-introduce Mead into the squad.
“Beth has that lovely attitude she plays the game with,” Eidevall explained. “She has both a left and right foot with really good attacking qualities. We all know that Beth Mead is a quality football player so we are really looking forward to having her back on the pitch.”
Mead has been in good company in the treatment room, sadly for Arsenal, with Vivianne Miedema, Leah Williamson, Laura Wienroither and Teyah Goldie all in different stages of their recuperation from the same injury. Eidevall insists that he has not necessarily dealt with each situation in the same way.
“Unfortunately, we have a group of players who went through the same thing. I think though you need to deal with your things yourself because even if it looks, on paper, like you have the same injury, it is never exactly the same. There are always differences.
“Like anything going on in your life, there can be similarities and yes, others can help but everything is going to be unique to you as an individual and things need to be tailored towards you as an individual as well.
“I try to be very mindful of that as well, not treating people with similar situations like a package, you still need to look at it individually. But it is very nice that both of them (Miedema and Mead) are close to returning to play. Beth is obviously closer and we hope she can be in the squad for Sunday.”
Clearly, returning after a big injury has a mental, as well as physical side, Eidevall says the psychological aspect of preparation and recovery is fully baked into Arsenal’s day-to-day processes.
“Elite sport has changed a lot, mental training was something that teams who were struggling used to do. They would be struggling and they’d say ‘oh, we need a mental coach, because they are under pressure.’
“Mental training is an every day approach in our programme, it is a holistic approach to the player and the team. We give our players full mental support always. It is not just an off button. Of course there is pressure representing a club like Arsenal and that is why we need to develop these strengths and qualities over time.
“It is like learning any new skill, if it was easy to just do a Friday session for it, then everyone would do it. Mental training works the same as technical training, we need to spend a lot of time on it, to prepare a lot for it and then we will get a lot of benefits.”
In highlighting the benefits of sound psychological processes, Eidevall drew on Arsenal’s late equaliser against Manchester United on Friday evening.
“There’s NO WAY Mary Earps was saving THAT!” 😮
STUNNING strike from Cloé Lacasse to equalise for Arsenal in injury time! WOW! 😰⚡ pic.twitter.com/ylmeRcuDRx
— Sky Sports WSL (@SkySportsWSL) October 6, 2023
“Inches are important in professional sport and fighting for inches is the foundation for getting success. Every goal we score is important. I liked the whole setup for that goal, from how we defended that long ball in behind and the mentality of the team to say ‘it is three minutes into overtime.
“We were in a situation a couple of times where we could have been a team saying ‘we are going to play the ball long and hope for the best. But we have patience under pressure, we have quality on the ball and we have a situation where we are comfortable, then it is a brilliant individual contribution from Cloe.
“But the whole team is in the situation before that where they are really mentally strong. Because it is so easy to just throw the ball away and say ‘we tried to play the ball forward.’ But it is about finding the right moment and football is about finding the right moment- even if it is just a minute left to play. You have to have that mental strength to wait for the right moment. I really liked that about the goal.”
Great to have them back.
They need Beth Mead back – and definitely need Williamson and Miedema back. They really don’t look that great to be honest without them.
Viv could come back and it would be great, but would the manager select her? That seems to be the sticking point.
Yes!!! Get (back) in!