Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall says being task oriented and time together are two of the biggest reasons his team have been able to earn so many points from losing positions so far this season.
The Gunners drew 2-2 with Manchester United with a stoppage time equaliser, beat Aston Villa 2-1 at home despite trailing in the 90th minute, were able to beat Bristol City 2-1 after being pegged back to 1-1 and last weekend routed Leicester City 6-2 after being 2-0 down at half-time.
Eidevall said that, while fans and reporters often think of overturning deficits in emotional terms, that calmness and clear thinking has been the key to their ability to turn games.
“I think experience together. Being task-orientated is really important,” he explained. “I think that is so overlooked in football to not be task-orientated because a lot of times, people tend to only speak about the emotional side and it almost becomes down to effort, like “you have to try harder. You have to run more” and so on when you try to overcome something.
“But if football as a sport, would be that you would take the most direct way to the goal all the time, and that would be the best solution, everyone would start playing the game like that from minute one. So football is about being calm and composed and making the right decisions at the right moments.
“I really think that that mentality helps them to be task-orientated. And to have been in situations before and to know like, how do we communicate? Have we worked on an alternative way of solving this if plan A is not working and so on? That grows over time.
“So I think we’re at a much better point and we were discussing that in the team to say like, if we make a comparison between how we work as a team and the dressing room when we were losing 2-0 against Birmingham, my first season in the WSL. And we compare that to the same situation against Leicester, I think that really shows the development of the team and how much better we are at handling those situations.
“Now the problem is, we don’t want to be in those situations too often. We have been there enough lately, so let’s really try and start the Brighton game in a way where we can put ourselves in a better position.” Eidevall also suggested that players are the key in inculcating this kind of culture in a team.
“Every group is unique and individual. For me, what’s really fascinating working with people is you bring a group together and they create an environment. That’s going to be shaped by the club culture of course, and by me and the other staff, but it’s also going to be shaped by them and their interactions with them. That sets the total team culture. I think that’s fascinating because every group is unique in how they deal with situations.”
“Eidevall said that, while fans and reporters often think of overturning deficits in emotional terms, that calmness and clear thinking has been the key to their ability to turn games.” He’s not wrong. Plus getting angry with yourself or your teammates, becoming fearful or panicking etc all take up energy as well as not helping. What he says about effort reminds me of something Michael Johnson (former world record holder and current BBC athletics pundit) used to say about sprinting (I’m paraphrasing here): “If you are about 60m into the race and you’re under pressure, don’t try and work harder… Read more »
Having seen, admittedly just highlights of Arsenal Women this season, they’d be top of the league with 100% record if they just took their scoring chances. We’ve been missing far too many.
I like this way of thinking, its very humanised and he’s right, we as fans get too emotional when things aren’t going well and what we don’t see is the plan within and call for him to be sacked (lm not one of those) l still believe in him, Arsenal as a club do not just sack a managers, they give them time and support to complete the job. Its one of the things l hate about football and one of the reasons l stopped following the mens game. The way Arsene Wenger was treated by some of the fans… Read more »