Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall admits that his team’s failure to keep a clean sheet in their last seven games is a cause of concern, though he believes there is an element of poor fortune at play too.
In his pre-Leicester press conference, Eidevall admitted it is a source of concern to have conceded in their last seven. “The last seven games in every competition we haven’t been able to keep a clean sheet and that is disappointing. If we look back at the last two seasons we have been fairly good at keeping clean sheets.
“We are constantly looking at ways to improve that. The reality too is that the number of chances we concede in games is the lowest in the league and we have the lowest expected goals conceded in the league but we don’t have the lowest number of conceded goals, which is a problem.” Eidevall said the underlying data suggests Arsenal have been on the wrong end of some variance.
“Sometimes, that is how football is. Things don’t get distributed evenly there are also things here that we allow big chances and we need to correct those things. When it comes to our attacking play, we have come from a game against Liverpool where we didn’t create enough.
“Now we come to games from Man United onwards where we create more and more in the games. Where we have probably lacked a bit of efficiency. We got that back against Manchester City and from a creation perspective against Bristol yesterday. So that is something we are continually improving upon.”
We’ve seen this celebration somewhere before, @lottewubbenmoy! 😍#ContiCup https://t.co/rwkbuXu2iR pic.twitter.com/mrvRtXXHrs
— Lionesses (@Lionesses) November 9, 2023
However, Eidevall has been impressed by the development of centre-half Lotte Wubben-Moy, who has put in some excellent displays this season against the likes of Rachel Daly and Bunny Shaw.
Extra responsibility has befallen Lotte with Leah Williamson injured and Rafaelle leaving the club during the summer, Eidevall says that is helping the player’s development.
“That is really important for us that we have performances on a high level like she has shown. She is performing really well. She has come to an age and with an experience where she is definitely ready to take her next step in her career.
“The start of this season has showed us she has the potential to do that. Like I said to you after the game yesterday, with Lotte it is about bringing her leadership qualities but also her footballing qualities and working with that in a holistic way.
“As a person, she thrives on responsibility she thrives on leading, she is an exceptional person and leader and the more we see her on the football pitch the more her game will improve.”
This is very important. Giving away a goal a game is not sustainable, when you consider how many games are won by the odd goal.
Lovely praise for Lotte. Funny thing is, when I decided some seasons ago that LWM was my favourite player, I thought she was a bit of a hipster choice. Turns out literally everybody loves her.
I’m so disappointed that Alessia Russo has not been more productive in front of goal because she is capable of great things
I hope Sarina Wiegman is seeing this…
I like his comments about her thriving on responsibility. She has obviously been the junior CB in most of her pairings, but now there are 2 new CBs she’s going to be the most experienced one in how we play. I wonder if her improved performances are partly due to this, and therefore having to show more leadership by dictating play & positioning with the new CBs? Her one-on-one defending this season against some true heavy hitters (Daly, Shaw) has been very good. I kind of seeing her playing more as Rafaelle player now – strong one-on-one, can dribble out… Read more »
Wouldn’t be so bad if we conceded good goals but we don’t we concede goals that should have been defended. That needs to be addressed. At least now we have realised there is an alternative to consistently playing out from the back it should reduce the pressure on the backline somewhat!