Arsenal defeated Tottenham 4-3 on penalties in the Conti Cup group stage to secure an extra point and top the group with a game to play. Arsenal trailed three times but equalisers from Stina Blackstenius, Frida Maanum and an own goal forced a 3-3 draw and a shootout. Jonas Eidevall spoke to the press post-match. The first three questions are from Arseblog News.
On whether making 10 changes from Sunday made for a chaotic game…
It’s a big factor, when you change 10 players from Sunday to Wednesday that is always going to take some time for relationship building on the pitch and you have to have respect for that. But when I see the game in total, all three goals we concede are poor defensively but other than that I don’t think they have a lot in the game at all. We get punished every time but we found a way back in, we deserved to score three goals and maybe to score one more as well. In total, when we see goal scoring opportunities and the dominance in the game, 3-3 is not really a reflection of the game. But football is like that and we had to make the most of it. The penalty shootout was a good exercise for us, I am a big believer that if you want to win big competitions as a team you need to handle those situations. It was great to see that the routines we work on go into good execution. Now we are in a great position to advance, we have everything in our own hands and we need to beat Reading.
On playing Vivianne Miedema on the left wing…
I was curious to see it because we have Lina injured, it’s a position where she can offer something completely different to other players. It gives us good tactical flexibility if that is a position she can play and how she plays there is very similar to how she plays the 10 position. I saw some great things given we had very little time to work on it.
On whether the shape contributed to the defensive lapses for the Spurs goals…
The opponent is going to play through your defensive organisation a few times in a game, you have to live with that. It is what you do as team after that. The first goal, how do we defend the cross? It’s not good enough. On the second goal, it’s ’how do we defend as a unit when they switch play and we are completely open?’ And we have no connection in midfield and they can play a central pass straight through our organisation, which leads to the goal. I don’t see that as a direct link on the goals.
On his overall impressions of the performance…
The performance is stronger than the result. At times we played some really good attacking football, especially when we got our midfielders on the ball and played very well through the lines. A player like Kyra Cooney-Cross sets that very well. We had 10 changes and that puts a lot of responsibility on players to build relationships on the pitch. We have central defenders building relationships, our two sixes doing that and you can see they are interacting and finding solutions in a very good way, so that was pleasing. I always think when you concede easy goals, you have a choice as a team to hang your head and I was very pleased to see as a team we keep on growing and we keep on playing and we grow into the game.
On whether this game will have any bearing on Saturday’s North London derby in the WSL…
This is not the way I think of it. This game is two teams that are unbeaten in the group stage, it was extremely important to be the team that took the most points today to be in a position to advance. Now we put the Conti Cup to one side, on Saturday it’s the league and that is something completely different.
On Kyra Cooney-Cross’ performance…
Very pleased to see her performance today, you can see she has a lot of really different qualities that are useful in her position. To highlight two of them, the ability she has to make passes through the lines but to also dribble through the lines. It is like in American Football when you have a quarter-back who can run and who can throw and that becomes very difficult for defences to stop such a player because if you drop off they run and if you stand still, they pass the ball through you and it’s very beneficial in her position to be able to do that.
14.D’Angelo; 16.Maritz, 5.Beattie, 27.Codina, 15.McCabe(c) (7.Catley ‘60); 22.Kuhl (23.Russo ‘82), 32.Cooney-Cross; 24.Lacasse (9.Mead ‘71), 12.Maanum (21.Pelova ‘71), 11.Miedema (19.Foord ‘60), 25.Blackstenius.
Unused: 1.Zinsberger, 3.Wubben-Moy, 13.Walti, 28.Ilestedt.
When your best two central defenders are on the bench, it’s not Kuhl to keep giving the ball away in your own half. Some of our best moments were when Cooney-Cross appeared to smuggle herself and the ball through a pack of defenders, though it inevitably ended in a foul rather than chance creation. With experience, she’ll learn to release the ball a bit quicker, but she’s got some serious skill there!
Totally agree with you, especially on the bit about releasing the ball quicker. You can still see the youthful exuberance in her game in wanting to dribble a bit too much and not releasing when necessary.
But what a player we have. A great buy. Forced the issue today and is going to be absolutely tremendous.
Good game to watch. Lots of goals and some brilliant team play from us. A few thoughts: 1. Our GK situation is DIRE. We have two very questionable GKs. Every shot was a goal today from Spurs and we face similar issues with Manu. GKs that can’t bail you out with otherworldly saves. It is truly worrying. Need some serious upgrading in that dept. Won’t be the saddest if both Sabs and Manu were to depart. Sabs saved a penalty but her dives for the rest were an eyesore 😭. 2. Defence is also a big worry. Beattie really shouldn’t… Read more »
Very pertinent & interesting comments, Nowhere Man, but I can’t say I really agree with any of them, with the exception of your Point 5.
I appreciate you are an enthusiastic supporter of Arsenal Women, but respectfully suggest your future comments show more diplomacy and encouragement.
I find Comments like yours weird. Because my comment was a mixture of encouragement and observation. We will not always support the club the same way.
Asking me to show more diplomacy and encouragement sounds so infantilising and patronising. These are professional, elite athletes. Stop treating them like school kids having a kick about on the field. It’s fine if you don’t agree with my comments. That’s the beauty of the sport. Just don’t patronise me with comments about diplomacy and encouragement.
Whereabouts do you stand in The North Bank?
WOW
You talking about the ladies or men’s goalkeeping situation?
Lmaooo. At this point, both the men and the women tbh.
🙄 Well what do you think?
I agree with you regarding our goalkeepers; I just hope we get Mary Earps
Comment 1 is just hyperbole.
Comment 2 I completely disagree with.
Comment 3 ridiculous
Comment 4 practically defamatory, you should be ashamed of yourself.
Comment 5 I hung in through the above tripe to read it, and yes it is wonderful to see her back. Your batting ,200 buddy.
Very few fans in this fanbase who are willing to tell the truth the way it is. A lot of you love to coddle these players and I get it, woso encourages more personal attachment so it is hard to critique them. However, I watch them same way I do the men’s. If you think our GK situation is anything but dire for an elite club then continue with both of them and see where it leads. Disagreeing with our defence being short on quality when you’ve watched the goals we’ve conceded this season tells me you’re either blind of… Read more »
As long as you get off publicly trashing individual players… I guess that’s all that matters.
I witness bad performances, it happens, but to come on here and bash individuals just because you feel entitled to a perfect team just puts a cloud over this wonderful club and wonderful site. Your negativity sucks.
Ok, maybe I’m a bit defensive on the team I love, and you do have some good points, but I just choose to stay positive and I don’t what to see this forum (Arsenal Women) go toxic like the men’s side has at times. Yes, the ladies are professionals, but they are getting paid a fraction of the least players on the men’s team. They should not be individually bashed for the sake of the positive place we have on this forum. Kazoo and others come on here only after we lose and trash Jonas and the team. It turns… Read more »
I beg to differ, in the early part of the season everyone was very hard on the team especially Jonas. The difference between the mens and women’s game is we treat rhe girls more respectfully and there’s nothing wrong with that. Let the management team do the corrections!
Cooney-Cross bro 👌👌👌👌
Playing Miedema at the left wing reminds me of Arteta playing Auba there, it never really worked out for neither the player nor the coach. For someone like Miedema, she needs space to roam around. Let her identify space to hurt teams and not use her to stretch the width. Like we saw today, she vacated that space a lot. On the other hand, I think Lacasse is struggling a bit and may be losing some confidence. She’s always isolated and near the touchline on the right wing. I feel like she would be more comfortable on the left wing… Read more »
I’d be very surprised if we see it again. I don’t think he was really that curious about it but he wanted to play those attackers and one of them had to go LW.
I think when you play 2 ring rusty central defenders and a right back short on minutes, then throw in 2 young forward thinking central midfielders your going to be a bit exposed. Good reaction to going behind 3 times, also the players showed a better cohesion with each than they did against Southampton so progress there. Really would like to see a right back come in (in Jan) who can offer a better combining threat with Lacasse/Mead. Weinrother’s recovery is just too far away.
Agree all of this. Rotating 10 players by giving minutes to a mixture of youthful players still bedding in, veterans, alternative string players, and Viv returning from a long term injury has a real value in itself. We still don’t know what KCC and Kuhl could produce long term. Hopefully a consistently raised floor and ceiling in both cases. Also agree the right back position needs shoring up in the short term. Jury is still out on the centre back partnerships this season while Leah is injured. And we got a win to keep our defence of the Conti Cup… Read more »
After great performances in her other appearances this season I feel Kuhl had a bit of an off game here, lost the ball a few times but I’m sure she’s gonna be back to it next time out
Agree – I really like KK & reckon she has the potential to be special.
A lot of experiments in this game tried all at once. I suppose this was the time to try things and also have the right players fresh for Saturday . At least we are still in a good position to go through to next round.
I wish Arseblog did match reports for women’s games. I know the reason why they don’t since they explained it on here but I don’t agree. I want come here for all my Arsenal news. Just because someone else does a match report doesn’t mean I want to read it. Want the Arseblog view
It’s something we are talking about at the moment. Issue hasn’t been so much that other places do them, it’s more the resource. It’s too much for me to add them to my match day load and the number of people that are ‘qualified’ (for want of a better word), invested but not actually at the games already is quite small. I would also like to do more podcasts on a more regular time schedule but potential guests / co-hosts are not numerous. We’ll get there on both fronts!
thank you for the thoughtful reply!
I love how I can follow almost everything about the women’s team on Arseblog here.
Kudos to Tim and his team, I don’t think any other media has this kind of coverage for a female team anywhere else.
Tim/Arseblog News are the reason many of us got up to speed on the women’s team. They are doing a fantastic job, no doubt.