‘We don’t create enough high value chances’ Eidevall urges Arsenal improvement against deep block defences

Arsenal Women boss Jonas Eidevall says he and his team know they have to improve at breaking down deep block defences in the second half of the season.

The Gunners are one of only three WSL teams currently underperforming their XG in the WSL and have failed to score against Liverpool and Spurs, while Aston Villa and Bristol City also frustrated Arsenal for long periods. Arseblog News asked Eidevall on Friday whether improvement in attack was something he and his staff had reviewed over the Christmas break.

‘We look at it two ways. From an XG perspective we have the best XG goal difference in the league, I think you have to go back to the last time Arsenal won the league when we last had that.

‘But XG difference doesn’t win you trophies. Last year in the league, Manchester City had the best XG goal difference and they finished 4th. That tells you that they were a very strong team last season but that in itself, doesn’t win you anything.’

Eidevall pointed out that the data suggests Arsenal have been harshly done by in both penalty areas but that the coaching staff and the players bear responsibility for that.

‘We can see that we have underperformed both in offence and in defence on XG. We concede more than we should and we score less than we should. Part of that has been that we create a lot of chances but not enough high value chances, especially against low blocks.

‘When we play against teams that open the games up a bit more, I take Leicester as an example, we don’t have any problem creating high value chances either and there we scored six goals.

‘We have been very good and effective when the pitch is opening up for us but we are the team that spends the most time against low blocks in the league. When we do that, we don’t create enough high value chances. We create a lot of chances but of less value.’

As well as putting six past Leicester, Arsenal scored twice against Manchester City, twice against United and four times against Chelsea, Eidevall believes prizing open low blocks is where the priority lies in attack.

‘We need to work on that, a really important part of the Arsenal way of playing is that we should be better at creating chances against low blocks in more ways than just set pieces or crossing situations and meaning we need to improve our way to attack with combination play, attacking with the third player.

‘That part, me and the coaching staff and the players acknowledge that we need to keep improving and not only saying it is efficiency in the final third. That is one part of it, improving our finishing.

‘Another part is, with the way we play attacking football, to break down a low block and create more high value chances and we work hard on that to keep developing.’