Another opportunity for silverware goes begging as Manchester City knocked Arsenal out of the Women’s FA Cup fifth round.
Join Tim Stillman in the press box for his real-time reactions and analysis in our first match day vlog at Meadow Park.
News
Sunday, December 22, 2024
Small margins indeed! Be interested in your thoughts on my theory, Tim. Jonas has always enthused about the possession game but do you think that too much emphasis is placed on this? By that I mean even the longer “risky” passes tend to go towards the player rather than 5 or 10 yards in front so that it can be collected at pace to drive forwards. It seems to me that too often Meado or Caitlin have to stand still and wait for the ball before they can run up the line. On occasions Wally tried playing the ball into… Read more »
This! And you have explained it far better than me with “something something more emphasis on control and controlling matches than going and scoring goals”. Thank you.
And thank you Tim for the review
This is what was happening in the first half against Leicester – ball to feet, recipient instantly under pressure or pass intercepted. Then in the second half we passed into the space in front of a running player and scored 6 goals. Yesterday we tried to do that more in the second half, but our movement remained disjointed and sludgy. Victoria Pelova gave herself permission to pass forwards (hurrah!), and to pass to someone other than Russo, but it was often too late and the runner was flagged offside. (Sometimes wrongly, admittedly.) Maanum and Mead and others still tended to… Read more »
Exactly, we had enough chances to win that game even though we were nowhere near our expected level! Emily Fox is a real coup. It’s like she has been first choice RB for several seasons already!
Main comment being modded again..
Anyway – addendum. Squad selection. If Little was fit, this was the game to start her alongside Walti, or maybe as a one of a dual 10/8 with VP.
After the previous showing, neither Beth nor Caitlin deserved to start and they didn’t really redeem themselves during the game.
Lacasse – we offered cold hard cash for her to Benfica last season…and now we hardly play her.
Stina’s gpm ratio is 1:69. Best of any Arsenal player and top three in the WSL. Just saying.
Not sure of the reason, maybe too much too soon, but Meado isn’t 100% at the moment and Caitlin just appears fatigued so Cloe simply has to start, right? That’s the whole point of having a maximum size squad full of quality players not so you can run the usual suspects into the ground!
Got to rotate the squad more. Agree Caitlin looks a bit tired, not helped by the travelling to /from Australia. Crazy when you have Lacasse as a quality option for both Caitlin and Beth.