Arsenal Women manager Jonas Eidevall has confirmed to Arseblog News that the club will seek another loan spell for striker Michelle Agyemang next season. The 18-year-old signed her first professional contract with the club this week after spending this season on loan at Watford in the Championship.
Arsenal can re-register Agyemang for the final two games of the season and, asked by Arseblog News what the plan for the England youth international was next season, he confirmed the club would seek another loan for her. ‘We are looking into that with the registration, if it is possible to register Michelle, of course we will try to do that. When it comes to her future, I think her last season you can still see huge development in her playing. But she has been plagued by a lot of small to medium injuries which has really affected her game time at Watford.
‘I think we really need to have a good look at where we provide an environment where she can remain injury free and is able to train and play a lot, but also doing that at the highest level possible because that is how good she is. There is no doubt she will become a top, top striker in the future. We need to find the very best way to make that journey into our first team.’
‘She is so humble and so hard working. She has a lovely personality and she is definitely prepared to do the work that is needed to get success at the very top.’ Following last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Everton, Arseblog News asked Eidevall around the team’s underperformance on setpieces this season and he admitted, ‘it is definitely a big area of improvement for next season.’
In his pre-Manchester City press conference, Arseblog News asked Eidevall what he felt the main factors were that meant the team had only scored one (first phase) goal from a setpiece this season compared to eight last season. ‘There are so many different factors but one obvious one is the aerial ability of individual targets. There is no doubt that we have a lost a lot of really good aerial players during the last 12-18 months from the squad. That impacts our performance from setpieces.’ Rafaelle left the club last summer while Lina Hurtig and Vivianne Miedema, who both scored headed goals from setpieces last season, have been absent for long periods.
Eidevall suggested it is also linked to the team’s finishing in general. Arsenal have the biggest XG underperformance in the league and are one of only two teams underperforming their XG. ‘We still generate fairly good shot numbers, so it is on what we generate.
‘That is the same as in open play where self-confidence definitely plays a part. I think it is a combination of having 100% belief in what we are doing and really trying our best in every situation but also in combination with having specialists- both in those putting the serve in and the ones that can attack and have the biggest aerial threats.’
I hope Michelle Agyemang is loaned to a WSL side, perhaps Crystal Palace? I don’t know anything about their squad so maybe they already have a talented CF. But she’s too good to send back to the Championship, that’s for sure.
They lost their top scorer, Elise Hughes, to an ACL a fortnight ago. Palace would make all kinds of sense.
Finishing has been so poor. Out of the top 20 scorers in the WSL, Russo and Blackstenius have among the worst conversion rates (18%-20%). Only 5 of the top 20 are worse. Mead is much more efficient at around 28%. For context, Shaw and James, the top two scorers, convert 34% and 28% respectively. Shot accuracy is even less respectable from our players – only 2 of the top 20 are worse than Russo and Stina at 48% and 46%. Mead’s percentage of 62% accuracy puts her just about in the top third. I notice with a wry smile how… Read more »
Good points made.
I think that in certain games this season the team was physically bullied – West Ham Ladies comes to mind – which led to points being dropped. I hope this is something that can be addressed in the close season.
With only a couple of notable exceptions we have been under par all season. I have said all along there are no dynamics or enthusiasm on show. We need to figure out why in the close season and maybe see if Dick Dastardly will take over from Jonas! 🙂
“…there are no dynamics or enthusiasm on show.” Completely agree.
Personally, I hope the next manager is a woman. But Dick is an interesting suggestion. Would he bring Muttley with him?
Yes I think injecting a lot more speed into our passing game is critical. Pelova frustrates me because she gets passed people so quickly and so well but then just delays the pass so much. Kim can be very guilty of this too.
We get tantalising flashes of dynamism, don’t we? Just enough to make us tear our hair out.
Take Pelova, she typically wins the ball brilliantly and then slows us down by dribbling away sideways to no apparent purpose and ends up passing back to the defence. But she also sometimes sets up fast attacks, exchanging passes with the other players, or drives through midfield with the ball at her feet.