Jonas Eidevall has hailed the burgeoning leadership qualities of Manu Zinsberger amidst new competition for her place from Daphne van Domselaar. The Dutch international goalkeeper arrived from Aston Villa during the summer following the departure of Canada’s Sabrina D’Angelo in the opposite direction.
Zinsberger has seen off the likes of Pauline Peyraud-Magnin, Lydia Williams and D’Angelo during her spell at the club but at 24, van Domselaar represents a longer term threat to the Austrian’s position. Gunners boss Jonas Eidevall says Zinsberger has responded to the competition once again and is developing as a leader in the group with van Domselaar and 19-year-old Naomi Williams.
‘It is a good observation that Manu is really developing her leadership qualities. If you were at the press conference on Wednesday (pre-Hacken) you see how much of a leader she is and how good a communicator she is and how confident she is with communicating the way she thinks. That part is not only good for the goalkeeping group but in the whole squad.
‘It is really shining through. We have great competition in the goalkeeping group and I think Daphne (van Domselaar) has been off to a tough start with injuries and not be able to train fully at the beginning and it is only now that she is able to get full training under her belt. But we will need to have a really strong goalkeeping group with the games that we have in front of us.’
Our GK Union knew exactly how to celebrate 💃🤣 pic.twitter.com/r3qQHuaJEM
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) September 26, 2024
Arsenal qualified for the Champions League group stage on Thursday evening with a 4-0 home win over Hacken having lost the first leg 1-0. The Gunners also beat Rangers and Rosenborg earlier in the qualifiers and drew 2-2 at home to Manchester City on the opening day of the WSL season. Eidevall’s side travel to Leicester on Sunday and the Arsenal boss says it spells the final match of a tough block of games to start the season
‘What we spoke about earlier in the season was that going into knockout games earlier on and going into this game has forced us into having a fast start to the season. That is why we went to the US and challenge ourselves early in the season to get answers. Now, it is still about getting answers in these games coming up, to learn more about relationships and learn what is working and what is not working.
‘We need to keep understanding processes, like playing away against Hacken was a step backwards. What is important now is what we do with that information. Can we turn that into learning and better performances?
‘The City game and this game here have been steps in the right direction because we need to keep on going and Sunday is going to be a really tough test for us. It is the last game of a really intense block before we get a little bit of time to breathe, so we need to keep on going and not relax.’
Arsenal play Leicester at the King Power Stadium at 3pm on Sunday afternoon.
I’ve never been Manu’s biggest fan, but hats off to her for working hard and improving. I think she suffers a bit in fans’ perception because she was never a “Wunderkind”. She doesn’t have charisma, or the presence of some keepers. She probably never will. But she is well on her way to becoming a GK whom fans will love – if only in retrospect. I don’t know enough about the technical aspects of gking to comment extensively, but I do think she is a really good shot stopper, outstanding at times, and has worked on her cross collection and… Read more »
I was really, really impressed with her ball distribution in the Man City game. Long may it continue!!
I think you’re absolutely right that Arsenal fans might not realise what they’re missing until it’s gone! She doesn’t get the credit she deserves at times. But her nervousness transmits through the team, fans keep picking up on it and at this point I don’t think its something that will ever be ironed out of her game. Really interested to see Manu versus DvD plays out.
Some fans maybe show nervousness but I really don’t see this reflected in her team mates.
All three weaker aspects of her game have imo improved markedly during 2024…..cross collection, command of her area and also distribution .
Yes – though of course Blu-ray is still coming back after a very long time out with injury. They will make a good pair eventually. It’s all very well having one keeper whose strengths are X and Y, and another whose strengths are A and B, (which is what we have had over many seasons) but ideally you want two relatively complete keepers who can push each other to improve further.