Ahead of Wednesday evening’s UWCL qualifier between Arsenal and Glasgow Rangers, Jonas Eidevall spoke to the media. Here is a full transcript of what he said. The italicised questions are from Arseblog News.
On the team news…
Both Beth Mead and Steph Catley didn’t take part in team training today, they are not going to be part of the matchday squad tomorrow, it’s too early. The rest of the players are available to play. It’s a day by day thing, I think Beth Mead is going to be closest, she is the next in line to return.
On pre-season…
Seeing some of our young players from the academy coming up in training and in the games has been a real positive of pre-season. One thing you can’t underestimate is the time players spend together on the pitch, off the pitch building relationships and building an understanding of what we are looking for, how they like to receive the ball, situations they like to be played into. That you cannot do solely on tactics board, that has to be on the pitch, with experiences and situations together. We are taking the first steps in that, there is still relationships to build. But one word I would use to describe that is ‘promise.’ I really look forward to seeing us play, every day we train and every time we set up for a game, I look forward to seeing us play because I can see the potential we have here, it is really fun and entertaining to work with.
On the game against Rangers…
It is knockout football, we need to bring our very best from the first second to the last. It is no underestimating opponents from us, we know how tricky of a stage this one is. We are expecting a very good opponent and we will do our very best to progress.
On Rangers coach Jo Potter and her time at Arsenal many years ago…
You can see they have a clear identity in the way they play, you see in her coaching career she usually gets the best out of the environments she works in. I think that speaks a lot about Arsenal as a football club that people who have been here speak very fondly about it, it is a very proud part of their history. That is really nice to hear, we need to keep building on that to build new history for the players and staff that are here now.
On Daphne van Domselaar and whether she will be in the squad…
She will, yes.
On impressions of Rangers and whether he has spoken to Arsenal’s Recruitment Officer Kevin Murphy who has worked with many of the Rangers players…
One part that is important to see is that they were very close to knocking out Benfica in last year’s qualifiers and Benfica is a very good European team. They went to extra time. Their run in the UWCL last season deserves a lot of respect, they are very, very capable of good performances in these stages. Of course, we use Kevin as one person who has insight into Rangers and we also have a very good analytics team who have been very thorough in their process, so we feel well prepared.
On whether converting chances against low blocks has been as big an issue as creating chances…
That needs to be a discussion in any team at any time, that is what wins you or loses you football matches if you are effective in the two penalty areas. You need to defend in an effective way and you need to attack in an effective way. You are right, Southampton game there were lots of things I was pleased with. One thing I wasn’t pleased with was that we didn’t score more goals. I think realistically we should have scored more than three goals with the chances we had and we should have put that game to bed much, much earlier and we have to work towards.
On going from pre-season into a knockout game..
Some things you can simulate in pre-season and some things you cannot. The only thing that resembles playing competitive football is playing competitive football and we thrive on that as a group. I know Tim said there could be a lot to be lost this month but that isn’t the way I look at it. There is a lot that can be achieved in the first month, there is a lot of good football we can play in the first month and we should enjoy having those experiences and enjoying being put under pressure. I think that is going to show us a true character test as a team and I am looking forward to that tomorrow. It is a few teams that gets the opportunity to play in the Champions League to begin with so that is an opportunity too. We know qualification is not easy, ask Manchester City what they think of the qualification stages. We have gone through them a few times so we know how it feels to win the mini tournament and we know how it feels to win the round two playoffs, we see ourselves as a European club and playing in the group stage but we know it isn’t going to be easy. It is going to be a real challenge tomorrow but we are ready for it.
On lessons that can be learned from last year’s qualifying round exit…
There are always lessons to be learned but that has been more about preparation, last season was really tough on us with a really quick turnaround and lots of players returning from long-term injuries that we couldn’t integrate in the team at that point. But the more prepared we can make the team during this pre-season the more situations we have been able to experience together, the more ready we will be on Wednesday. You can never cover everything in pre-season, it is impossible but I am very happy that we have done the most we can do.
On how the team can simulate the pressure in training…
We try to compete! We try to compete in training because that resembles a game a little bit. I try with my refereeing sometimes too to stir up some emotions! Sometimes you have to reframe how you think about pressure, pressure is not a bad thing. Some people say that pressure is a privilege, I go one step further, pressure is a necessity for high performance.
On whether the UWCL is more open this year with Lyon, Chelsea and Barcelona changing coaches this year…
My focus is on this mini tournament at the moment. But we as a team have the potential to go all the way in Europe, I believe in our capabilities. But our focus needs to be here and now with a tough game against Rangers. It is knockout football so it takes 100% of our focus and attention.
On bringing Mariona and Kafaji’s UWCL experience into the squad…
The Champions League experience is an important part, the European experience is different to the domestic games. It is knockout football, nights under the lights and it’s a special feeling. You are coming up against opponents that might do different things to what you are used to. We have a lot of players who have performed well in the Champions League. Then it is really exciting to get a player like Mariona who has so many good experiences from what Barcelona have been doing that we can learn from as a team. Rosa comes with her whole football career in front of her and all that excitement and belief that that brings, there are things we can learn from that.
Having a fuller pre-season this summer…
I think we need to balance the discussion a little, it feels like we are talking about a long, three month pre-season and playing all these games. We have had very few players playing 90 minutes of football for Arsenal this summer. The Olympic players joined us the last week in the US, we have had a full squad for two weeks. Yes, that has been great, it is better than three days the year before. But let’s manage the expectations a little on this pre-season, it has still been halted for international players playing in July, that compromised their time off. The Olympic players compromised their time off. We have had more time this year than previous but it is still far from ideal. But we have done very well with the amount of time we have had at our disposal.
On the potential schedule if Arsenal get through this qualification round…
We built a squad to play a lot of competitive matches, if you make the group stages it becomes a very busy period, most midweeks have games. We can already see broadcast and so on there will be three game weeks with six day turnarounds. It will require squad depth to be successful, no doubt about it but that is what we have planned for.
On the status of being in the UWCL…
Champions League, when you look at football as a global phenomenon, Champions League is what makes European football so special and what makes the whole world want to come to Europe to compete. The league is our bread and butter, that has to be our foundation and our main target to win the league. But Europe always has to be the ambition and that will bring the toughest challenges, knockout football and it will be down to moments. It is the jeopardy of that that makes football so exciting. As a club, i see us as a European club and if you want to be a European club, you have to be present in the group stages.
You got a namecheck again!
Very comprehensive press conference. Best of luck tomorrow and may the team bring their shooting boots! This is what the whole of the last three months has been leading towards.
I think we will win very comfortable tomorrow. No disrespect to Rangers but Hammarby in Damallsvenskan beat Celtic with 3-0 in a friendly earlier this summer so we should beat Rangers comfortable, otherwise I will be very concerned. The real test will come on saturday. I know almost everyone have Atletico Madrid as favourites in the other match but Rosenborg is a well-coached and structured team so they will be hard to break down. Starting to be a little concerned about Mead and Catley. I doubt we can count on them for the majority of the season tbf. Maybe we… Read more »
Agree on this week.
I think Mead could play at a push but they want her for Saturday. I’m pretty sure she’ll be back for that.
If you want to avoid pressure, then you shouldn’t be playing competitive sport. That’s why Billie Jean King said “pressure is a privilege”. However, my favourite quote about pressure in sport comes from the Australian test cricketer and former Spitfire pilot Keith Miller: “pressure in cricket? No, pressure is having a Messerschmidt up your arse!”
The Rangers have already said they will come with everything, my concern is the absence of Catley and Mead, I believe in Arsenal’s victory, however it will be a disputed game and the fans will be fundamental to the result, and I also believe in Rosenborg’s victory, it will be more complicated for Atlético to win this duel, it is a team that is used to the CL and they are super in tune, they did not lose as many players as Atlético lost.
Will the game be shown anywhere?