Arsenal were beaten 5-2 away at Bayern Munich in their opening UWCL group game on Wednesday night. Mariona opened the scoring before Viggorsdottir’s equaliser, Sydney Lohmann gave Bayern the lead before Codina equalised. But Pernille Harder scored a late hat trick to condemn Arsenal to a bad defeat on matchday 1. Jonas Eidevall spoke to the press post-match, the first two questions are from Arseblog News.
On why things disintegrated in the final third of the game…
We start the first half is, in large parts, a good half of football from us. We control possession, we control them with our pressing. We have a period of five minutes where we become a little bit passive and we concede a goal as a result of that. But first half is a good half of football and maybe we were a bit unlucky to be tied 1-1.
Second half, I think Bayern upped their intensity, they were threatening much more with runs in behind and asking more difficult questions for us. We get a bit stretched, a bit tired and a bit hesitant as a team pressing which means they play through us more often. They create some opportunities from, but not a lot. But what really strikes in the second half is how we defend the crossing situations. That is not good enough, we concede goals as a result. When it is 4-2 it is a decision to want to sit back and control the result or to go for it and I decide to go for it.
I know, of course, that is a risk and it exposes us to concede again. But I am happy and willing to take that risk at that point because, at the end of the day, that was the only thing to have gotten us a point. So I am happy with the first half, I am not happy with the second half. We look a little bit tired, we can’t play with the same energy like we do in the first half and we definitely can’t defend like we did in the second half.
On whether his message is still getting through to the players…
No, it doesn’t (give him cause for concern). We are off with our timing with pressing in the second half. I think the players are trying their very best to do it but we don’t get our timing right in pressure and that’s the difference between the first and second half. I don’t feel like there is a misunderstanding of the message of what we need to do. I agree with you, we don’t defend well enough in the second half and I am not happy with that but I don’t think that is a result of miscommunication or a lack of clarity of the idea of what we need to do with those situations.
On lifting the players ahead of Saturday’s game against Chelsea…
A lot of the same things we need to improve on today are going to be really important against Chelsea as well. We saw yesterday against Real Madrid what a strong team they are on crosses as well and that caused Real Madrid a problem yesterday and we need to improve defending crosses massively. That is a red line and then there are different things we will need to focus on and we have no choice but to put this game behind us and take the necessary learnings from it and getting ready for the task on Saturday.
On starting the group in this manner…
There is a lot of football left to be played in the group stage. We did not get off to the start we wanted and I am disappointed with our second half today but there is a lot of football left to be played.
1.Zinsberger; 2.Fox, 6.Williamson, 5.L.Codina, 11.McCabe (7.Catley ‘65); 10.Little(c), 13.Walti (32.Cooney-Cross ‘78); 19.Foord (16.Kafaji ‘78), 12.Maanum (9.Mead ‘65), 8.Mariona; 25.Blackstenius (23.Russo ‘65).
Unused: 3.Wubben-Moy, 14.van Domselaar, 22.Kuhl, 40.Williams, 53.Lia, 56.Godfrey, 62.Reid
Is he a good enough manager?
Does not appear so at this point.
While it is distressing to say out loud, the results (and performance perhaps even more tellingly) do not reflect potential of talent assembled which suggests either they are not being adequately trained / prepared or they are not responding to his methods / motivations. Think it may be time to acknowledge that any light at the end of the tunnel is yet another onrushing train.
Is it possible he is sacked before the end of the season? If it is possible then the discussion over Eidevall being fit to manage Arsenal matters but I personally don’t see them sacking him before the end of the season.
Plus we can’t sack him before we know who is going to replace him.
Diplomacy forbids any comment to that. The time is drawing near for a change.
The time was over the summer- not gaining entry to the cl last season was dereliction of duty
I barely follow the womens’ team but even I can see a change is needed. If it’s not a talent problem, then it has to be a leadership problem.
That was a diabolical performance in the second half, gaffer.
Let’s hope you use this to double up motivation for this weekend’s showdown. Anything other than a victory in that game would be unacceptable, considering you already gave up crucial points to Everton!
Therein lies the problem. I don’t believe he knows how to motivate the team, make strategic substitutions, or manage tactical situations on the fly. The first 30 minutes were ok, no better than that, but we pretty much held our own. What happened for the last 60 minutes. Sorry but feeling a bit tired does not wash! These are professional athletes that train every day, have the best healthcare, physios, nutritionists and facilities and they get tired after jogging around a football pitch for half an hour! How do tennis players mange chasing a little ball around like a headless… Read more »
I think the speed of the game has gone up and we are still playing at the same tempo we played at a couple of seasons back. Also our defenders are not getting close to the attackers to stop them.
‘JE reacts to losing job’ incoming
Song suggestion for Jonas…
https://youtu.be/lDszpGDlEGs
Indeed, that’s it. He has to quit and move on. And he has to move on with manu
Very worrying. If Edu and Claire Wheatley aren’t busy reviewing their succession plan options for the next international break then they aren’t doing their jobs. However, no point moving until then even if we lose to Chelsea on Saturday. Eidevall really needs to win the next three games. If anybody mentions Casey Stoney as an option then I’ll scream. She was sacked for playing negative football in her last job. If you are looking for people there are the managers of the leagues which are out of season, ie Scandinavia (Rosengard have been banging in the goals) and the US… Read more »
Also worth noting that our current coach Renee Slegers managed Rosengard after Eidevall and won back to back championships.
I actually think wheatley is part of the problem- very much out of her depth in this professional era.
But Edu isn’t and he is involved too!
Edu only recently became involved. Overhauls take a bit of time and I hope Arsenal Women may be in for a well overdue shakeup.
I personally dont think edu has looked much into it, cos frankly speaking womens football is still a side business as of now. I sure hope that changes quickly and they see how damaging this can be to the club as a whole.
Rosengards coach got his pro license quite recently and it’s a team which in many ways manage themselves. He might be ok but not on the level required. I actually struggle to see any Scandinavian coach suitable for Arsenal at the moment.
Problem is a lot of Scandanavian coaches think in a similar way to Jonas.
Scandinavia is unfortunately outdated in womens football.. clubs, coaching, playing style. They reached a peak when Sweden should have won the tokyo olympic gold. After that, just not the exciting force anymore.
And then we went for the scandinavia concept with eidevall.
No, but the Scandinavian countries are falling behind since the bigger nations with plenty of more players are finally investing a lot in women’s football. It has nothing to do with playing style. It’s just natural.
To think that Eidevalls’ style is representative for all Scandinavian coaches is just not correct.
point taken
Yes, there has been a democratization of womens football with many nations stepping up investment, hence breaking the germans and scandinavians’ previous dominance. U can even argue tt those countries were ahead because they were relatively more progressive in gender equality.
My main point however is that i think scandinavian football generally still emphasises on brawn than brain, though they have brilliant flair players like asllani and nadia nadim (interesting with immigrant background). And that is being surpassed by nations emphasising fitness, tactics and technique.
Time for a change sadly, the club have backed him time and time again over the last 12 months in particular but tonight felt like the end. If not this week his time will be up come end of the season and the smart move would be to part ways now. We could easily be out of UWCL and WSL contention by end of December otherwise. We may still be out of reach in both competitions by then but we have to change something now to try and alter the inevitable slide down the team is on. I would now… Read more »
With the the resources we have, the manager has no excuse for such a display today and also the turgid form we showed against Everton over the weekend.
he should have been let go two seasons ago,
he is wasting these talented squad’s best years for success. SHAME!!!!!!
This is exactly what I was thinking. He already ruined Mana Iwabuchi’s career. Meado is at the time in her career where she needs to be winning things, as is Walti. And it’s a travesty that someone like Kim who has been consistently good over many years in service to Arsenal, isnt going to win a worthy trophy, just cause she played for Scotland and plays for arsenal.
She won the title in 2019 under Joe.
Fair.
He probably thought he could ruin Miedema’s career.. but what a travesty that she is now going to help City win stuff.
Hindsight is wonderful. He and the team had produced miracles after a horrible run of injuries to be being within seconds of a penalty shoot out to reach the CL final and had won the Conti Cup (first trophy for years) and then finished third. There was reason enough to stick with him.
Equally it would have required another year or two of rebuilding as the new coach came in when, again, there was good reason that Eidevall could push us on to greater things. It doesn’t seem to have turned out that way but stuff happens.
The question is then whether the team produced that uwcl run because of him, or in spite of him.
I suspect it is more that there were no decisions to be made. We only had certain players available and we played with continuity of personnel and with little room for off the wall tactical decisions. We got on with each match as it came without the overthinking that appears to happen these days.
And also the team spirit… which i suspect has been going down with first iwabuchi and now miedema departing under a cloud of discontent.
Nobbs too
Yes, Jordan was a great servant to the club and is still a worthy midfielder and yet her 150th appearance for Arsenal passed without even a comment from the man in charge. He just froze her out so that she had to look elsewhere for playing time in the hope she could have a last chance at a place in the World Cup squad after missing out on so many opportunities through her career due to inopportune timing of injury. Hardly great man management, is it?
Was it nobbs whom he subbed on for just 1 minute on her 150th game?
Not sure of the exact timing but it was a pretty short appearance without fanfare!
Been saying it a while. Eidevall doesn’t fit at arsenal. Been saying for a while the women’s team has gone backwards under him. Some performances are bad. Also think he is a little strange too.
It’s not a great situation, I do think it has become toxic. Fans need to hold the club accountable for what ever is going on internally. Please remember that arsenal bet Lyon 5-1 in 2022 and Lyon went far in the competition until Chelsea knocked them out with penalties. Please also remember the Lyon manager at that time is now the Chelsea manager, so we know that arsenal can bet Chelsea and their new manager. Although I do hold similar feels as the other people on the site, we don’t want to be negative to much as it won’t help… Read more »
You’re absolutely right that we have to avoid excessive negativity. That will only make it harder for the team to come out of this slump.
When the fans point to a game that happened 2 and half years ago as hope something is wrong. This team can’t beat Everton lol. No they aren’t beating Chelsea’s.
TBF, playing Eidevall press conference bingo, he did actually use different words to describe this week’s (first?) defeat.
Nothing to comment, there is nothing more to comment.
I’m still rooting for these girls in victory and defeat, it’s not easy to get through this difficult phase. I know you’ll rise up and it will be this season.
We don’t even need to blame the strikers in this game the defence in the second half were rubbish too!
Basically, over the last three and a bit years, we’ve spent loads of money, brought in lots of players and got worse.
It gives me no pleasure to agree with the general opinion because I genuinely like the guy, but JE doesn’t have what it takes. I’m prepared to believe the problem is more than just JE, but he is definitely part of it.
I totally agree, at least arsenal are in good company tonight as Barcelona have just lost to city.
Does it not make it worse to see city beat barca, the dominant force today? Does it not highlight the gap even further?
Miedema assist for their first goal. Jus sayin
Isnt it more painful to see the gap? We were well beaten by barca in the past.
This! Whatever people think, a manager (anywhere) will hardly never resign on his or her own initiative. It’s up to the club to make the decisions. In this case there must be an organization which is prepared for different scenarios and can act upon them. And maybe we should not expect a new manager tomorrow but we should expect the club to work on the matter.
Personally I want every player and every staff member, actually every employee at Arsenal to be successful whoever they are. Unfortunately that’s not always the case.
It’s now been 2 full seasons that I’ve been saying, Eidevall is nowhere near good enough to manage Arsenal Women’s team. He’s done well in early stages of his time with us but has been regressing for a while now. His inability to get the best out of players has led to us losing the best striker we have ever had, now he’s just embarrassing us. He has that aura of a man that has a secure spot so he just says all the right words and his job is safe, even though the results are frankly embarrassing and simply… Read more »
The thing I find most strange above all is that we haven’t strengthened central midfield with a top player for years. Our midfield is outdated and not a match for the best teams. There’s clearly a lack of technical quality and creativity. It seems really weird that a team trying to challenge for the WSL and CL haven’t bothered to strengthen CM. With all respect to great servants, Little and Walti shouldn’t be starting together in big games for a team of our stature / ambition.
Let’s make this succinct: I’ve seen enough of Eidevall even before we’ve played Chelsea. Whatever it is he’s trying to convey to the team, it just isn’t working, we are shocking. To me, it looks like he’s lost the dressing room and I’ll give you one word as to why that is: Miedema. There were 25,000 at the Emirates on Sunday. There will be continually less while he continues at the helm. My truest wish is that Eidevall be replaced right now, while there is enough season left to salvage. Otherwise I can see the Emirates being ditched for a… Read more »
Just a really bad performance in that second half considering it was 1-1 we had taken the lead and looked okayish, the rot though had starting setting in towards the end of the first half. I am struggling to understand the tired narrative, it’s crept in recently from Jonas and the only player I could have some sympathy for is Fox, she has had the least amount of time off out of all of them. I’ve watched a Man City team (with a smaller squad) who have had a very similar workload to Arsenal this season run a world class… Read more »
I watched the first half hour and then had to go out to a meeting. I was feeling confident. On the way home I saw the score and have just watched the rest of the match…. I actually didn’t think the performance was as dire as that against Everton. However, what I found particularly depressing was the defending; I can’t remember us ever conceding three headed goals in one match. I feel it was mainly Leah who was missing in action. For their first goal, how come Stina was the only person near the scorer? I honestly think that if… Read more »
JE’s post-game analyses are usually factually correct, but at this point, does anyone really care how accurate they are? I’d rather he addressed why we’re playing so badly. Tired players cannot be used as an excuse. Other teams have fixture congestion too. It seems (to me at least) that Jonas does not know how to react when the opposition changes their tactics or does not recognise/anticipate it soon enough. How many goals did we concede from crosses and was this issue even addressed? It’s rare for a manager to admit they got it wrong, but there is obviously something wrong… Read more »
Jonas Ten Hag. Sorry but this isn’t working. I guess we deserved it when we extended his contract instead of replacing him.
I am not sure he should be happy with first half. We had very few chances. Even after winning the ball high we were outnumbered. What is the point of this relentless pressing and tiring if you don’t create anything afterwards. Bayern should be terrified to lose the ball to our press, they didn’t seem bothered if they lose cause we were still out numbered.
Time for the sack
Don’t think he’ll he sacked during the season but he absolutely needs to go in the summer
Another way to put this is that Bayern coach figured out in 1st half how Arsenal play and adjusted with new instructions. Jonas thought if we continue doing the same thing it’ll work
Well it didn’t.
of course he figured out how to beat Arsenal, Rehanne Skinner found the way to beat us with Westham, since that Birmingham defeat 3 years ago everybody knows how to beat Arsenal and is not necessary to park the bus, and Jonas does not react.
He gotta go. I’m over his tenure. The football is rancid and isn’t even getting results. Sack him in the next international break.
This guy should have been sacked after his 1st year.the team is getting worse ever since he is in charge. how can you sell your best players & bring in mediocre ones.
out of his depth.
please Arsenal. SACK HIM.WE COULD NOT EVEN BEAT EVERTON
I personally feel that the overiding point is that had Daphne been in goal, it would have been a very different result.
But would still not change the performance. Might be a lucky 1-0 win with Daphne’s heroics but that would just gloss over the fact that we are playing like a mid-table team.
Basically eidevall is more emery than arteta. Good for a midtable team aiming for more, but not enough for a big club.
I am normally critical of Manu and yes I believe DoomSlayer would have stopped a couple of those goals from going in but that does not ease the pain of a pathetic capitulation. Only the unused substitutes and the physios can not be blamed for that (I cannot even describe it as a) performance! Everyone else was equally culpable. Jonas doesn’t even be able to explain the offside rule to Stina never mind coach a team of international quality players into a team that threatens anyone!
How he’s lasted this long I’ll never know
There is no point in signing better players if he limits their creativity on the field. He changed the strategy and tactics this year and it seems to have gotten worse. Give the players the freedom and creativity of what they know best on the field. These talents cannot be wasted. After what Lacasse said, everything makes sense now.
I’ve read her article, she’s happy and scoring again! The supporters sing even her Lacasse song….
“Losing the dressing room” doesn’t have to mean open revolt or warring cliques. Not understanding what the manager says, no longer buying into their ideas, stopping listening, and just becoming dispirited is as damaging.
So in answer to Tim’s second question, he is basically saying “no it’s not my fault, it’s the players’ fault
I recently read an article about Chloe LaCasse – rediscovering the joy of playing again. She loved her teammates at Arsenal but the tactical side of how Arsenal was playing was limiting her creativity. https://www.tsn.ca/soccer/meaghen-johnson-cloe-lacasse-rediscovers-joy-for-soccer-with-utah-royals-1.2185707 I have been feeling the same way when i have watched the Women play – especially against teams that are strong defensively. I feel that the joy of watching has been stripped away – too slow progression and movement. Watching Viv at Man City – she looked dangerous again! If Eidaball cannot evolve to being unpredictable by unleashing the creativity of the new players, while… Read more »
Interesting comments from Cloe. I had not read that previously but it explains a lot. It now makes sense why Viv’s performances suffered and no doubt speaking out about it cost her place in the squad. Maybe Mana and Jordan were similarly frozen out as the “yes sir we will not question you” players are the ones perceived as Jonas’ favourites because they always get picked regardless of their performance history. If the change in the dug out has not happened by the end of the season I can see several other quality players following Viv’s lead and going elsewhere