Arsenal defeated Vålerenga 4-1 at Emirates Stadium on Wednesday evening with goals from Emily Fox, Caitlin Foord, Mariona and Alessia Russo. Renee Slegers spoke to the press post-match, the first two questions are from Arseblog News.
On whether continuity in the starting line up was important tonight…
Yeas exactly that, it has been a couple of hectic days and we felt with everything that is happening at the moment, it was good to give the players as much stability as possible and we did that and how organised the days and in how we lined up today.
On playing out from Valerenga’s high press…
We prepared for them being player for player in the press, especially on goal kicks, so we had a plan for it. If you go player for player you can get 2 v 2s, 3 v 3s and 4v4s on top and that is what we tried to manipulate. We just had to find some variety in that because they read the one option we had so we had to find some changes in that. If you are successful bypassing them you have acres of space and 1 v 1s but if you are not successful, you are in trouble and that was the main puzzle today.
On how tough this week has been…
There have been a lot of emotions I have always respected Jonas a lot and I have always enjoyed working with him. I think he did good things for the club for three or four years, I was sad and many others are too. It has been about managing emotions and trying to stick to the task ahead of us and what we needed to do to perform, it has been a couple of hectic days.
On how the players have coped…
I am happy for them and credit to them, they also got together yesterday and felt that they need to step up and I think that is what you see today on the pitch. All credit to the team, you don’t want this drastic thing to happen to them and for them to get into this self-reflection moment but I think it was good they did it and now it is about maintaining that.
On whether players have lacked confidence recently…
Confidence is a really hard thing to talk about and what exactly is confidence. I think already against Chelsea you see players playing in their better form and I think we just go another step in the right direction tonight.
On how the team defended…
We had to deal with a lot of long goal kicks which doesn’t happen as much in the WSL, that was new for us. Rosenborg did it in the qualifier as well. At times we dealt with it really well. I think we can have a look at how we defend the space behind the defensive line a little better.
On Mariona’s performance…
Mariona can play in different positions and in midfield today she did really, really well, she was really important for us.
On Lina Hurtig’s return…
We are super happy for her, she has been away from football for a long time, we have been progressing her very carefully back into training. This was her first time back in the match squad, you see the rest of the players are very happy for her and seeing her with her daughter on the pitch with the fans was amazing to see.
On Lotte Wubben-Moy missing the game through concussion…
She is not ruled out for Sunday, we will see.
14.van Domselaar; 2.Fox, 6.Williamson, 5.L.Codina (62.Reid ‘90), 11.McCabe (7.Catley ‘60); 10.Little(c), 13.Walti (17.Hurtig ‘90); 9.Mead (12.L.Maanum ‘60), 8.Mariona, 19.Foord (25.Blackstenius ‘78); 23.Russo
Unused: 1.Zinsberger, 16.Kafaji, 22.Kuhl, 32.Cooney-Cross, 40.Williams, 53.Lia, 56.Godfrey.
Baby steps here, still the ghost of Eideball in our play, tentative with passing the ball around, a few wonky passes here and there, a few badly weighted passes etc. Codina will be glad to put that performance behind her. The forwards worked better, a well taken “disallowed goal” by Russo and a cooly slotted goal by her. Mariona was the highlight in the 10 spot. DVD was calm and done well when asked. Nice to get 4 goals and wipe out the negative goal difference at the first opportunity. Our play in the second half looked at a bit… Read more »
A much better performance than of late. We still need better marking in defence but to me it felt as if a weight had been lifted off our players shoulders. It is interesting that our two late goals came after subs were added and our opponents seemed to be unbalanced. There is still work to do but I now feel confident that we are going in the right direction. Kim was as near perfect as it is possible to be.
I refuse to get carried away by the scoreline. A late flurry of goals does nothing to mask what was yet again a worrying performance across the entire team. I don’t know when it became habitual for us to make every single game a tough one but it is what it is. Now that Jonas is gone, I am going to single out players because I feel like at some point, these ladies have to step up and own their mess ups. Our defence is currently shambolic. Emily Fox is being played into the ground cos her backup cannot stay… Read more »
Maybe I’m way off base with my thinking but I do think there was a plan to be less reliable on Little and maybe Walti this season. The bid for Walsh, Kuhl not going on loan/sold and Cooney Cross in the mix could have seen the passing of the baton, the fact that the bid was turned down and the poor start to the season made Jonas go back to his tried and trusted to get him out of jail. Renee is probably doing the same looking towards those elder stateswomen to pull the club on to sturdy ground. Even… Read more »
You cannot really disect this match as Renee only had a few hours to do anything different from what Jonas had planned. At least it is evident where the problems are and we can hope that whoever takes the permanent job gets to work quickly to make us the competitive outfit that these players should be.
The scoreline was flattering for us but a win is a win so let’s be grateful for that and get behind the team to hammer the East Londoners at the weekend!
Couldn’t agree more. It’s just a case of getting through that game and the Hammers tie.
Mr Nobody, you’ve criticised pretty much every single player in the team, including a couple of substitutes! And how about Adrian Scoot’s comment: “Kim was as near perfect as it is possible to be”?
I totally agree with everything Mr Nobody said. Leah is v poor . Beth is poor . And the same old oldies being dragged out again and again . Cooney x should have been fully integrated into this team by now, and starting every match . We’ve not moved forward at all in the last 2 x years . We need a new no.9 .. and younger players starting games … starting with Katie Reid replacing Williamson
It’s been barely a couple of days since JE resigned.
We drew a match we should have won at the weekend. We were a bit lucky to get a three-goal victory margin, sure, but we deserved the three points. Under the circumstances, I’m just taking that for now.
All things considered it was a good watch, well done AWFC. Codina had a very bad day unlike Mariona, Foord and the ever running and working Russo who deserved her goal.
Let’s stay calm, keep our feet on the ground, there are many games ahead, it’s about building more connections from now on and maintaining consistency, which is the most important thing, there are many things to improve, a victory is a victory whether it was good or not, the important thing is that we won, and the girls have to be more united than ever to turn things around.
My take-aways 1) Were advance ticket sales for this game an accelerator in the decision to move on from Jonas? 5k even on a school night is back to pre Bayern 2022-23 levels and with no games on tv to compete. 2) If I am top 6 nation with a shot at a Euros or Gold Cup, a World Cup and Olympic Gold over the next four years then knowing I have to go through Emma Hayes in a one off to win any three of those, I am throwing money at Jonas. Would prefer that for him than landing… Read more »
Not “any three” obviously but you take my point.
Ticket sales would have been absolutely anticipated. This isn’t really a dropoff compared to what was expected, the sales for UWCL across Europe aren’t good (Juve aren’t playing any of their group games at the main stadium and neither are Bayern). UWCL groups just aren’t a big sell yet and that reflects in TV audiences too.
You make a really interesting point about Jonas and international teams! I think you might be onto something – he’s got a good track record with “big matches” and cup runs. And as good as anyone else’s against Emma Hayes. His obvious inability to instill a team culture at the club is less of an issue for national teams, because they come with some much character.
My own view is that Jonas would do very well in NWSL, which is a much more transitional league. I am unsure of what his next step is though, I imagine he will sit for a while, his children just started school last month and I think he will be keen not to uproot his family just yet. The job is the job, of course and it will always come with justified criticism but we do often forget the human side, especially in women’s football where salaries are not as big as men’s football.
That’s true – in a way, international competition is nothing but crisis management and bespoke tactical planning. I still think he has/will have a problem with player management, though.
I think l’d like to see Laura Harvey as the new head coach..
Certainly has a decent record but would she be tempted back from Seattle? The only note of caution would be that the UK women’s game is very different to the one she left over a decade ago but she is still active in USA. I’d personally like to see Renee given more than two games to see what she is capable of but I’m not the one who has to decide!
She is highly rated in the US (Higher than Hayes) but I read she is under contract for a while so not sure how she can be coaxed to sign a bit of paper.
Her Seattle Reign contract runs to the end of 2025. Shame.
I heard that Claire is in charge of the recruitment, and that Edu will only support her in her decision, so nothing will change. I’m not even going to get excited.
Well, we’ll see. Lucky for us, we don’t have to make an emergency appointment. RS comes across as a safe pair of hands.
Lots of interesting discussion here – signs of hope but still some problems. I did think we moved the ball forward better, especially for our third goal and Lessi’s disallowed for offside. Mariona’s best game for us, including an excellent tackle in the left-back position! Ultimately, though, this was the sort of match that explains why we are football supporters: goals, errors, jeopardy, shouting at your own players (“Stina you’re offside”), great skill, then winning and excited about the next match!