Arsenal were 5-0 winners over Brighton in the WSL on Friday evening at Emirates Stadium thanks to goals from Beth Mead, Caitlin Foord, Frida Maanum, Lina Hurtig and an Alessia Russo penalty. Renee Slegers spoke to the press post-match, the first two questions are from Arseblog News.
On overloading Brighton in the channels…
Yeah those are areas we are always looking for and we had a way of manipulating that today against Brighton, looking at how they act and manage those kind of runs. The girls do really well doing that and believing that would open things up for us, that was very positive. In general, us facing their back line, they would drop. If we set it up really well in a structured way, like we did a couple of times in the first half, we could create those 2 v 1s on their back line.
On the importance of a big score line with five attackers on the score sheet…
Very good for the team, of course. Credit to them because they have been working really hard and taking things on board. Essentially what we focused on the last two days was how we attack and defend the boxes, it has been a big theme in our last couple of days and I am really happy we see that in the game. It is not always going to be that easy, you train things for two days and all of a sudden it happens. It is part of a process over a longer time obviously you get the want to get the rewards when you keep on doing that, so I am happy for the girls.
On whether there was a particular goal that pleased her most…
There was one that Foord was on the end of, that was something we had worked on so that is always nice, that was part of our training week. I am happy for Beth as well with her goal. All of them, we also talked about which areas we want to take shots from as well, so all of them are very positive for us. I wouldn’t be able to pick one.
Whether there is a reason that the attack came together tonight…
It is a little bit opponent specific because spaces get really big today so we get a lot of space to create fast attacks. But we spoke about whether we can vary that, going slow up the pitch and then getting the opposition in a low block but also being a bit faster in our attacks. That is one thing I would want to highlight.
On whether the result relieves some pressure…
I think so, it looks like that on the outside, we know for a long time that we have been doing things really well. We’ve been outperforming our opposition the whole season, apart from Bayern Munich, on XG. We know that things have been good before and things start to click and we get on the end of it and start scoring goals that is just a little focus we have had over the last couple of days. But there is so much more to football and we have foundations that have been built over a much longer period of time.
On the importance of a win ahead of big games against Juve and Spurs…
Success creates momentum so it is very good for us. How the game plays out, the first half is more controlled from our side and in the second half, we have a couple of turnovers and the space gets bigger and that is what we think we are going to face against Juventus as well, bigger spaces, transitional, player for player press. In some sense we said there were good lessons to be learned today because things might look similar on Tuesday.
On whether she is thinking about the Head Coach role permanently…
No, I am really not. I enjoy the role, I want to help the team go forwards, to develop individuals which was my role before and now to try to help develop the team as well. Whoever comes next, I work hard to create a good setup so that is really important but what is also important is that we are in the moment now in this block and doing all we can to get results. After these two games, we have four points, that is ok and now we have three games left.
On Rosa Kafaji coming on on the right…
There are always so many factors that play in to how we make our decisions, there is a couple of ones in this game. It’s about the relationship with the full-back too for example, what other positions we want to keep on the pitch, how we can exploit the opposition. Like you have seen, Rosa is a good one v one player and we thought we would get joy on that side.
On Kathrine Kuhl not coming on again…
It is always a balance, these players train really hard and do really well. Players also get minutes in U21 games. It is the balance, there are always reasons for them to be brought on but there are always reasons for other players to be brought on, so it is all the time what is the right decision, what is right for the next game too and the games that follow after that. They are hard decisions, I wish everyone could play because so many players are doing well, we have such a good squad. But it is not possible, you can start eleven players and bring on five. That is the hard part of this role, you wish for everyone to play and you can’t.
On Lina Hurtig’s cameo from the bench…
She is in a good place and I am really happy for her. What she brought to the game today you can see she is a physical player, we got her to pressure Brighton when they were jumping a bit more and that is when we want to bypass the midfield and protect the ball in higher positions and that is where Lina comes in. She is really good and a good combination and one v one player, for setpieces both defensively and attacking she is a very dangerous. Many strengths to Lina and I am very happy she is doing so well.
1.Zinsberger, 2.Fox (5.L.Codina ‘55), 6.Williamson, 7.Catley, 11.McCabe; 10.Little(c) (32.Cooney-Cross ‘55), 13.Walti; 9.Mead (16.Kafaji ‘79), 12.L.Maanum (25.Blackstenius ‘55), 19.Foord (17.Hurtig ‘72); 23.Russo
Unused: 3.Wubben-Moy, 14.van Domselaar, 22.Kuhl, 62.Reid.
Result! We are back!
Happy with tonight. Brighton are not the most organized low block team so we matched up well against them but glad to see the goals and hopefully some confidence come back.