Arsenal were 2-0 winners over London City Lionesses in the FA Cup 5th round on Sunday afternoon. A first half goal from Laia Codina and a second half strike from Stina Blackstenius put Arsenal through to the quarter-finals. Renee Slegers spoke to the press post-match, the first three questions are from Arseblog News.
On LCL playing with a back five today…
I think the majority of the time in the championship they played a back four, but they’ve also played in the back five, so when we saw the lineup 75 minutes before kickoff and we saw the players on the page, we expected the back five. But they stayed aggressive in their formation and I think they made it really hard for us. and there was a lot of physical battles, the pitch was quite hard to play on today and they made use of it in a good way, I think, trying to get the game physical and back and forth and they had fast forwards up top to try and get behind us.
I think we managed that well most of the time. I think they have a couple of shots only one on target in the game. But yeah, it wasn’t always pretty today so I think our last two games haven’t been our best games but they also come at the back end of a really intense block where we’ve demanded a lot from the players, but psychologically and physically a couple of players that have been playing a lot of minutes, so the most important thing today was to get get to win over the line and we did.
On going long from goal kicks more often rather than playing out from the back and whether that’s why Renee kept Russo central when Blackstenius came on…
Yeah, exactly that, so they have a player to player system in their press and we want to play when we began to connect passes and go forward together, but if that opportunity isn’t given to us, especially on this pitch, it was bobbly, so we decided when when we had good numbers up top to go and bypass, and from there win second balls and that was part of the game plan in the in the low build and we had to do it today that way.
I think credit to the girls that whatever the game asked for they do it. We put Stina on on the right, Caitlin just came back and got a good amount of time, which was great. But we wanted to take her off and then Stina on the right, keep the same similar qualities on the right side with with deep runs. The way they started pressing in the second half, there was room for out to in runs in behind and that’s what we tried to exploit. Lessi was just really good in the central areas with the whole game and we wanted to keep her central.
On why Rosa Kafaji wasn’t in the squad…
She had a little physical problem.
On playing Jenna Nighswonger in midfield today…
It was planned to play her for 45 minutes today and it was great to give her a first start and get going. We had a couple of options that that we went through, of course, but knowing that that Jen could play this role and the dynamics we had on the left side, we felt like this would give the most ability to the team. Credit to Jenna for picking that up because it’s not easy come to a new team, new teammates, a new style of play and you have not been playing it in that position for two years, so, but she’s been great, she’s been very active with wanting to know the role and play the role the best way.
On Kyra Cooney-Cross’ performance…
I think I’ve mentioned it before that I think she’s a a top midfielder and she’s still young, so there’s still parts of a game that she needs to develop. But I think as she’s been playing more and more, the more she understands the role, the the demands we put on the midfielders in our game are really, really high both in and out of possession and she’s learning and learning and doing that better and better. You see her quality on the ball, you see her physical qualities and she’s really, really good.
On the importance of getting through and challenging for the cup…
Yeah, very important. We’ve got a clean sheet again, which I am happy with. We got a goal in the first half, but then it takes us a while to get the second and we’re very close to the third and Mariona a couple of other chances. We are very happy with the patience because of disappointment and we were hurt after the City loss and and then going into a game like this where the ground is really hard to play on, the opposition makes it really hard and then we have to wait for the second goal to really secure the game.
On Blackstenius making an impact from the bench again…
She is fantastic. She is also playing a new role today on the wing and still finding ways to score and get into and pick up those balls. so I’m really happy for her. She’s a great play
1.Zinsberger; 62.Reid (2.Fox ‘78), 3.Wubben-Moy, 5.L.Codina, 11.McCabe(c); 32.Cooney-Cross (28.Ilestedt ‘88), 22.Nighswonger (13.Walti HT); 19.Foord (25.Blackstenius ‘69), 12.L.Maanum, 8.Mariona; 23.Russo
Unused: 6.Williamson 7.Catley 14.van Domselaar 40.Williams
Lessi Russo, scoring game after game before the break, hasn’t scored this year yet. That is what’s worrying for me. Is it because she was out of position in the last game, in her proper role this game but wasn’t fed the right balls? I’m asking as a disappointed supporter even though we won.
No, this is just reversion to the mean.
I get disappointed when Russo’s name isn’t on either the assist or score sheets.
that does ‘not mean she deliver bad. Allways the striker is in the sight of the defenders, making harder to score.
Stretching the players, using them in different ways. I like it. It will spread the load, result in fewer wear-and-tear injuries and enable us to cope better when key players are missing. Seemed to me that Jenna Nighswonger basically played a half of football so that Wälti didn’t have to. RS asked her to do a job for the team and while the execution was not perfect, she kept trying to do the role she had been tasked with and the coach is grateful to her for that. Good for Stina, upending their keeper with her first touch and then… Read more »
Why wasnt mead playing,russo scores goals when she gets passes from her
She suffered a calf injury in the game against City.
I wonder if that means that Stina will play on the right wing next week as well as Chloe Kelly, if Beth doesn’t recover in time?
Thanks for letting us know. I couldn’t understand why she wasn’t playing or on the bench, especially since her speed would have been a huge asset. We seemed a bit ponderous today.
I hope that the goals that Russo didn’t score today, she will score against Tottenham, and that Stina will shine too, and I hope that by then the team will be more energetic and dynamic. We have to get that second place.
Despite the very difficult pitch, a strong sequence of games, some players without rest, while LCL were well rested, they deserve recognition for their efforts.
I was very impressed with Reid’s performance, I think she’s England’s future RB, she’s got height and speed, and is very calm when she’s under pressure, and marks her hard.
And if Laia’s header hadn’t crept inside the far post, Katie R was right on the spot to put it in. I look forward to her first goal!
I reckon she’s playing RB for the rest of this season; next one will be CB.
Good win. More difficult than expected but you only have to check London City’s team to see that they are no pushovers. I can even go as far to say if they go get promoted, they are not going back down immediately. Jakobsson, Asllani, Kumagai, Goldie are all very good players. So I knew it would be a difficult game. That said, I’m still not quite satisfied with our overall squad. Renee keeps saying we have a great squad and I simply don’t agree. We have a very good one. If I were in charge of our transfer, this is… Read more »