Arsenal coach Jonas Eidevall isn’t sure whether any of his players will get a rest during the upcoming international break but it says it is the joint responsibility of clubs and National Teams to make sure players can have a break during the season.
Arsenal had nine players participate in the summer Olympic Games in Japan, who then returned to Arsenal immediately to play Champions League qualifiers in August.
Eidevall recently gave Vivianne Miedema ten days off, in co-operation with Netherlands who spared her for a game with Belarus in October to give her time for a holiday. Tobin Heath and Lotte Wubben-Moy were also given time off earlier this month, having taken part in the Games. There will be a European Championships this summer, followed by a World Cup next summer too.
Leah Williamson is out for the next few weeks with a “significant” hamstring injury, which Eidevall said was “a loading issue”, Leah played in the Olympics and has played every minute of England’s last four games to boot.
After this Sunday’s clash with Manchester United, there will be another round of international games, after which the Gunners will immediately play Chelsea in the FA Cup Final at Wembley followed by a Champions League game against Barcelona at Emirates Stadium.
Following on from Arsenal’s 3-0 Champions League win over HB Koge on Wednesday evening, Arseblog News asked Jonas whether he had sought assurances from any National Team managers to see whether their minutes could be managed during the upcoming rounds.
Arsenal 3 HB Køge 0 | UEFA Women’s Champions League post-match reaction with Tim Stillman – YouTube
“I speak to National Team managers all the time- I wish I had as much success with others as I did with Mark Parsons and the Netherlands! I guess it’s one of those when you’re closest to your own team.
“I’ve said many times before that it’s important to put player welfare first. It was important for Lotte (sat next to him in the post-match press conference) to get some time off recently too.
“As coaches, we have a responsibility not to make the players come up with the solution because, as a player, you want to play and you want to be loyal and available.
“But when you look at the schedule across the season, players will need time off. Not just physically, but to be motivated and refreshed from a mental perspective.
“I hope during the season we can co-operate. It’s not just about Arsenal as a club finding that time, there needs to be a co-operation with National Teams so they can have a break from both environments so the players are in the best possible condition.”
Arsenal take on Manchester United in the WSL on Sunday, with the game kicking off at 12.15pm at Leigh Sports Village. The match will be shown on BBC Two in the UK.
Should he not rest his players before asking other coaches to do the same?
International games are only 8 games over that time period. Players playing for their countries is not the problem.
He rested LWM and Heath. Plus Viv’s time off covered both national and club matches, and that’s the ideal way to do it.
Clubs have a bit more leeway to rest players than National Team managers, it seems to me. Club coaches can rotate players when playing bottom-of-league-table opponents. National team coaches can rest players when playing friendlies, perhaps, but they’re not going to rest players in WC or Euro qualifying matches, as they are too important.
I guess for the Arsenal it makes it harder that we have a lot of players from smaller national teams where our players are the absolute best and we can’t really expect them not to play or be rested in any meaningful game. Ireland, Scotland , Switzerland fighting for qualification doesn’t have any other option. But same time injured players are injured for the both – club and national team. So overplaying them in friendlies (looking at you Aussies) or playing them half injured in an important game (swiss) isn’t helping anyone. Besides seems like Arsenal can’t get rid of… Read more »
For Leah I can sort of understand to an extent given the captaincy issue, though she could still have been subbed off in the second game. But I like the way SW has handled Mead and Keets so far. They are usually rotated starting a game each, yet after the Wembley game a lot of people were like “why would Sarina start Parris over Mead?”
Hi guys, correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought clubs have the power not to release their players for international duty, but with good reason of course. I heard of this somewhere, not entirely sure, hope someone here can enlighten me on this question. Thanks!
Clubs are obliged to release players for FIFA sanctioned windows (which is all of them, more or less). If they refuse to release players, the player is suspended for their club for three games.
A three match suspension is around a week at the moment! Probably better than having injured players returning from international duty that are out for months!
I believe in this professional age that if a club is obliged to release a player for international duty and then that player is unavailable for selection in subsequent club games the club should be compensated in some way which is probably more important in the women’s game where squads are not as deep and just one league match with a poor result can result in losing the title.
It’s tricky I think. National teams have less games. If they are qualifiers and important, you want your best team. They have less time to form a team. You can see it with certain mens teams (ahum Dutch ahum). You can have great players, but you end up losing smaller games because you don’t work as a team. So you will want to have your top team available at all times in order to make most of the limited time you have. In an ideal situation. A club on the other hand, is the main employer for these girls. They… Read more »
Clubs haven’t been the main employer for women players in a very long time. Only in the last few season and only top clubs.
Players have fought for equal pay at NT level for a reason.
Clubs pay around 30K National teams pay more for a lot of players.
Really? I just assumed NTs paid a smaller fee than anybody would get from a club. However little your club pays, I assumed your NT fee annually would be less.
When is the press conference?
This was it, usually when there is a midweek game, they have an embargoed section at the end that acts as the pre-match press conference for the next game.
I can understand his concerns but nothing will come out of this. Not as along as public sentiment is flag over club shirt. Logic doesn’t play here. He is the new star of wsl and if he wants to use his capital as such to raise a public discussion, he would better off focusing on improving referee standards. He would find good backing for that.
That is already being worked on- it just takes quite a long time to realise, it’s a key pillar of the FA’s most recent women’s football strategy. There is a sense of all of us reaping what we sow here, though. Because we are so severe with referees and so intolerant of errors, nobody really wants to do the job.
Good to hear, thanks. I’m assuming the main work will go to improve the support system for referees, like organisation, compensation, training, protection etc. But yea, it probably would help if you are a bit of masochist when applying for the job.
Its not just the playing side that causes fatigue both mentally and physically. In Leah’s case, in the lead up to her injury at the Spuds, the schedule was manic. Sunday evening play 60 minutes of a WSL local derby at MP v Hammers. Monday fly to Copenhagen followed by training. Tuesday some rest time and light training. Wednesday prepare for a crucial match v Koge, play then straight back to airport for flight home. Thursday rest morning then ?. Friday training. Saturday early KO and a really physical battle with the Spuds = injured. What a surprise!! The international… Read more »