These are worrying times as they slump to their fifth defeat in six matches with a late Manchester United goal more than enough to knock them out of the Continental League Cup.
Here’s Tim Stillman sharing his thoughts on Head Coach Jonas Eidevall’s approach to the match and perspective on the result, where improvements need to be made, whether opponents have got Arsenal all figured out, and Vivianne Miedema’s form.
I believe the club need to sort out Viv’s future asap and mutually decide if she is staying or leaving. Nothing is working for her at the moment and it makes you wonder if her head is somewhere else. This is a carbon copy of the DvD situation who was in the duldrums for most of her final season but seemed to re-invent herself once she had confirmed she was leaving. Personally I am not fussed either way, but a decision has to be made so that we can start winning games again. There is still plenty to play for… Read more »
At the beginning of the season, we were good because of Kim Little and Beth Mead. Sometimes, McCabe also contributes to it. The all goals scored by Medeima also came from these players. But in the last 5-6 games, we can see clearly Beth Mead and Kim Little are not at their top form. They stop scoring or create chances for goal scoring. Add to that, our defenders were very terrible after Leah is missing. Jonas needs to bring both players back to their form immediately. Nikita and Tobin are good but not good enough as both players did at… Read more »
Beth has always been inconsistent and never a reliable scorer. She adds a lot of value to our team by pressing, but she has never scored more than 8 goals in a season for us. And she has never been higher than 70% passer. She is and has been very effective chaos player who is high risk high reward, but Jonas is using her to be main structure and progression player. Our attacks die with her a lot, because in tough games she is often 50% passer. This isn’t criticism of Beth, it is what she has always been. And… Read more »
Our problem is Beth started the season on fire. Everyone and his mate could see it and now she is either marked out of the game or, when marking doesn’t work, she is kicked out of the game just like last night. It must be difficult playing every game at 100% when you are covered in bruises knowing that you will get more bruises, and perhaps worse, every time you face up to an opponent! Even Barcelona gave her a good kicking and they didn’t even need to! I don’t think Beth has tried less or dipped in form appreciably… Read more »
Come on girls don’t give the season away to Chelsea wake up
At moment I have lot of issues with Jonas and his chosen game plan, but honestly for me the biggest red sign at moment is that he doesn’t rate or doesn’t have a clue how to use Viv. She is striker who can do all – she can run behind, she can combine, she can drop short, she can even head in the crosses if played right – there isn’t a gameplan that she isn’t suited for. But he has managed to find one. Even Viv in bad form should get chances.
Unfortunately, it’s not just Viv, is it?
Passes are going astray and the ball is given away too cheaply, too often.
It seems for whatever reason that we have lost the “teamness” and are playing more like a collection of individuals and no single person is ever going to beat a well organised team of eleven.
I think you’re so right about that, and it makes me sad to see her struggle. I honestly don’t think it’s a ‘bad form’ issue, it’s the tactics that aren’t right. I convinced he would play Miedema and Blackstenius, and I couldn’t believe my eyes when he subbed off Miedema instead of Parris, who literally created nothing…
Miedema simply hasn’t got any service in about 8 games. If half those games she’s had to come back to midfield to get touches and just help with possession. Arsenal are not good in transition and can’t keep the ball in the attacking half long enough to create good chances.
I would never have thought that the wonderful team we saw at the start of the season could sink so low. Something or someone has gone terribly wrong, last night they looked beat when they walked onto the pitch. I don’t know if the manager is to blame but I do know he’s got one hell of a job trying to turn things around.
Looks like the new manager bounce is over.
It’s certainly true that all too often Beth is kicked out if the game, and her treatment warrants more yellow cards than are actually issued. However, I’m now thinking that our main problems are in midfield. Even though Kim was probably our best player yesterday, she wasn’t in the scintillating form of early season. That’s not surprising as she went from the Olympics (GB’s best player) to Champions League qualifying and then straight into the WSL and last season’s FA Cup. Sadly, I also have to say that Jordan’s serious injuries over the past few seasons have caught up with… Read more »
Just caught up with the game on FA Player full match replay. Not happy with the loss of course, tough to see your team lose. But I defitely saw a very clear difference in the style of play than before, of releasing the ball much more quickly and the receivers getting in position to enable this. We weren’t awarded with a win this time, but we played much better game than they did, and kudos to all the players and the coaching staff. I watching this game I sincerely believe I see we are headed in the right direction (even… Read more »