Arsenal qualified for the Conti Cup Final with a 1-0 extra time win over Manchester City at Meadow Park thanks to a Stina Blackstenius goal. Jonas Eidevall spoke to the press post match, the first three questions are from Arseblog News.
On deciding to go with a back three for the first time since joining Arsenal…
I have done it many times before but never at Arsenal. You touched on the subject in the pre-match press conference on how you deal with City’s service from wide, naturally having a back three gives you the ability to stop crosses but also means you are well positioned inside the area when they do come in. I think they were areas that naturally gave us good positions in our build-up, especially how we could handle the transitions, who usually leave three players up top. That is a difficult situation to manage.
I decided to go for that but i think the players did that brilliantly, we worked on it in training and we had tactical meetings but it is difficult to pull all that information into a high stressed environment like we did today but they were brilliant at applying that. It’s one of the best examples I have seen of taking on information and it shows the brilliant game intelligence these players have.
On what he changed at half-time to produce a more dominant second half display…
There are always certain areas when you play, if the ball goes there, you need to be able to face forward. It doesn’t mean you have to play forward but you need to face forward when you receive the ball and we weren’t doing that quick enough in the first half. We ended up facing our own goal a lot and that alerted their pressing triggers.
A term I use a lot is early positioning and I think that is really important when you build up to position early. In the final third it is more about timing because you don’t necessarily want to arrive too early into space. In build-up it is the opposite, the earlier you arrive the better it is.
WE HAVE A GOAL!@SBlackstenius puts @ArsenalWFC in front!#ContiCup pic.twitter.com/MG9a3rpHNl
— Barclays Women's Super League (@BarclaysWSL) February 8, 2023
On his message at full-time after Arsenal created several big chances in the final minutes of normal time…
I told them when two teams get tired, you think you have to do something different. I think it is the opposite it is about the team who remains doing the basics the best that is going to win. I was instilling that into the players.
Trust the game plan, don’t make it complicated, make the same passes, trust your teammates. We scored so early from a nice pressing moment but after that, i don’t think we controlled the first half of extra time too well. We became too passive and didn’t control the spaces. The last 15 minutes was better, we had more control.
On the triple substitution on 63 minutes…
I didn’t give a Braveheart speech to the subs. They are busting to come on so I just reminded them of their roles and responsibilities, what the game plan is and trying to give them a few key points. It is nothing fun or inspiring at that time! And reminding them to keep focused on the details.
On whether Blackstenius’ confidence will be boosted by her winning goal…
When you look at Stina’s shots today and look at how central those shots are. That shows she was working well in her position. We came into a phase where Stina was working a bit too much outside on the flanks and she had a couple of games where she didn’t get the goal scoring opportunities either. I know Stina will score a lot of goals, it has been a matter of getting her more central, in front of goal, trust more that the ball will go there and not going too early. You see today she had four or five really good opportunities, she is working really, really well on that. People don’t realise that at West Ham because they are focusing on different things but I see that
14.D’Angelo; 26.Wienroither (16.Maritz ‘75), 3.Wubben-Moy (7.Catley ‘63), 2.Rafaelle, 15.McCabe; 6.Williamson (5.Beattie ‘82), 10.Little(c), 22.Kuhl (25.Blackstenius ‘63); 19.Foord, 21.Pelova (17.Hurtig ‘63), 12.Maanum.
Excellent! The back 3 worked really well. Great rotation to start Victoria and Katherine.
It was my first time seeing a live game (on TV) Vs Man City Women and it was really fascinating! To me, two players were outstanding – Sabrina D’Angelo and Laura Hemp. Laura was quite a handful I daresay! Our ladies dug in hard but were really sloppy in several phases of the game. Poor clearances time and time again, took too many touches before laying passes and too many poor touches which gave the ball away to Man City to pile pressure on us. A very hard fought win! Hopefully, the team will improve on these areas and turn… Read more »
Do do do do do do Sabrina!
She did look very good
On that display Sabrina has to be first choice for every game!
Agree. Even though Manu Zinsberger was excellent v West Ham at the weekend.
Have just watched a replay of the first half (much less stressful knowing the final result). Will watch rest of match tomorrow but a couple of quick observations. Really impressed with the fluidity of our play with some really slick interchanges of position. Lotte given the task of defending central areas against Bunny Shaw and hardly gave her a look in. Lauren Hemp is a world-class player who will always cause danger; just keep her out for another 90 minutes at the weekend!
I hope we go for Hemp. Her contract expires next season.
She’s such a good player and still very young.
Lauren Hemp is excellent and she can probably command a place in most teams in Europe. I guess it depends on the offers she receives and what her incentives are.
Won’t be surprised to see her end up at Chelsea. Scummy as they are, they know how to tie these kinds of deals up very quickly. Look how they snapped up Lauren James…
That is my fear but if we can grab a couple of trophies out of Chelsea’s grasp there might be more of a decision to make for young Lauren.
Overall we played well and kept Shaw, Hemp and Kelly largely under control. It was good to see Shaw in particular getting so frustrated since that means we were defending her well.
In Sabrina we have a new number 1. Dominated her area, claimed crosses, made saves, held on to the ball when required, long and short distribution even under pressure was good. I can see why Jonas wanted her in the squad.
Sabrina is indeed impressive. I also like all 3 of our young January recruits, all are skilful on the ball and are sure to make a positive impact in the 2nd half of the season; not too bothered at all about missing signing a new striker.
One thing I noticed about Sabrina was that it took me till the second half of extra time to be sure she was left-footed. She seemed equally comfortable passing out with either foot. That really makes life easier for the defenders as they don’t have to think about which side their goalie likes to receive a back pass.