Hello, Arsenal Women aficionados!
This week’s journal is a matter of seeing our glass half-empty or half-full. The narrow loss to Häcken was frustrating, especially if we consider the fair amount of back luck that went with it, while the league opener against Manchester City had us through all sorts of emotions and could have really gone either way. Both performances deserved a different outcome, but we were left to pay for some lapses in concentration at the back and lack of sharpness up front.
The one thing these games have in common is our inability to convert some very good chances, and another one is how costly those missed chances ended up being.
Let’s try to unpack what happened in Sweden, last week, then at the Emirates Stadium, on Sunday.
Goteborg, Wednesday night around 6.30pm: by the time Rosa Kafaji hit the bar with a curling effort from well inside the box, we should have been leading comfortably at Häcken and looking at putting the whole tie to bed, rather than bringing home a good result for the return leg. Later on, when Beth Mead headed the ball from point-blank range only for the goalkeeper to somehow keep it out, it became “one of those nights”.
Fast-forward thirty more minutes and we are desperately scrambling for an equaliser, Frida Maanum’s last-gasp header was kept out by the crossbar (again) and Häcken heading to London with an invaluable one-nil home win, which puts us under huge pressure.
London, Sunday afternoon around 1.10pm: Vivianne Miedema nutmegs Lotte Wubben-Moy on the edge of the penalty area and unleashes a powerful strike, which finds it way beyond Manuela Zinsberger following a heavy deflection by Laia Codina. Of course, it had to be her. By the time our former striker scored (although she really didn’t, did she?), Stina Blackstenius should have doubled our lead when put through on goal by Katie McCabe, but she fluffed her lines instead, and then should have restored it when on another one-v-one against the Manchester City goalkeeper.
Instead, we found ourselves behind shortly before the hour mark and Manchester City had several chances to put the game out of reach but could not find the killer goal due to a mix of poor shooting and good goalkeeping by Manuela Zinsberger. Thankfully, and deservedly, we found the equalizer through Beth Mead, but before that we squandered another couple of chances with Alessia Russo, who replaced Stina Blackstenius in the second half.
The burning question, when thinking about the last two games, is the following: can two good strikers make up for the lack of a truly outstanding goal scorer? I am afraid they cannot, and we might pay the price for it both in the UWCL and in the league.
JONAS’ WORDS
“I’m disappointed with the result. From a performance perspective, we created a lot of goalscoring opportunities. I think we should have scored at least one goal and of course, we need to defend the situation better where they score their goal. But now here we need to park this game. It’s only half time” said Jonas Eidevall immediately after the game in Goteborg, and we all felt the same.
When asked about the return leg, after the home draw against Manchester City, the head coach sounded way more defiant: “We knew what we did in Häcken last time. I thought that was a step backwards for us. Now, we need to take two steps forward. We know we need to win the game, we know we need to score goals, so let’s go after that, let’s bring everything on Thursday night, let’s make it a really special European night that doesn’t leave any stone unturned on that pitch in our quest to go into the group stage of the Champions League.”
I think that Jonas Eidevall is developing into a great communicator and motivator, and this could be key to taking the team to the next level. He has always been very transparent and honest with his answers, even when asked about tactics, but at times he sounded a bit too direct and came off as arrogant. He has since developed a more emotional side in his communication style that is creating deep connections with his players and the supporters and could be another difference-maker.
Another example is the eagerness to keep everyone involved, make everyone feel special all while setting the right priorities within the team. When asked about the impact of Beth Mead against Manchester City, he was quick in diverting the question from the individual to the team: “Such an important part of the squad that we have is that we understand it’s really important how we start the game, but also how we finish the game. Sometimes our players are going to have the role as starters, sometimes it’s going to be game changers, impact players, and you need to be able to do both, and you owe that to the team, because that’s how we’re going to get the best out of everyone.”
LESSON LEARNED
Back to the burning question from earlier, we need to understand how much Jonas Eidevall can improve the output of both Stina Blackstenius and Alessia Russo, because we cannot afford to miss chance after chance if we want to stand any chance to go all the way, this season. We find ourselves in a very delicate situation already because of that, with FC Häcken coming to London with a lead to protect, while we could have easily won in Sweden.
On the bright side, Frida Maanum found her scoring boots and is in scintillating form in the “ten” position. When she came on against Häcken she had two great chances to level the score, while against Manchester City she broke the deadlock and helped drive the team forward with her trademark powerful runs. Stylistically so different from Rosa Kafaji, the Norwegian adds strength and aggression to the team and is likely to be the first choice attacking midfielder for the foreseeable future, with the former Häcken player more of a super-sub – a role she played beautifully against Manchester City.
Performances-wise, both our games were solid but lacked the finishing touch – either in the form of luck or composure – so I guess I would still see the glass as half-full, rather than half-empty. Most will depend on whether or not we can turn the tie around against FC Häcken, on Thursday night.
NEXT UP
Meadow Park, here we come. After opening the WSL season at the Emirates Stadium, where our girls will play another ten times this season, we are going back to Meadow Park to host FC Häcken in the return leg of the UWCL playoffs. Three days later, we will visit Leicester City at the King Power Stadium, seeking a first league win.
I am cautiously optimistic about the qualification for the group stage of the UWCL, but Häcken showed that they can hurt us on the counter, so we would better be vigilant and avoid going all-out from the start. Leicester shouldn’t be much of a threat, per se, but the way we approach the game will change dramatically depending on the outcome of the UWCL playoff return leg.
We’ll discuss both games next week, once the dust has settled and emotions have been digested.
Speak to you soon!
Italian living in Switzerland, Gooner since mid-nineties, when the Gunners defeated my hometown team, in Copenhagen. I started my own blog and podcast (www.clockenditalia.com) after after some experiences with Italian websites and football magazines. Covering Arsenal Women with the occasional rant about the boys.
No comments yet.