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The Arsenal Women Journal – Six and Counting for Renée and her girls [VAL 1-3 ARS]

Hello, Arsenal Women aficionados!

UWCL knock-out phase, here we come. The 3-1 win in Norway saw us validating our ticket for the first round of the knock-out phase of this year’s UWCL, restoring our status as one of the best teams in Europe.

The final fixture, at home to Bayern Munich, will tell us whether we progress as group winners or runners-up, but the mission is accomplished.

Despite a much-changed lineup, our players dominated the hosts and could have probably registered a much bigger scoreline, if it wasn’t for a mixture of bad luck and inconsistent finishing. Renée Slegers made five changes to the starting XI that defeated Aston Villa last weekend and handed Katie Reid her full debut in an Arsenal shirt, yet the team looked as fluid as ever. Alessia Russo scored twice each side of Frida Maanum’s customary European goal, while other players could – and probably should – have scored additional goals, before Valerenga make the most of the team’s sloppiness in the final ten minutes of the game, scoring the consolation goal and threatening to make the contest much closer than it was.

This was Arsenal’s sixth consecutive win in all competitions, a testament to Renée’s unbelievable job since she took over. Onto the next one now.

RENÉE’S WORDS

The interim head-coach was obviously delighted with the win, but she sounded especially happy for Katie Reid and Freya Godfrey:

I’ve been here for a little more than a year, and I see how the academy players are developing. It’s getting stronger and stronger, better and better, and players are coming through. Katie and Freya have been with us for a while. They train with us day in, day out. They’ve shown in our training environment that they deserve these opportunities and they’re ready to go. I think you could see that with Katie Reid today, starting for us, she did really well. We felt this was the right game to give Freya the opportunity, as well.”

Katie Reid, a centre-half by trade, was deployed at right-back in place of Emily Fox and slotted in very well, both defensively and offensively: despite her young age, she looked calm and composed, although at time a bit over-enthusiastic when the goal was at sight. Freya Godfrey, who like Katie Reid impressed during the US tour, last summer, couldn’t have much of an impact when coming on, but she surely enjoyed the opportunity.

Further down her post-match interview, Renée Slegers spoke about games coming thick and fast, with Liverpool next:

“[…] It’s coming so quickly. We’ve already spoken about recovery. The girls are doing what they need to do already now, minutes after the game, to get ready for Liverpool. I think that’s the advantage you have. If it comes so quickly, you have no time to think. It’s Liverpool.”

Thursday night in Norway, Sunday afternoon in the Merseyside. That’s not ideal, indeed.

Having rotated the team so heavily (and so seamlessly) will help having the best possible XI on the pitch at the Totally Wicked (ugh…) Stadium, but I suspect that Renée will have the Bayern game in her mind – so I won’t be surprised if a couple of big players were given limited minutes, on Sunday.

LESSON LEARNED

Our youngsters are looking bright: Katie Reid showed that she can be a valid option, although the right-back position seems well stacked at the moment, while Freya Godfrey had another opportunity to show her qualities. Elsewhere, we have Teyah Goldie playing regularly at London Lionesses in the Championship and Michelle Agyemang cutting her teeth in the WSL with Brighton, both waiting to be given an opportunity at their parent club.

I don’t know how this team will look next summer – or even after the winter break – but the talent pool seems very exciting, and I would be surprised if none of the players mentioned above were to become a first-team regular.

On the tactical side of the game, the most interesting aspect of the starting XI was Alessia Russo’s position in the forward line: the England international was deployed as a winger, out on the left, with Caitin Foord on the opposite side and Frida Maanum behind Stina Blackstenius. The former Manchester United forward is equally good as a lone striker or as a second striker, so I expected her to play off Stina Blackstenius in a more central role, but Renée Slegers opted for a midfield duo of Mariona Caldentey and Kyra Cooney-Cross and for a conventional attacking midfielder, instead. It pushed Alessia Russo wide, but given her output in the game, it worked wonderfully.

Perhaps Renée Slegers just found a way to make Alessia Russo and Stina Blackstenius coexist, something that Jonas Eidevall unfortunately couldn’t achieve.

Speaking of Stina Blackstenius, the game against Valerenga summed up her qualities pretty well – especially in one passage of play: midway through the second half, with the team already three-nil up, she controlled beautifully a long ball from Manuela Zinsberger, passed it back to Rosa Kafaji who released Frida Maanum in the central channel; the Norwegian waited for Stina Blackstenius intelligent run on the left-hand channel, played her through, but Stina Blackstenius could only hit the post from a narrow angle.

Stina Blackstenius did everything 100% right, from the control while under pressure to the supporting run. Everything but one thing: the finishing.

Like many other times during her Arsenal career, she deserved to score, she deserved to apply the finishing touch to a wonderful team move she initiated and instigated, yet the ball didn’t hit the back of the net.

Football is a sport of fine margins and, for a reason I can’t explain, those margins are almost always against Stina Blackstenius: whether it is a miraculous save from the goalkeeper, or the post, or the bar, or a desperate goal-line clearance, there is always something preventing her from converting those chances. What a player she would be, if she could turn those fine margins to her advantage…

 

NEXT’S UP

Our beloved Arsenal Women team will be back on the pitch in Liverpool, on Sunday afternoon.

A big game to consolidate our third-place berth and put ourselves in the best possible position to take advantage of any unexpected slip-up.

Then, it will be Bayern at home for the final fixture of the UWCL group stage!

Speak to you soon!

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2 Responses to The Arsenal Women Journal – Six and Counting for Renée and her girls [VAL 1-3 ARS]

  1. RcCr December 16, 2024 at 4:42 pm #

    Stina + Maanum: It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma: but perhaps there is a key. (Churchill)

    Your comments on Stina are spot on; and i think they apply to Maanum as well but deeper on the pitch at the decision point of playing herself forward- passing- or shooting. And both have varying degrees of difficulty with offside.

    I would put this down to spatial awareness and confidence in playing with the ball at their feet. Both are much improved with ball control from when they 1st came to arsenal. Clearly their training within the talent pool is providing/forcing improvement; except, i believe it is their spatial awareness – where are the opposition players keeping them onside, where are they spaced with the keeper coming or staying back; followed by switching back from looking up and then back down to the ball. It is their use of peripheral vision (or lack thereof) which skews those ‘fine margins’.

    If asked, i could come up with a dozen players who are offside at much higher percentages than others – Sam Kerr is always offside… Harry Kane is never offside… WHY???

    Every so often i will see a story of top managers who devised special training methods for specific players and situations. I obviously don’t know what occurs at training, but often think standard drills don’t focus on such specific player disconnects. Just as teams are adding coaches for set pieces, i would suggest they need a coach who develops training exercises, methods, eye tracking glasses, whatever; to change the habits of players at specific points in their play to overcome their habitual errors… And then repetition… I know this sounds a bit off-the-wall but so is seeing a player fall down, bounce, get up and still score OR whiff at the ball, do a 360 and repeat…

    And, last, i have heard this skill regarding the best strikers as something they have which others do not: a calmness at that critical point to recognize the when to strike vs the smallest of pauses to let themselves focus on the strike. (or the pass) to refocus mentally and physically…

    If this comment is too unusual, you need not post it through…

  2. Andrea Rosati December 17, 2024 at 8:30 am #

    Thanks very much for reading and taking the time to share your thoughts, every comment is more than welcome. You make a very good point about offside and art of being aware of where you, the ball, your teammates and your opponents are. I haven’t looked very much into Frida Maanum, on that specific aspect, but it is true that Stina is often flagged offside and that hampers our chances to score, however I believe that it is deeply interlinked with her style. I can see very few players as good as Stina at running in behind and working the channels, but that comes with a high-risk of being called offside. Also, her teammates might be slow in spotting her runs and making the pass, which will put the blame on Stina for being offside while it’s not entirely her fault.

    I have very high hopes that Kelly Smith, in her capacity as coach for our forwards, can improve some aspects of our attacking play and specifically work on individual shortcomings. If we consider that Alessia Russo has scored in five consecutive WSL games, one can be optimistic that other forwards will improve their abilities under Kelly Smith’s tutelage.

    Speak to you soon,

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