Last Sunday, when most Gooners glanced at Arsenal’s women’s lineup to take on Manchester City, they were surprised. Alessia Russo, Beth Mead, and Lia Walti not starting when they were considered “undroppable” caught many by surprise.
Although most must have explained their decision not to start for tactical reasons, Arsenal women’s boss Jonas Eidevall has made an interesting claim. Eidevall, while reacting to Beth Mead coming from the bench and scoring for that 2-2 draw, hinted that in the end, it shouldn’t matter if she started or not.
He expects his players to consistently deliver their best performance when given the opportunity to play. He believes his players will perform best if they give their all, whether starting or as substitutes.
“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,” Jonas explained. “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.”
This season, Jonas Eidevall needed to be critical about his squad selection. His major undoing last season was that he kept changing his lineup, and his team failed to build consistency.
Indeed, he contends that every player must rise to the occasion, but establishing on-field relationships necessitates settling on a specific lineup and devising a system that facilitates squad rotation, likely to prevent injuries.
Arsenal have a stellar squad, and if they just live up to expectations, then they could be a formidable force in the league.
Do you agree with Jonas’ tactics?
Michelle M
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That concept does really apply to the mens team,but it will take long time to implement as we can see now the work of Arteta.
Big job ahead with Ladies team.
YES IT S BEST TO PLAY WELL THE WHOLE TIME, BUT MARGINALLY I WOULD RECKON IT S BEST TO START WELL, SCORE ONE OR TWO AND PUT PRESSURE ON THE OPPONENTS, BUT THEN WE NEED RUSSO AND BLACKSTENIUS TO START (DIDN T JONAS LEARN LAST SEASON TO PLAY THEM TOGETHER ?) AND AFTER WE SCORE GET WALTI ON QUICK, CLOSE UP THE DEFENCE