In front of a record WSL match attendance of 54,115 at the Emirates, our Arsenal women failed to do the one thing we hoped they would do, which was crush Liverpool. Our Women lost 0-1 (Miriael Taylor scored for the Reds) to make it the second time we’ve lost in a WSL opener to Liverpool as we last lost the first game of the season back in 2013.
Our game plan was to overload the midfield and give Liverpool no room to breathe, with Eidevall opting to start with a back three. However, the Reds had other plans; they were keen to prevent us from dominating and penetrating through the midfield.
We tried to break them down and could have done a better job at that. We tried to use long balls, but that also didn’t work. The Liverpool boss Matt Beard noted that his anticipation about our game plan may have worked, saying after the game that he almost knew we would use a back three and thus set up his team to counter that, a move that may have won them the game.
Beard said after the game: “No, not really. Because even if they’re playing a back four, they build with three anyway. We had planned for dealing with a back three or them dropping a full-back just to create the overload. We just wanted to make sure that we dominated centrally because they like to get it into midfield, get it back, [and] then go round you. We stopped that happening. They had to go wide; [we] forced them into the turnover every now and then.
“As I say, defensively – crosses, blocking shots, Lawsy’s making saves when she needed to – I thought we were outstanding. I think we really restricted them to crosses coming in and shots from distance.”
Considering our ambitions to win the WSL this season, losing to Liverpool, who we beat home and away last season, wasn’t part of the script.
However, we can still rewrite the script. In this new script, we have two options for the storyline: either go unbeaten in the games to come or be ready not to lose to any of our other main title rivals like Manchester United and Chelsea, starting next week!
Michelle Maxwell
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