Kim Little will not be risked for Arsenal’s game against Valarenga in Norway this evening. Renee Slegers told Arseblog News that ‘it is not major, she is just recovering.’ With sub zero temperatures in Oslo and an artificial pitch, the decision has been taken not to risk the long-term Gunners captain.
Arseblog News asks Slegers in her pre-match press conference whether there has been a conscious decision to manage the 34-year-old’s minutes this season. She is rarely on the bench but Little’s average number of minutes per start has dipped from 76 last season to 67 this.
‘I stepped in for block two and we have been having communication with Kim all the time. Kim is a very important player on and off the pitch and in the group as well with her leadership and experience and everything else she does for us, which is not always just to do with football,’ Slegers explained.
‘She is very important. In block two we went with a lot of consistency in the team and Kim is very important for us but sometimes at the end of the game we need something else and we just want to get the best out of Kim for as long as possible because she is very important.’
Arsenal will top their UWCL group if they win their final two games away at Valarenga and at home to Bayern Munich. Arsenal are already guaranteed a quarter-final berth but Slegers says the team is motivated to try to finish top.
‘That is what we go for, when we got together for this block we presented the key objectives for the block and we have already qualified but we want to go and get the top spot. There are two more games to play and we want to try to get that.’
There are 1,000 Arsenal fans expected in the away end this evening, through a mixture of local and travelling fans. Slegers says her and the coaching staff have used that as a specific motivation for this evening.
‘We just had a meeting of the team and presented a picture of the fans and told them there will be 1,000 Arsenal fans in the away section, local fans and travelling fans.
‘People invest so much time and money in coming to see us and support us so we said to the players ‘let’s deliver a good performance again because all these people are here to support us.’
Asked by a Norwegian journalist how English women’s football and Arsenal in particular have managed to cultivate such a rise in interest and attendances in recent years.
‘England is where football is from and the culture around football there is totally different to anywhere else. People live football here, it is on a totally different level. It is everything.
‘The Euros, for example, in England played a big part as well and we are seeing that football is for everyone. With women’s football more people are coming and getting the chance to come and watch football and experience it together.
‘Arsenal has been working for a long time on this and we play Aston Villa at the weekend and it’s 30,000 people in the stands and sometimes you need a reality check as well. It is going so fast, we want more as well but I am so happy our players can play on that stage.
‘I wish for equality, so there is opportunity for everyone to be involved in sports at whatever level that is. Sports have been part of culture and society forever, so it means a lot. What I hope for is engagement and involvement from as many people as possible.’
In her programme notes for the Aston Villa match, Slegers says she doesn’t spend much time in the dressing room pre-match, preferring to leave that space for players to talk among themselves. Asked whether this has been a key to the team’s revival under her, Slegers says she has been keen to build an environment of player accountability.
‘The analysis of what is going well when things are going well is always interesting. Usually you analyse and reflect when things are hard and you want to perform again.
‘But it is always interesting when things are going well to look at exactly what is going well. I think there are a couple of different things but, for me, the biggest thing is the players taking more ownership and we need to facilitate that.
‘Part of that is trusting them. In every dynamic you have natural leaders, sometimes based on experience or age or different personalities. What we try to do is to make sure everyone feels involved and we engage all players. How the staff and the players themselves have been facilitating that has been going really well.’