Taylor Hinds made her first WSL start of the season on Saturday and put in an outstanding performance at left-back. She hadn’t played since the 1-0 Champions League win over Koge in September and had been omitted from four matchday squads this season.
Arseblog News asked Renee Slegers how she managed Hinds during a time when she was not playing and how she balances rewarding those good performances going forwards. ‘I think what we do to help players is we have a really strong setup in our technical team. So all players have a personal development plan and all coaches have a group of four or five players that they work with.
‘Both from a review perspective, training, isolated repetition, technical repetition, check-ins in general. All players and Taylor specifically has had really good challenge and support, which is always important for us, for our PDP (Personal Development Plan) coach going in both directions.
‘Me and Taylor have had a lot of conversations throughout, both in the difficult times, but also, like I said, after the game, the performance that she puts in, the way she plays, the way she communicates, the way she does her actions with conviction for 90 minutes was great.
‘And it’s been a while since she played 90 minutes, it was Koge in the Champions League so I have much respect for that, and that’s her and together with other staff at the club, with the performance team, medical team, making sure that she’s so ready to go.
‘At this moment in the North London Derby, you see how hard she played in that game, she cares for Arsenal and this game was important to her. I think you could see it in the way she behaved on the pitch and she did amazing so I’m just really happy for her. She played a big role for the team in that game and there’s definitely put her in a good position going forward as well.’
BBC’s Emma Sanders asked Alessia Russo, also present at the pre Benfica press conference, how she supported her friend and teammate during the period where she found minutes difficult to come by. ‘Something that I would say to a lot of the girls is that you always have to be ready, football changes so fast, you’re always gonna be needed.
‘We’ve seen that last year with players when they step up and they do great. So I think, for Taylor, it was about making sure that I’m there for her, there was anything that she needed, but making sure that I kept her ready and kept her mindset focused on when she gets an opportunity, she will take it, and she did that.
‘She stepped up and she knows we have so much quality in our squad- Taylor included- and she got a chance and she did really, really great. I think that’s credit to us and the team to have players that are so ready to step in and commit to the team and commit to what we’re trying to build.’