In the last two games, Arsenal have put together back-to-back wins for the first time this season against Spurs and Benfica. Slegers made some changes to the team in the North London derby and some of those partnerships bore fruit again against Benfica last night.
Taylor Hinds and Caitlin Foord again struck up a good relationship on the left hand side. Meanwhile, Alessia Russo played in the mumber 10 behind Olivia Smith upfront, who usually plays as a winger. These were partnerships Renee Slegers didn’t totally plan for a few weeks ago.
Arseblog News asked Slegers how she balances the short-term need for momentum and results with longer term squad building questions in her Thursday press conference ahead of Sunday’s home game with Aston Villa.
‘The short term is always important and the next game we have to make decisions that will help us win the game but that doesn’t mean that everything is the same every single game. I think those decisions play more into the decisions we make.
‘For example, last night, where we are dominant and we have a two goal lead and then a three goal lead. That’s where we can start making decisions that are bigger picture and looking towards the future, short, medium, and long term future. ‘But that’s a constant puzzle.
‘For example, the left side has been really good for us the last the games and has clicked really well. It doesn’t mean that the things that we did before with the players that were there before didn’t work. I’m just happy that in the moment these things played out really well and that we see partnerships building and that we see that we can bring different things and things are clicking now between different players.
‘So that’s really good for us to continue to build on also with the short turnarounds and the schedule that we have going forward.’ Slegers confirmed that defender Katie Reid, out since last October with an ACL injury, has had her return delayed by an ankle injury that will keep her out for the rest of the year at a minimum.
Arseblog News asked Slegers whether there were any concerns over injury management with Reid and Agyemang out for over a year with ACL injuries, while Mariona, Little, Maanum and Kelly have missed games with muscle injuries while Selina Cerci required knee surgery.
‘I think they’re individual cases, of course, we analyse between performance and medical to see if there’s anything we could have done differently and how we built them back in. And then we always know that return to play phases are unpredictable as well.
‘It’s unfortunate with Katie Reid and and Selena Cerci with the surgery and being out for a longer period of time. The positive is that Daph (van Domselaar) is really close to being back and Frida, hopefully, as well if everything goes to plan.’