Renee Slegers was back in front of the media at Sobha Realty Training Centre for her pre-Liverpool press conference on Friday.
Looking ahead to Sunday's Adobe Women's FA Cup quarter-final at Mangata Pay UK Stadium, here's everything she had to say on the following subjects.
**on team news:**
There’s one more session to go tomorrow, so we’ll see how everyone comes through. Lotte’s not available. Chloe Kelly is cup tied. Lina Hurtig has been ill so we’ll see if she’s going to be able to make it or not. As for the rest, everyone’s in contention.
**on Liverpool’s set-pieces:**
We always look at set-pieces. We always do a preview and a review and we train set-pieces ahead of games so that was no different against West Ham and it will be no different ahead and after Liverpool, but we are aware that two of the three goals were from corners, so that’s definitely something we want to do better.
**on the quality of the pitch:**
Normally it doesn’t (factor into preparation), but of course there’s some learnings from the West Ham game, mostly about the way we play and what spaces we’re looking for in a game, but a couple of small details will be linking to circumstances as well and the pitch is one of them, but that’s always going to be the case. We always look at where we’re going to play, what the circumstances are like and we try to be that detailed. That’s no different for Sunday. We want to play the Arsenal way so we want to be very good on the ball but we also want to find ways to win and that’s what we’ll try.
**on the challenge to expect from Liverpool:**
They changed formation and the way they did things in the game against Crystal Palace and we have to be ready to exploit that but at the same time we know they’ve been playing in another formation in a different style with Matt Beard, who has done an incredible job I think. We’ll see what they think suits the game on Sunday, what they’re going to come with, and we pride ourselves on problem solving as a group - staff and players - so that’s something we’re going to have to do really well on Sunday.
**on players blossoming:**
Beautiful question! I see the blossoms as well. I love it, I’m riding my bike into work in the mornings so it’s lovely to see. I think, staying with the weather, it makes such an impact for human beings and you see more smiles I think. Now while the sun is out, which is really lovely, that’s good and spirits have been very high in the group. Talking about blossoms and flourishing, we always try to be good as a collective and, if we’re good as a collective, then individuals can blossom, bloom and flourish. I don’t know what the right English word is but that’s what we try to do and I’m happy with it not being the same individuals all the time, but it’s right across the squad which means we’re good as a collective at the moment and we’re willing to do the work and do the job for individuals to be good in the games. I think that also says something about our unpredictability as a team, that we can do it in different ways against different teams.
**on how we’ve managed teams playing differently to what we expect:**
I think what’s been the main positive feedback from the West Ham game is that we have never been in this situation I think where we’re two goals down twice in a game and the girls showed that they can come back from those things to stay very composed and calm in the chaotic and pressured moments. That was my big positive feedback. I’m so happy to see that because we know what had to happen. We think clean sheets are very important for us. Defensive solidity, but it can happen sometimes. I think that’s the rules of football, it’s unpredictable. Anyone can score against anyone, otherwise it wouldn’t be interesting to come and watch, but us coming back from those setbacks, I’m very happy with the mentality in the team at the moment.
**on Katie McCabe’s goal against West Ham:**
It’s not one that we do a lot of repetition on, that type of finish from the sideline with the outside of the foot! But of course, football is football and we try to set up situations in training where they can play their football. It was a very technically high level moment whether it was a cross or a shot. Taking that ball on the outside of the foot, you can see we have great players in the team and that’s just one example of it.
**on penalty shootout practice:**
We do that consistently through training weeks, so that will be no different. I also know some players like to practice it, others don’t, so we try to look at individual needs as well.
**on having six more games this month:**
We’ve had these kinds of blocks before and that’s where we want to be, playing these kinds of games, we want to be active in all the competitions, actually since I’ve been in this role it’s been like that, game after game after game and we enjoy it, staff and players. I think we’ve found a good way to get everyone ready for the games physically and mentally before the blocks and find a good way and methodology between the games and we will stick with that methodology for this block as well.
**on how important Katie is for us:**
Yes she’s very important, as the rest of the team is, every individual contributes to the team in different ways both on and off the pitch. Katie does that with her qualities on the ball, her technical abilities, her left foot, her game intelligence, her versatility, she can play different roles on the pitch for us, she’s very vocal, on the pitch and in training, and in games which helps us move the team forward so she means a lot to us but then again there are a lot of individuals that play their roles in the team.
**on Amanda Ilestedt playing at right back:**
She’s done it before, also for the Swedish international team so we see that as an option for us, it was good to get Amanda on the pitch on Sunday, linking back to set pieces, she could help us defend the set pieces with her aerial abilities.
**on what’s impressed her most about Chloe Kelly:**
Of course you see players playing for other teams and you see the footage, so I think I had a good idea of who she was as a player on the pitch and to know her, the way she trains, the way she contributes to the team, her feistiness, her willingness to win, her competitiveness, I’m very impressed with these things and she’s helping the team move forward.
**on how hard it is to defend Chloe’s crosses into the corridor of uncertainty:**
If you get them right and you do it at the right time with the quality, the right timing of runs it’s very hard to defend those types of crosses that are in between goalkeeper and back line so I think that’s what Chloe brings, she’s good with both feet, she can do it from both sides. But then she can also make other decisions in the final third so, yeah, she brings a lot of quality to this team.
**on competitions for places with Beth Mead:**
When everyone’s available in those positions there’s extreme competition and that’s where the togetherness and the team cohesion comes in again and we have players that can start the game for us and we have players that can finish the game for us and it can be different from game to game.
**on wanting to get back into FA Cup finals and winning the trophy:**
Of course, it’s important, we know where we’re at, the girls know the stats as well of it being the last time in 2016 and it’s 14 \[FA Cup trophies\] and we want to make it 15 so it’s definitely something that drives us forward but I don’t think knowing that and saying ‘I want to go for that’ is going to make a difference, it’s the actions you do and the behaviours you show day in day out, in and around the training pitch, in and around the training ground that’s going to make the difference, that’s going to lead us to potentially having a bigger chance to winning trophies.
**on Liverpool’s defensive structure:**
Hard question to answer of course because they’ve changed some things in the last game against Crystal Palace. I think they have a strong belief in who they are and how they can deal with things. They’re not afraid of going high and pressing, that’s at least what they’ve been doing before and then stepping out and being aggressive going forward so I think they’ve been successful, they play to the players’ qualities, especially in the backline I think. So they’re a strong team and I think West Ham causes us a lot of problems as well, similar problems. I think, looking at the league, and the questions that every team asks us, it's hard in every game to find the solution and find a way to win.
**on if unpredictability impacts how we prepare for Sunday:**
Yes it does and it doesn’t because I think we’ve played a lot of games where we had to prepare for different scenarios. We prepare for one scenario and then the opposition comes out and does something else because they play against us and want to deal with the threats that we have so I think we face that a lot of times this season and we might have to face that again on Sunday so I’m quite confident that we will find the solution for whatever we play.
**on Kyra Cooney-Cross:**
I think the role that she plays for Arsenal is quite a complex role, we ask a lot of things, there’s a high demand on players in that role both in and out of possession and I think, especially if you look at her detail out of possession it’s improved so much and it’s because it takes time to get used to the way we want to do things and I’m very happy with Kyra’s visions and grit and staying in and keep working hard and that’s what she’s done and her chances have come and she’s taken the chances well. So, again, I think in all positions I think we have so many players doing well at the moment.
Copyright 2025 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.