Renee Slegers was back at the Sobha Realty Training Centre for a press conference on Friday ahead of our Women's Super League clash with Leicester City on Saturday, November 1.
Our head coach was asked about the latest team news and previewed the upcoming block of games, including next week's showdown with Chelsea.
Here is what she had to say to the media, with a video to follow:
**on Michelle Agyemang’s injury:**
Very sad news, of course. I watched the game, so I saw it happen and then, of course, a couple of days later we get the confirmation, the results from the scan back. I haven't seen Mich yet, so it's, of course, a very sad time. When these moments happen, it's horrible, because you know that it will keep them away from the game for a long time. It's a long investment for those players to come back again. If you look at Mich, specifically, I think she's been doing so well. Her loan at Brighton has been really positive. She's got all those minutes for England, contributing in the Euros. So she was in a really good place. Of course, the timing of this isn't great, it's never good timing. But she's very strong and we're, of course, very proud to have her. We know that she has the strength to come back and we're going to do everything to support her.
**on how sad she is for her:**
It's bad timing. But often, it's always bad timing. Very disappointed for her. Like I said, I've gone through it twice as well. So I know what it does, how much strength it takes, both physically and mentally, to come back. But Mich is very strong. She's a young adult, but she's very, very strong. So she will have the strength to come back and we will do everything we can to support her.
**on the rest of the squad:**
Leah Williamson is not available. Manu \[Zinsberger\] is not available. The rest are in the building and training at their level and everyone is in contention to be in the squad for Leicester.
**on Katie Reid’s withdrawal from the England squad:**
Of course, disappointed. I went to have a chat with her. As you can see on the pitch, her maturity, she shows that off the pitch as well. She was disappointed, but of course, she looked forward to it very, very much. But she said, 'this is reality as it is right now, I have to accept it and I'm going to do everything to come back as quickly as possible, and the next game for me to play will be for Arsenal and I'll work really hard and keep on doing my thing.'
So she was disappointed, but she's also very good at accepting reality and being in the here and now and that's why she is at this point, I think, as a young player, she's investing in herself every single day.
**on needing a good performance:**
Of course. We know what we're capable of, and I think looking back at block one, the results were very, very mixed and not what we wanted. Performances the same. So we want to look forward. We want to get the absolute best out of ourselves, and football will never be perfect, but show bigger spells and really show our strength on the pitch as a team. But also in our game of football. So, aggression out of possession, get real effect out of those moments and being really, really good on the ball because we have a really good technical and intelligent team.
**on the second block of games:**
So five games in three weeks and very challenging and exciting games. We look forward to the challenges. I'm excited, of course, we are part of Arsenal and that's part of being at Arsenal, that you play these games and we have pressure on you. But we shouldn't forget to enjoy those moments. So we're going to try to do the absolute best to maximise our potential and we believe in ourselves. It's really, really hard work, but putting things into perspective, this was the first day back with all the players.
We, of course, previewed the block, and framed the block and what we want to achieve and how we want to do things, and there's a real positivity and the players come back with real energy and real intent. That's what we want to achieve in the block. It's very cliché, but we're going to take it game by game. So a combination of being in the moment, playing that next game, it's the most important game you'll ever play, so that will be Leicester on Sunday.
Then putting things into bigger perspective as well because we're all very proud to represent Arsenal. We want to show Arsenal at it's very, very best and we know that we represent a lot of people. Of course, the fans. I think there's 2,000 fans travelling to Leicester with us. So we see that bigger picture, we understand our responsibility from all those perspectives. We will be in the here and now and we'll do our very best against Leicester.
**on how she reflected on the first block during the international break:**
I think the more time you have to reflect and to plan, the risk is that you want too many things and you have a long list. I think what the challenge is, is what exactly are the main and most important things that we want to achieve and want to reinforce and work on. I think we’ve done a really good job with the staff. We've done some really good work with the players today. So, I think we have a clear idea of what we’re going after and then it's about executing every single day.
Of course, the first block was very long with that international window not being there. So, especially for the players that were in with us from the very first start of pre-season, it was a very, very long block. Being a professional athletes, a lot of things are asked from you every single day, you have to perform at your absolute best, both mentally and physically. I like that as a player as well, that change of scenery, go somewhere else. That also gives you perspective and new energy and you come back. I just felt today, the players back in, just very proud to be part of Arsenal and having that shirt on again, even though it's a training shirt. But that's really what I felt today. So we look forward to the next block.
**on if the international break came at the right time:**
Of course, we have a lot of players that have gone in different directions with different teams, different nationalities. So they've all been doing different things. But they don't forget so quickly and a lot of players play in similar roles in their national teams as well. I believe that we have a lot of clarity on the Arsenal way and how we want to play our football. But then it's still like maximising these two days to create those partnerships again both on and off the pitch and that's what we try to do. We've had a long day, we've invested a lot and tomorrow we'll do that as well.
**on Mariona Caldentey’s omission from the FIFAPro World 11:**
I'm not involved in those processes. I think it was a voting system. But all I know is Mariona’s here with us, and she's a fantastic footballer. She's world-class. So we're just very happy to have her with us.
**on Katie McCabe reaching 100 Ireland caps:**
She should be very proud. 100 caps for Ireland is a lot. I think if you don't go to all the tournaments, then it becomes harder to get the caps. That says something about how much she's meant to Ireland for so long. She should be very proud. We celebrated it this morning and we are very proud of her and her achievements. You always look at how players come back in, where do they come from, how have they been performing, what have the results been with their national teams, where are they at and we try to meet everyone where they are. But of course, Katie came back with a lot of energy and positivity.
**on Alessia Russo’s evolution at the club:**
She is such a fantastic player and I have the privilege to work with so many good players. What Alessia does is not only her sharpness quality in front of goal, but there's so many more things to her game. I think it's very rare to see number nines in the game in general who contribute on so many levels to a team. I'm not only saying on the pitch, in and out of possession and all phases of the game. I also mean off the pitch and who she is as a human being, what she contributes to the group. There are so many things to what Alessia brings to Arsenal and I'm very happy to work with her.
**on Leicester City:**
The WSL is a very strong league, and if you look at Leicester's results, there are many one-goal differences in the results. So it's going to be a challenge. They have a strong identity with their defending game and the way they do that. We have to break things down and find the right moments to capitalise on when things are organised and when things are disorganised. So we'll go there with respect, of course, because they've made it really hard for a lot of teams so far. We also go there with a big belief in the qualities that we have.
**on roation of the squad in this block of games:**
There's so many things going into how we create role clarity for the game, as we call it. I also think if I see the squad every single day and what I need to remind myself more of is acknowledging how much influence that every single player has and how much impact they have on what we try to achieve as a group. So I understand that on the outside world, it's very interesting to talk about starters, squads, selection, and it is part of football. What I do think is that I would like to break it down a little bit. Of course, it's on the weekend or on the match day you can only start 11 players and you can make five changes, that's reality of the rules in the system. So we just have to relate to that. On the other side, I think that there’s a couple of things that we can do differently in how we value the whole squad.
Not only us on the inside, but also on the outside because at that moment in time, there are 90 minutes to play against that opponent, and there will be at the start 11 players on the pitch, and there will be a maximum of five coming in, and they will impact the game. But also, the players who weren't on that pitch also impacted the game, both in preparation, during, and after. But of course, I understand the question and there's a lot of thinking going into that. I won't share it here, how I'm thinking, because also you have a plan and then reality happens and then you might have to change your plan as well. So of course we think and of course we plan and have ideas. But the starting point will be Leicester on Sunday, try to be as strong, set ourselves up as strong as possible and that will be our starting point for the block.
**on how Manuela Zinsberger is doing:**
Very hard for her, Manu is always very, very sad when these things happen and she hasn’t had big injuries through her career so it’s something new for her, and she said “I haven’t done this, I don’t know how to deal with this,” but what I’ve seen is how the players have been so supportive of her and I see how the team comes together in those types of moments and so she gets a lot of support from the team. We have a fantastic set up from a medical perspective and she will get all the help and support that she needs to be able to be as fit as possible and be able to recover from this injury. She hasn’t done her surgery yet so that’s where she’s at. She is with us, she’s in the building and just contributed really well in the team meeting that we had, so she’s with us, but unfortunately she won’t be able to be out on the pitch and that’s very, very sad.
**on the mental health of coaches:**
It’s very demanding, this role, not only from a workload perspective, it’s not only the hours and the work that you have to do, but of course it’s the emotional demands as well. I definitely agree that we have to look at structures and systems that make it harder for bad things to happen, so we have the support system in place as a league, as a federation and so forth. I think that’s very important, because I’m only young and I have only done a couple of years. Of course I’ve coached in the Swedish league as well, but this is my first time in England and the game here is so big, there’s so much pressure. What I try to do is manage myself the best way possible, so that’s all I can do at the time and I think as a coach having my own coping strategies, making sure I get my recovery, get my time to understand myself, deal with my thoughts, feelings in a good way so I can self-regulate most of the time. But I definitely agree with Rehanne (Skinner) that it’s important that there’s a good system in place.
**on how players adjust after international tournaments:**
Unfortunately through injuries, I only played one big tournament, the Euros in Sweden and we were out in the group stage and never went to a quarter or semi-final, so I don’t have the real experience I would say. Also at the time, the game wasn’t as big, the exposure wasn’t as big, the pressure wasn’t as big as it is now. So I can’t relate exactly to what the players go through in the here and now in 2025, it wasn’t the same when I was younger and like I said I only played one big tournament. But I do know how much is asked from these players, because these players are asked to perform and their very, very best when they’re at their club and they get a couple of days off and then they go into pre-camp where they might get a weekend or a couple of days and then they have to go and perform at their very, very best for their countries and everyone has these expectations that they will be at their best. So they ask a lot from themselves, it’s also the role they play, that’s the job they have and the life they live, so like I just said it’s about the coping strategies and how do you regulate yourself in those moments? It doesn’t mean that it’s always easy, so I think that perspective on players is really important to understand for the outside world but more importantly, internally, so we understand how we manage players, how we support them both from a physical and mental perspective, so it’s important. We have to stay on top of things because things change so quickly because if I’m just saying that I think in 2013 I played the Euros in Sweden, it’s now 12 years later and 12 years sounds like a lot of time, it’s not, if you look at all the change that’s happened, so we need to stay on top of those things.
**on avoiding letting leads slip:**
Yeah so when we’ve been in the middle of our momentum and flow, things have felt easy for us, and as a result of that, the goals came easy for us as well, so you’re automatically, earlier, in a state of comfort and that’s not what we had. That doesn’t mean it’s not going to come back, we believe that we can get ourselves into that direction again. What then becomes really important is how you start the game, how you finish the game and how you deal with everything in between and that’s how we manage different scenarios, how we stay focused on the rights things, how we keep on delivering the outputs in our physical actions, how we have our starters and game changers, because we know our game changers very often make an impact and were strong late in games as well. So we’ve definitely looked at that from all aspects, from a football perspective, from a psychological perspective, from a physical perspective as well.
**on what she does during the international break:**
The players that are at home and the staff obviously, we usually have a couple of days off to recover. What we did after Benfica was that everyone who played who went to their national team got a couple of days because the Benfica game was in the middle of the week and the national teams started on Monday, so that was really good I think for everyone. That’s normally what we do, we get very little time to reflect on it when we’re in it and that’s always a good moment for everyone in their specific areas to go away and reflect and give your mind some time to come up with new ideas and be creative and understand what’s happened and how you want to go forwards. So often the first couple of days, the first week is about that, and then we stay alive here with training sessions and the players that are in and work with those players. The second half of the international window is about the preview for the next block, so it’s about planning, preparing for the next opposition, preparing for the first meetings with the players in, so that’s often the split of a national team break. But the recovery days and some space to breathe and think is really good and healthy for a lot of people who get that opportunity.
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.