Arsenal Women boss Renee Slegers says that she and her staff have planned for the absences of first team players during next month’s Asia Cup and says the impacted period is not long enough to seriously have altered Arsenal’s recruitment plans.
Steph Catley, Kyra Cooney-Cross and Caitlin Foord are all set to join up with Australia for the tournament in March, the FA Cup game against Bristol City on Sunday will be their final game before joining up. They are set to miss WSL games against London City Lionesses, West Ham and Tottenham.
‘When you plan for the season, you know that the tournament is there, and there’s potential for \[players\] to miss games for us. That is what it is – I think when you look at it, of course, we want all players available constantly. And that’s going to be important in this phase of the season, when we know that these players are going to be gone in the tournament.
‘But, there are always unpredictables, and there are always things that happen in the season that you have to deal with – there will be no difference. I think from a bigger, recruitment perspective, then I think we plan long-term. I think this will hopefully be a maximum of three games, so that’s what we’ll have to take.
‘But, of course, they’re going to be very proud, going away, representing their country in a big tournament. And we wish them all the best, of course, to be with us for two more games and then we’ll be really happy to get them back into the team, to keep on progressing and performing well and getting as many wins as possible in the second half of the season together with them.’
Slegers is aware that the trio of absences might lead to extra loading on remaining players but says she will use the upcoming international break to look into that in more detail. ‘I do always enjoy the international breaks, because that gives us some head space as a staff to look at the bigger picture. We review, we preview, we reflect, and we refine. So that’s always a nice moment for us as a staff.
‘And it’s, I think, for the players, a good moment as well to go away, be with others, be in a different environment, learn new things, speak their own languages, represent countries, which they’re often very proud of. And this will be a longer window.
‘So I think the one thing that I think about with this longer window is the players that are at home that will not get match minutes. So that’s something we’ll have to be really aware about and make sure that load is as good as possible. So, for example, for Kim Little (who is retired from international football).’