Renee Slegers reacts to 1-0 victory over Paris FC
Arsenal were 1-0 winners in a pre-season friendly at home to Paris FC on Sunday thanks to a last gasp winner from Olivia Smith. Renee Slegers spoke to the press post-match. The first two questions are from Arseblog News.
On attacking recruitment this summer, turning six WSL draws into victories and having greater individual actions to win games…
It has been and not only this season, there has been very good strategic work going on in the background with Claire (Wheatley), Kevin (Murphy) and Jodie (Taylor), where we see the game growing we want to be ahead of it and proactive because the game is getting faster every single year. We really look at the athletic profile that we think can manage the growth of the game with the speed of the development of the game, that has been a big factor. Today is the type of game we tend to play against a mid or low block and we have to create everything and it’s mentally demanding. To then have players that can do something individually is so good for the team. Like you said, you saw that today with Olivia but you saw it with other players like Lisa (Baum) what she can do on her own, and a couple of other players as well. It’s important for us.
Whether Arsenal are done in the transfer window…
The window is still open and we are still active. We look how we can strengthen the squad still. I am super happy with the squad that we have and the way we have built in characters we have and, like you said, the athletic profile and the qualities we are bringing in. The squad is looking very close to complete and everything we wanted. But it is still open and we are still active.
On the team’s goals for the season as well as her goals…
Team goal is 100% putting ourselves in the position to be the team in England to win the WSL. We are super explicit about that going into this year. What we think we need with that is to be the most connected team as well and that means on and off the pitch. That is the statement we have made for ourselves and I am super transparent about that. That is something we have kept inside and we do everything with that demand. That is 100% our season ambition. We want to endure things better because, Tim mentioned it, the draws last season cost us and we want to be able to put performances in that get us wins. So we need to be able to endure difficult moments and get results. For me personally, I want to make the team better and for the players to maximise their potential.
On learning from the seven new players…
Definitely, definitely. That is the balance when players come in, we have a certain structure, framework that we want to play and we give them the clarity. But we also wait with that a little bit, we don’t want to give them too much information because we want to see what they bring to the environment and what ideas they bring when we talk about football. What are your experiences at other clubs? What can we learn? What actions do players do before we tell them what we want them to do, that is the fun part of the role, the recruitment process, integration into the squad and seeing new things and creating new ideas.
On avoiding another slow start to the season…
The lead in to the league is perfect but the way we endure things and the things we go through, it isn’t perfect and we don’t want it to be perfect because things can’t be too nice, they need to be hard and we need to suffer. The actual setup and plan is great because players have had their time off, they really felt that love when they came back and if you look at a few players who have gone tournament to tournament to tournament, that time off is priceless.
On enjoying Smith’s last minute goal…
I jumped, eh? I went like ‘wooo!’ I did because it does something to the team, it feels like we can get the wins over the line. We said in the huddle afterwards that we could have and should have done it earlier and we need to work on our details. A lot of things we do really well but if we get our details right we are going to be really good. But knowing we can win late and we have the energy and quality to do something is really important.
On new setpiece coach Nikita Runnacles…
She is supporting Seb Barton as well with the goalkeepers, at the moment we have five goalkeepers in our training environment but she is coming with new ideas around setpieces, clarity and simplicity and she has done really well so far. We have scored two setpiece goals in pre-season we couldn’t get one today but it’s exciting because it is an area of growth. When I look at the amount of corners we get and the amount of goals we score, we can improve.
On adding Selina Cerci as a third centre-forward…
We think it is a crucial position, there are a couple of positions in the team we think are crucial where you need to have quality, so if someone is not there due to illness or injury, we need the back up so that is why we chose to have three central forwards in the squad. The strength with those three is the versatility because Alessia, Stina and Selina are all very different players with different qualities. It is a blessing for me to have those options but also a challenge to manage that and make sure we choose the right things in the right moments.
16.Misa; 31.Holmberg (24.Hinds HT), 6.Williamson, 3.Wubben-Moy (7.Catley ‘64), 2.Fox (9.Foord ‘76); 10.Little(c) (14.Reuteler ‘64), 4.Stanway (32.Cooney-Cross ‘64), 8.Mariona (25.Blackstenius ‘77); 11.Smith, 19.Baum; 29.Cerci (23.Russo HT)
Unused: 28.Borbe, 40.Damm, 50.Conway, 55.Teer-Hutchins
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