Arsenal defeated London City Lionesses 4-1 on the opening day of the Barclays Women’s Super League season on Saturday. Arsenal head coach Renée Slegers spoke to the media following the result.
The Halfway Line were present to hear from Slegers who spoke on London City Lionesses, Olivia Smith and Katie Reid.
Slegers happy that Arsenal ‘found solutions’
While Arsenal’s 4-1 victory is a great start to the season 20 minutes into the match things were not looking so positive for Arsenal. Struggling to deal with the visitors approach and 1-0 down Renée Slegers side were labouring a touch.
“They did what we expected. I think we just lacked a little bit of connection on the pitch, and that’s what we accept as well, because it’s the first competitive game back. I’m really happy with how we connected quickly and found the rhythm in the game and found solutions as well.
“We had planned certain things it was just adjusting a couple of details. And again, I’m really happy with how we did that and how the players on the pitch did that, because I think what can easily happen is you get a goal against you, and you start to do different things, and you start to get emotional. But we didn’t do that. So we found solutions, and in the end, we win.”
When asked about her opponents on the day Slegers had a gracious response:
“They also still [are] building their connections. They have a lot of new players. There was a couple of players not in the squad today, so they’re really good competitors, so I think they’ll cause some problems in the league.”
‘We believe in Katie Reid’ lauds Slegers
Katie Reid was a surprise inclusion in Slegers starting side this afternoon. Despite giving away the penalty that gave the visitors the lead Reid impressed. The young centre back won 11 duels, that is four more than the next highest from either team.
“So to start with, we believe in Katie Reed” Slegers affirmed.
“We are very proud to have her, and she’s been really impressive at Arsenal. So from what we’ve seen we kept her in now this seasons she was on a loan last season and came back second half of season.
“And she’s really impressed us during pre season [this season]. She has a lot of qualities that we want in the centre back, but we accept that she’s young and she needs to build experience, so but I think also credit to Katie and the rest of the team that after that penalty, she just kept on playing and came back. So that shows strength, I think.”
Slegers delights in Olivia Smith’s start to Arsenal’s season
With Arsenal a goal down they turned to their new signing to get them out of trouble and Olivia Smith delivered. Slegers was effusive in her praise after the match while still praising the collective.
“Yeah, it’s very special [Olivia Smith’s goal]. It was a fantastic individual action. And a lot of players have really good individual actions on the pitch today, which you maybe don’t remember as much because it’s not leading to a goal. But there’s so many good things that the players are doing problem solving and positioning, doing things proactively.
“Of course, people come to the stands to watch goals and watch good goals, but hopefully everyone appreciates all the other things that part of football as well, so the defending and all the throw ins and free kicks, all the other bits as well. But of course, we’re very, very happy to have Olivia with us, and I’m also happy that she got this start of her official Arsenal season.”
