Renée Slegers says that the half time team talk she gave to her Arsenal charges was the ‘firmest’ she has ever given. That was after her side’s late victory over Liverpool in the Barclays Women’s Super League on Saturday.
Arsenal laboured for long periods but secured the 2-1 victory thanks to an excellent finish from Stina Blackstenius. Arsenal had taken an early lead after excellent play from Oliva Smith, matching it with a brilliant finish from outside the box. That was before Arsenal were pegged back by Liverpool striker Beata Olsson ahead of the half time break.
Renée Slegers spoke to the media after Arsenal secured a late victory over Liverpool in the WSL. The Halfway Line was present, post match to hear from the Arsenal head coach.
‘I was really firm at half time’ affirms Renée Slegers
It had been a familiar story for Arsenal after taking an early lead at the Emirates, they were pegged back against the run of play. Arseblog’s Tim Stillman asked Slegers what was the tone of Arsenal’s half time team talk after the Gunners had squandered that early lead,
“[It was] the firmest it’s [the half time team talk has] ever been” Slegers affirmed.
“I wasn’t happy after the first half, I think no one was. So I was really clear with that we had to higher our standards for the second half.
“Intensity wasn’t high enough. Ball speed wasn’t high enough. Positioning wasn’t early enough, not enough of the ball movement. So I was really firm at halftime but everyone agreed all the players agreed.
“If I talk about momentum it’s something like, you can’t control 90 minutes, and you can’t say, I’m gonna play a 90 minute game and I’m gonna have momentum for 90 minutes.
“There’s so much more to it. There is an opponent that wants to do things as well. What we have to get better at is the way we react when we concede the goal, for example. Those are key events in games, and how do you move on? What’s our strategy after those moments? Because I think we also after our goal, we lose a little bit of intensity in everything we do.
“We get comfortable, we find more backwards passes instead of forward passes. And that’s that’s how you kind of put yourself into situation that gets hard because we said we wanted to spend time in their half as much as possible and suffocate them and stack attacks, which I think we did much better in the second half.
“But first half, we play ourselves into our own half, and that’s where we make it hard for ourselves but much better second half.”
Slegers praises ‘belief and conviction’ of Blackstenius
Just as it felt like Arsenal would be held to another frustrating draw, the Gunners get out of jail free card was played. Stina Blackstenius was once again the difference in a crucial victory. Blackstenius played with Slegers as far back as 2017 with FC Rosengård, the Arsenal head coach was asked to comment on the match winner,
“I’ve known Stina [Blackstenius] for so long” Slegers replied.
“I know that [bouncing back from missed chances] that’s been hard for her earlier in her career when she was younger, to come back from those moments and just go to the next action with as much belief and conviction.
“I think that’s what she did today. She’s such a mature person now and football player. But if you look at everything she creates, we don’t reward ourselves early, I think, with the with the chances she creates, so the spaces she creates, but we, in the end, we do it. I think it’s 87 minutes or something.
“The disruption she creates in the back line is just not only for herself to create things, but also for the team to get spaces elsewhere.”
Renée Slegers on Williamson ‘we never planned for her to get minutes yet’
Arsenal welcomed back both their captain and vice-captain to the match day squad against Liverpool. Kim Little came on with 20 minutes to play and helped make the difference for Arsenal while Leah Williamson made her first match day squad of the season. Slegers was asked whether she had considered bringing Leah Williamson on by Helen Jerome of The New Women’s Sports Magazine,
“No, not today” Slegers responded.
“She was in the squad, she was there to get back into match day routine and for her leadership in and around the team. But we never planned for her to get minutes yet so the first minutes will be against Twente or Everton as it stands now.
“So she’s still getting back into the team, team training. She’s done a couple of eleven v elevens now, so we just have to find the right moment. Is it Twente? Is it Everton? Or if things change it could be later.”
