Leftism

Arsenal Women's Leftfield Issues

‘The way we want to press from the front is very demanding…I think the concept of starting 11 and finishing 11 is really, really important for us…I think about it a lot before the game. From a strategic point of view, I think that is important…you come to the 60th minute, and you feel like the players are getting more tired, the game gets more unorganised, maybe spaces open up a little bit more…some players will fit better to start the game sometimes in the way that we want to do it and we think the game will go one way. It’s good for us to substitute in other players.’

These are excerpts from a question I asked Jonas Eidevall back in October 2021. The focus of my question was actually Vivianne Miedema. In Eidevall’s opening 11 games in charge, Miedema only completed 90 minutes in the first one. She was subsequently subbed eight times, a used sub once and an unused sub once. 

In hindsight, we can see the seeds of Miedema being moved back into the number 10 position because, clearly, Eidevall was coming to the realisation that Miedema wasn’t the type of striker he wanted for his style.

In his pre-Bristol press conference, I revisited the theme and asked him about having missed an additional winger this season- and much of last- due to Lina Hurtig’s inuury issues. ‘When we build a squad, it's definitely the plan that we should be able to have two players on all positions. But to your point, I think the forward line is one of the most important ones to be able to get fresh legs on and to have finishers and starters on, of course.

‘So the plan when we build the squad is of course to do that. Then we always have to be adaptable. Things are never going to go exactly to plan and I always think it's going to be one position for every team that you will need to either play one player a lot of minutes on or you need to find and be flexible with different solutions. So, I'm not using that as an excuse in any way.’

I have written and talked a lot this season about the challenge for Eidevall of working with a vastly bigger squad. I think the squad has been a little unbalanced by injury (to be clear, this is maybe a little mitigation for an inconsistent season, not a total explanation). 

In that press conference in October 2021, Eidevall was outlining a game model that involved him changing his entire front three for the final parts of a game. This is both about tactical and physical freshness but also because Eidevall asks his forwards to press very intensely. In Blackstenius and Russo we can see a fluidity in how they are used in the number 9 position, even if Russo is the first choice generally speaking.

Beth Mead and Caitlin Foord have been Eidevall’s core wingers during his time at the club. During his first season, he also often used McCabe as a left winger, he had Nikita Parris and he pushed the boat out to sign Tobin Heath. Parris was not Eidevall’s signing and it showed, he used Keats sparingly and agreed to sell her to Manchester United after one season.

I don’t think Heath was ever entirely sold on joining Arsenal. Her rights were traded from Portland Thorns to Racing Louisville in the NWSL and I don’t think she really wanted to go there. Contact between Heath and Arsenal was initiated during the 2021 Olympics but the deal was not completed until transfer deadline day almost two months later. 

I think it’s reasonably clear she was waiting for another NWSL club to stump up the cash to buy out the Louisville trade and waited until the last moment for that to happen before agreeing to join Arsenal. She endured an injury hit season and player and club agreed to terminate her contract in April 2022. 

In the summer of 2022, a winger was a priority signing. Arsenal came close to signing Geyse until Barcelona gazumped that move. I believe Tabea Wassmuth from Wolfsburg was considered too. Arsenal landed on Lina Hurtig from Juventus and, a little like Heath, the Swede has been absolutely beset with injuries and has only managed 328 WSL minutes in two seasons so far.

I think the loss of Hurtig has been damaging for Arsenal, denying them a wide option which has led to Caitlin Foord and Beth Mead being overplayed. Foord has played 81% of Arsenal’s WSL minutes so far this season. Last season she played 67% of the minutes on offer in the WSL and it was only that low because her hamstring finally gave out in early April and she spent four and a half weeks on the sidelines.

Prior to rupturing her ACL in November 2022, Mead, who played until the end of Euro 2022 with England, had played 612 of 630 WSL minutes on offer. I can only speculate, obviously, but she obtained her injury in stoppage time against Manchester United hurdling a challenge next to the touchline. Robert Pires ruptured his ACL in a very similar fashion in March 2002 and Arsene Wenger suggested that fatigue caused Pires to land awkwardly as he hurdled a similar touchline challenge.

Arsenal tried unsuccessfully to add Debinha and Cloe Lacasse to the squad in January 2023, the latter finally arriving in the summer. Gio was signed in the summer of 2022 and loaned out to Everton before joining Madrid CFF this January. In short, under Eidevall, Arsenal have basically always been short a winger.

That situation has been exacerbated this season by the ACL enforced absence of Laura Wienroither, trimming the squad down to three full-backs, which means Katie McCabe has not started a single game on the wing this season because she has been needed in both full-back positions. Arsenal have had three full-backs and three wingers when, really, they want four of both.

Lacasse has been a strong addition to the squad and many Arsenal fans argue she has been under utilised; but the squad has really lacked another Lacasse since Eidevall arrived. Heath, Parris, Gio and Hurtig haven’t been able to fill that void and neither have Debinha or Geyse for different reasons.

I think not being able to introduce variety and fresh legs into the wide positions forms a part of Arsenal’s troubles with low defensive blocks. (There was a period where Eidevall did not use Lacasse enough in these situations too). Once again, a left winger will be high on the priority list this summer. It begs the question as to whether Jonas Eidevall finally lands the player to solve this three season conundrum.