Renee Slegers reacts to 4-1 victory over Valerenga
Yesterday at 05:44 PM
Arsenal defeated Vålerenga 4-1 at Emirates Stadium on Wednesday evening with goals from Emily Fox, Caitlin Foord, Mariona and Alessia Russo. Renee Slegers spoke to the press post-match, the first two questions are from Arseblog News.
On whether continuity in the starting line up was important tonight…
Yeas exactly that, it has been a couple of hectic days and we felt with everything that is happening at the moment, it was good to give the players as much stability as possible and we did that and how organised the days and in how we lined up today.
On playing out from Valerenga's high press…
We prepared for them being player for player in the press, especially on goal kicks, so we had a plan for it. If you go player for player you can get 2 v 2s, 3 v 3s and 4v4s on top and that is what we tried to manipulate. We just had to find some variety in that because they read the one option we had so we had to find some changes in that. If you are successful bypassing them you have acres of space and 1 v 1s but if you are not successful, you are in trouble and that was the main puzzle today.
On how tough this week has been…
There have been a lot of emotions I have always respected Jonas a lot and I have always enjoyed working with him. I think he did good things for the club for three or four years, I was sad and many others are too. It has been about managing emotions and trying to stick to the task ahead of us and what we needed to do to perform, it has been a couple of hectic days.
On how the players have coped…
I am happy for them and credit to them, they also got together yesterday and felt that they need to step up and I think that is what you see today on the pitch. All credit to the team, you don't want this drastic thing to happen to them and for them to get into this self-reflection moment but I think it was good they did it and now it is about maintaining that.
On whether players have lacked confidence recently…
Confidence is a really hard thing to talk about and what exactly is confidence. I think already against Chelsea you see players playing in their better form and I think we just go another step in the right direction tonight.
On how the team defended…
We had to deal with a lot of long goal kicks which doesn't happen as much in the WSL, that was new for us. Rosenborg did it in the qualifier as well. At times we dealt with it really well. I think we can have a look at how we defend the space behind the defensive line a little better.
On Mariona's performance…
Mariona can play in different positions and in midfield today she did really, really well, she was really important for us.
On Lina Hurtig's return…
We are super happy for her, she has been away from football for a long time, we have been progressing her very carefully back into training. This was her first time back in the match squad, you see the rest of the players are very happy for her and seeing her with her daughter on the pitch with the fans was amazing to see.
On Lotte Wubben-Moy missing the game through concussion…
She is not ruled out for Sunday, we will see.
14.van Domselaar; 2.Fox, 6.Williamson, 5.L.Codina (62.Reid '90), 11.McCabe (7.Catley '60); 10.Little(c), 13.Walti (17.Hurtig '90); 9.Mead (12.L.Maanum '60), 8.Mariona, 19.Foord (25.Blackstenius '78); 23.Russo
Unused: 1.Zinsberger, 16.Kafaji, 22.Kuhl, 32.Cooney-Cross, 40.Williams, 53.Lia, 56.Godfrey.
The post Renee Slegers reacts to 4-1 victory over Valerenga appeared first on Arseblog News - the Arsenal news site.
