'We always have a game plan from a setpiece perspective' Slegers on Arsenal setpiece prowess
03/28/2025 05:42 PM
Arsenal Women have scored from setpieces in their last two games. Against Liverpool last weekend, Caitlin Foord opened the scoring from a Chloe Kelly corner. Against Real Madrid on Wednesday evening, Alessia Russo scored Arsenal's winner after Steph Catley knocked down Katie McCabe's free-kick.
Arsenal also opened the scoring from a corner via Leah Williamson against Sunday's opponents Crystal Palace earlier in the season. Setpiece coach Chris Bradley joined the club last summer and the team's performance from corners and free-kicks has improved, even if Arsenal are not the tallest team in the league.
Gunners boss Renee Slegers is big on players being involved in tactics and game plans and Arseblog News asks how setpiece design works at Arsenal between her, Chris Bradley and the players. 'We want to create an environment where we have a lot of player engagement and I think that’s on a high level at the moment,' Slegers explained.
'But it’s still on us, the coaches, to create the framework and the structure for it. But we like to get their input and that’s in general but that’s also on set-pieces specifically. I can bring Chris [Bradley, set-piece coach] next time to the press conference if you have more specific questions!
'He’s been doing really well and I think maybe you’ve seen those two specific ones, the last two games. You spotted that really well but he always tries to work with all the detail in all the other games as well.
'So we always have a game plan from a set-piece perspective. It’s on a high level, players are engaged and we know that it’s an important part of the game.' Arseblog News also asks Slegers about trying to strike a balance for this weekend between harnessing the momentum from Wednesday night's win over Real Madrid while maintaining focus on the task at hand.
'Everything that we did Wednesday night and I think what we’ve been doing all the time as well, all the positives you want to grasp and keep. That’s what we spoke about so it’s not only about what we did last Wednesday but how can we keep on doing this and how can we be consistent with these things.
'We’re already trying to take the learnings and the positives to apply for the rest of the season and the rest of our time at Arsenal. That’s what we’ve been focusing on and of course you want to keep the positivity and the great performance and energy that’s in the group right now.
'We just have to make sure that we channel it the right way because we know that we have a really important game coming up on Sunday.' One player probably feeling less bubbly at the moment is Lina Hurtig, who has had to pull out of the Sweden squad with another injury.
Hurtig has struggled for fitness and even took time away from the team for personal reasons last season. Arseblog News asks the manager how Lina is coping mentally with her latest setback, especially so close to the Euros this summer.
'I spoke to her of course. She’s dealing with it but it’s very hard and it’s not only physically hard to come back from injuries and then re-injuring. It’s mentally tough. But she’s okay, she’s dealing well with it, she’s calm.
'She’s going to go into a process again of rehabilitation. She’s going to go and see some family in a couple of days, so that’s important as well. So we’re here to support Lina.'
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