Arsenal Women boss Renee Slegers says ‘there are things we can do differently’ when it comes to squad rotation in the upcoming block of games, but also insists that every player is important regardless of whether they play in an individual game.
The Gunners have five games before the November international break, starting on Sunday at Leicester, before playing Chelsea (H), Bayern Munich (a), Sp*rs (a) and Real Madrid (H). Arseblog News asked Renee Slegers whether she plans in advance for how to use the squad during these intense periods during her Friday press conference.
‘There’s so many things going into how we create role clarity for the game, as we call it,’ Slegers explained. ‘I also think if I see the squad every single day and what I need to remind myself more of is acknowledging how much influence that every single player has and how much impact they have on what we try to achieve as a group.
‘So I understand that on the outside world, it’s very interesting to talk about starters, squads, selection, and it is part of football. What I do think is that I would like to break it down a little bit.
‘Of course, it’s on the weekend or on the match day you can only start 11 players and you can make five changes, that’s reality of the rules in the system. So we just have to relate to that. On the other side, I think that there’s a couple of things that we can do differently in how we value the whole squad.
‘Not only us on the inside, but also on the outside because at that moment in time, there are 90 minutes to play against that opponent, and there will be at the start 11 players on the pitch, and there will be a maximum of five coming in, and they will impact the game.
‘But also, the players who weren’t on that pitch also impacted the game, both in preparation, during, and after. But of course, I understand the question and there’s a lot of thinking going into that. I won’t share it here, how I’m thinking, because also you have a plan and then reality happens and then you might have to change your plan as well.
‘So of course we think and of course we plan and have ideas. But the starting point will be Leicester on Sunday, try to be as strong, set ourselves up as strong as possible and that will be our starting point for the block.’
Meanwhile, Slegers admits that goalkeeper Manu Zinsberger is still coming to terms with her ACL rupture, which she suffered in training shortly before the Benfica game. ‘Very hard for her, Manu is always very, very sad when these things happen and she hasn’t had big injuries through her career so it’s something new for her.
‘She said “I haven’t done this, I don’t know how to deal with this,” but what I’ve seen is how the players have been so supportive of her and I see how the team comes together in those types of moments and so she gets a lot of support from the team.
‘We have a fantastic set up from a medical perspective and she will get all the help and support that she needs to be able to be as fit as possible and be able to recover from this injury. She hasn’t done her surgery yet so that’s where she’s at.
‘She is with us, she’s in the building and just contributed really well in the team meeting that we had, so she’s with us, but unfortunately she won’t be able to be out on the pitch and that’s very, very sad.’
The post ‘There are a couple of things we can do differently’ Slegers talks squad usage appeared first on Arseblog News – the Arsenal news site.
Comments
0