Interim head coach Renee Slegers says Arsenal’s 4-1 win over Valerenga in the UEFA Women’s Champions League was a “step in the right direction” after a difficult week.
The Gunners they were comfortable winners in front of a crowd of 6,000 at the Emirates Stadium, getting their European campaign back on track after being dismantled 5-2 by Bayern Munich in what turned out to be one of Jonas Eidevall’s last games in charge .
Eidevall resigned as coach this Tuesday morningless than 72 hours later Arsenal lost 2-1 to their rivals Chelsea in the WSL, with Slegers in charge of leading the team against Valerenga.
And the former Netherlands international was pleased with the response from Arsenal’s players, crediting the post-match group with “getting up to the task” after a difficult couple of days.
“There have been a lot of emotions,” Slegers said. “Managing emotions and trying to stick to the task ahead of what we had to do to accomplish it.
“I’m happy for them and it’s a credit to them because they also came together (before the game) and felt that they needed to step up and that’s what you saw on the pitch. I think it’s good that they did it.
“We prepared for them to be player-by-player in the press, especially on the goal kick. We had a plan because if you go player-by-player, you can get 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 on top and that’s what we tried to manipulate. .
“We just had to find some variety in that because they started reading the only option we had. If you’re successful in evading, then you’ve got acres of space and you’re 1v1. If you’re not successful and you’re in trouble. – this was the main puzzle.”
Press on whether victory would give Arsenal’s players a much-needed confidence boost ahead of the WSL Facing West Ham, he added: “I always think confidence is such a difficult thing to talk about. What exactly is confidence?
“I think since we’ve been playing Chelsea You’re seeing players perform at their best and I think we’re taking a step in the right direction.”
Slegers wanted to point out an area of ​​potential improvement for a arsenalwho were put to the sword by a quick-fire Pernille Harder hat-trick when they faced Bayern, admitting there is work to be done to deal with overhead balls.
“We had to deal with a lot of long shots on goal which don’t happen that much in the WSL, so that was new for us,” he remarked.
“Rosenborg did it during ours Champions League qualifier I think we’ve handled it really well at times and that’s the most important thing. I think we can look a little bit at how we can defend the space behind the end line.”
