Arsenal Women Arsecast Episode 172: Arsenal's pre-season reviewed

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0:46Hello and welcome to the Arsenal Women Ask Us pre-season edition with me, your host, Tim Stillman. And looking back, well, I say looking back, giving a little bit of a sideways glance to the two pre-season friendlies that have happened in front of public eyes against Paris FC and Charlton. Two very similar tests against two, I think, quite different quality teams. And we'll get into some of the broad themes from those games. We're not going to go through everything at this stage of pre-season. Obviously, Arsenal have played some behind-closed-doors games against Chelsea, Manchester City and AC Milan, and they will play Everton in a behind-closed-doors game, I believe that's going to happen on Sunday, as well as they kind of shape up for the season opener against Brighton.

1:28We'll talk a little bit about them because there's been some big news about them broken on Thursday evening by Catherine Batty. But here to talk over some of the stuff maybe we saw in the Charlton and Paris games, as ever, is our co-host Jamie Spanger. Jamie, good morning to you. It's relatively early where you are. Hello, Tim. Yes, the sun is definitely starting to rise here in Melbourne. I apologise for my voice, everyone. I'm a little bit ill. I've gotten the Melbourne cold. So if I sound kind of like I smoke a pack a day, I don't. I just have a cold. But otherwise, well, excited. The season starts very, very imminently.

2:05And yeah, the Premier League being back has been joyous, but I'm excited for the WSL to be back too. Yeah, absolutely. And we're going to have some really nice content for you on our YouTube channel early next week, which will be kind of produced in the coming days, which we're very excited about. We'll give you more information on that as and when we can. But yeah, nice little something on the Ask Bog YouTube channel coming up early next week. But Jamie, we're going to talk about the Charlton and Paris games kind of together with some of the themes that came out. And I think it's reasonably obvious why Arsenal chose these games.

2:48I think they wanted to play some low-block teams. Well, they've already played Crystal Palace in pre-season. Obviously, they mixed it up a bit with a game against Man City and one against AC Milan as well. But two low-block teams, I think a lot of the themes that we'll get into coming out of these games are about how Arsenal score more goals next season and turn some of those draws into victories. but what kind of overall cliff notes did you come away with from these two games? I think the biggest thing and the biggest comparison, maybe a similarity, depends how you look at it, was ball movement.

3:25When you look at both of this, the Paris game, Tim, was hard to watch, let's be honest. Like it was a really, really difficult. Yeah, it was a bit of a snooze fest. Yeah. The Charlton game, obviously, for different reasons, there were a lot of goals, so it was a better game. But I do think you can take a common theme away from both and that is ball movement. I think when you look at Arsenal over the last two, three seasons, it's been this kind of evolution of how do they play against the low block. And last season in the WSL, I think was an interesting one because although Rene was scoring a lot more goals at the Emirates, teams were playing more fluid football.

3:55There were less low blocks. Even teams like Leicester City and West Ham, they were counterattacking teams. They didn't want to just sit back. So I'm interested going into this WSL season to see what changes because I really assume that clubs like Crystal Palace and Charlton will play lower. I know Palace are an interesting one because they have Bethany England. I still think they're going to play a low block and they'll be really defensive minded. So I think Arsenal are in a difficult position going into this season because they scored a lot of goals last season, but there weren't a lot of defensive teams.

4:23And the Paris game worried me a little bit because that was a really, really defensive low block. And that didn't like that didn't really look like a goal was to be scored. But I also didn't think that was for like a lack of creating chances. So the biggest thing I took away from these games was Charlton was a low block. this is an Arsenal team that the ball movement is smarter and I think that that is definitely personnel based him and I am a little bit worried about that and I think we have a question about that in the second half in terms of centre halves and how much of the pitch is opened up but I do think there's been an improvement on okay Rene's brought this kind of total football like whether it's Mariona playing on a wing and dropping into the pockets we'll come on to that later it does feel like this team are able to move the ball and that's because players versatile so So I'm interested because I don't think that these games can be taken into consideration when we head into next weekend.

5:11However, I think there'll be a common theme and this is something they need to problem solve and the signs of it, to be honest. Yeah, I think the thing is with pre-season and we should express this caveat at the top so we don't have to keep doing it. It's pre-season and you should only really take bits and pieces because a lot of it's about fitness. So, for example, in the Charlton game, there are seven changes at half-time. And actually, the changes seem to work quite nicely. So there's a lot about getting minutes into players and stuff like that, which can disrupt the flow of a game as well.

5:44But I think, first of all, I think Paris are a much better team than Charlton. Paris finished second in the French League. I forget what the sponsor is. Arkham, the sponsor? I want to say Ligue 1. But yeah, they finished second. They're a really good team. And I think they were in the sweet spot between being a really good team, but a really good team that was going to sit in a low block. So that's kind of, I think that's probably the highest standard opposition you can play who will do that any higher and they won't do it like Manchester City. I'm sure the behind closed doors game against Manchester City, they were not in a low block, for example.

6:25AC Milan, that game finished 3-2. I doubt AC Milan did as well. So I think having these games close together was probably quite deliberate in that respect. And I think, yeah, Paris FC are better than Charlton. But I think some of the developments we saw in that Charlton game against Paris, one of the things I think that frustrated a lot of people was just not getting those shots off sometimes. You know, like Paris, they had a lot of players in front of goal and it's really difficult sometimes. but there were two or three times a player took the extra touch or looked for a teammate and didn't take that shot on.

7:01I think you can tell quite easily that they talked about that before Charlton because there were some bangers in that Charlton game. And to be fair, Olivia Smith wins the Paris FC game. One of the things I spoke about with Rene afterwards was Arsenal are in a situation where they're trying to turn draws into victories. and using some of those individual actions like we saw from Liv. But in that Charlton game, we saw shots from the edge of the box. We saw a few of them go in. That many won't always go in. In fact, there's a part of me that laments the fact that it's pre-season and we perhaps had quite good luck from long range.

7:42But I think for me, Jamie, that's another thing that really comes out from these games, that Arsenal are really, really trying to figure out how to score more goals. And one of the things Renee said was that the final part of her team talk before Charlton was think goals. And I think it's very clear that that's a situation they're trying to address. Yeah, certainly. Can I just like caveat with the fact that I think that if you sign Georgia Stanway in the summer, this is clearly something you're looking for from the centre of the park. Like this is a player that shoots from range and takes her chances.

8:14We know that Freedom Onham does the same. So it's clearly not just a tactical implementation from Renee this summer, Tim. I think it's definitely a personnel thing as well. Like they've gone and sought out those players that have that skill set in them. And I think it's very, very good because we're just like, we're in the same situation every season where we play these teams and sometimes you can't break the line. Sometimes it can't come from the wing. You need to have those players that are going to shoot from distance. It's not just a personnel thing. Like I do really believe that it is. And I do really believe that we've got the players to do that in those pockets.

8:45Geraldine Roitler is another one. However, it's so imperative for a team. like there are so many times where you've watched Chelsea and they've really really struggled against a team and the team's really playing well in a low block they're holding the line and there's just there's a goal from distance or there's a really really like there's a galactico in some stage and sometimes that's how you have to grind out results and Arsenal have lacked that we hold on to like the freedom orton goal against Bayern Munich because that was the moment for us but it's not even like we lack the skills to do it but there's like the dare that we haven't had like we're always trying to break the line we're always trying to go from the wings so yeah I'm excited about that and I'm excited about the mindset of think goals every player has a role to play but if the goal's there take a shot I won't be excited when it's nil nil in like the middle of January and someone's throwing it into Rosie however I really do think it's an important part of the game and I like that the players are looking for it as well Olivia Smith's cutting in which is something I I think there's mixed feelings about her on the left wing she's cutting in that causes drama anyway sometimes she's not even going to take the shot she's going to cut it right back to the wing where the striker's going to make a run so I like the way the players are moving inside but yeah I like the dare take the shot sometimes I think it's a really really important part of football yeah I mean I think you can see in some of the players that signed Lisa Baum we'll talk about her in a minute because I think she wants her kind of own own section Selena uh I don't know if it's Circe or Churchy I've been told that it depends because she's Turkish origin but like in Turkish and German it's pronounced two different ways so I don't know but anyway she's she's clearly someone who who provides that Rene was very interesting on her actually um there's been a lot of understandable speculation about well she plays out wide sometimes does she play there but Rene very much spoke about her as another center forward option and that's the only um position we saw her in uh during during these two games um albeit for a fairly short amount of time um against Charlton but um you know players who've just got that ability um to kind of get shots off and you know for we've we could again we're going to talk about well particularly lisa baum in terms of additions to that attack we didn't really get to see much of ona bacchia uh she had a concussion i believe uh when they were training in spain and so she missed a couple of games so and even geraldine reuteler she's had an ankle injury only just come back in so i mean lisa baum in particular and selena cerce um are the two players we've kind of seen but before we come on to some of that Jamie I do think that Olivia Smith is someone I'm looking at as well for next season coming into her second season double young player of the year now but with Beth gone and Beth ostensibly replaced by Lisa Baum who's 19 Olivia Smith is not the young one in that pack anymore and she's had two seasons in the WSL now with Liverpool and Arsenal and she's a full international so while she's only just turned 22 she's quite an experienced 22 and this is a player you know we've seen two really good goals from her in these games this is a player I'm really excited about as someone who I really see and I know the club really see as like the future of this attack and someone I think fitness permitting will have a great season next season I can't even tell you how excited I am Tim this is this is going to be a really really big year for her and a big year for the team because this is kind of the start of like build a team around a star and obviously that's Alessia Russo right now but build a team around a really young star and I think last season was always going to be a bit like there was things to tease out coming off the back of a world cup she came in it was almost like this is your role but we don't really know the system yet and I think she did a really good job at adapting to that and And that was the biggest takeaway I had from last season was this is your role.

12:38You're no longer the star. Like we have players that are going to help you. You need to be crossing the ball in. Like there's a lot more defensive responsibility here. And I think that how quickly she adapted to that, I remember talking about in the early weeks of the season, Tim, is a really big testament to her football IQ. But I think this season what we're going to see is every player has a role. I think Renee's really got her style of football and she knows what players need to do. There's a lot of movement, but with that comes a lot of responsibility. However, Olivia Smith this season is now someone that has had a proper preseason.

13:08She's had a first season. She's heading into her next one. And I think that we're going to see a really mature player with a lot of confidence. And we've seen a lot of that in preseason. And like you said, you can't take it all. You take it in little dribs and jabs when it comes to preseason. But this is a player that's firing. And I think that she's really, really confident in her abilities, whether that's instilled by the coach, instilled by the players. I'm very excited about that. I am very excited to see some of the partnerships as well because I think that you've got two very attacking footballers, but in a different way in Onor Batye and Emily Fox, if they had a start.

13:39I think that they're not at all similar, but they are both very attacking. I think Fox and Batye know how to cut an attack with a pass, but they're also very good at running. And I think that that's going to be really beneficial for Olivia Smith because there's always going to be backup, but there's also always going to be someone running around your outside or into the middle. So I'm excited for this season for Smith. I'm excited to see who she works best with. But yeah, this is going to be less of an accountability and an adaptation season and more of a, like, this is your time. You can take the ball and go now.

14:07So, yeah, I'm very excited, Tim. Yeah, and the wide position is very interesting in these two games. Obviously, Chloe Kelly was ill and didn't play either game, and that may be, well, not maybe, it certainly kind of forced a few choices. So we saw Mariana play there for the first half of the Charlton game, asked Renee about that afterwards, and she kind of said, yeah, we need to know we can use it in an emergency, but they've got four wide players. So I don't think we'll see Mariana a lot there necessarily. I think it's just if one of the wide players is injured and obviously Arsenal are more stacked in the spine now.

14:45They've brought some midfielders, but one of the things Rene spoke about was you can see that Mariana and Ana Bache have a relationship already. I think that was very obvious in the first half against Charlton. So we saw a bit of that. But in both games, we saw Olivia Smith start and Lisa Baum start. Caitlin Ford, kind of late sub in both games. I do think that's quite indicative. I think Lisa Baum might have started every pre-season game so far. If not, she played significant minutes in all of them. And she played 150 minutes across these two games. That's more than any other outfield player.

15:21Again, that's with the caveat of Chloe Kelly being out. But I mean, I think she's the player most people are talking about and kind of justifiably so. I think we saw a lot of exciting things from her. She's bigger than I thought as well. It's funny when you see players, you know, quote unquote, in real life for the first time. She's like, she's going to be bigger than a lot of fullbacks. I'll be interested to see how many goals she gets on the back post. but I think we'd all heard about her ability to take players on and you know cutting in on that left foot and shooting but like you look at that assist for Stanway it's a lovely pass her pass selection her pass in the build-up to Liv's goal against Paris where she kind of passes through the lines to Steiner her decision making looks really really good and again we're talking about a couple of pre-season games and she's 19 and there's stuff to learn and I know at Meadow Park you sit behind the benches and Aaron Dantino he's the one that coaches the out of possession stuff and you know he's really kind of telling her when and how to press and all of that and that will come in time but I think quietly this looks like a really exciting player.

16:41Yeah the biggest thing for me Tim is this looks like a very exciting player that's that's got like a place in this squad she's not just a number like she's someone that is going to be playing a role and I think that's something that we've all been a bit scarred by in the last five years when it comes to these younger talents because we want to preserve them for a little bit and not throw them in the deep end but then they never really chip away at the starting 11 this is a player that I'm not saying she's going to start every week in the WSL the Champions League however she's clearly got a role the biggest thing I loved about Lisa Baum and you just touched on it there is yeah she's a X factor player.

17:14That's fantastic with the ball at her feet, but Arsenal cry out for the player that can break a low block or a line with a pass. And not many players can see that. That's across like the premier league. That's across every league. It's really, really hard for a winger to be able to come in and spot that Georgia standway pass. That's not something that always happens. Usually they're recycling the ball. They're taking it themselves or they're going back. They're going back into the central part of the field. There's a turnover that could be turned on. That could be forced. Like this is a player that's seen that pass and picked out that pass.

17:43And this is the biggest thing I got from these two games. Yes, the ball into Steiner as well, but there's a couple of times as well in that Paris game where she wheels inside and finds a progressive pass. And I think this is something that we are crying out for because yes, she can be an X-Factor player. That's fantastic. Like the thought of her and Olivia Smith on the pitch at the same time is brilliant to me, but it's, she's a solution player. Like she's a player that we can, it's kind of like, nope, this, we can't break down this low block or their press is really aggressive or I think she's a player that the football IQ for her to be able to spot those passes that's something Arsenal have been begging for for a long time I think Beth Mead definitely has it and had it but you're now moving on to a generation of a younger player that can do that while also carrying the ball at her feet like we've had the Caitlin Fords the Rosa Kafadji's those kind of players with the ball at their feet to have one that is good at both and you can't really teach it so early in your career that's what's exciting I'm very excited I don't want to get ahead of myself Tim but yes I'm excited yeah what I've liked about her in these two games is the variety as well like I'd heard that she can cut in and shoot on her left foot but actually we didn't like she wasn't spamming you know it wasn't just I just want to cut in and shoot I just want to cut in and shoot she cut in and pass she might cut in and shoot she might go on the outside and is quite decent on her right foot as well and And it was quite interesting that Smiller and Lisa Baume started both games on the right-hand side.

19:09And that's two 19-year-olds, which is exciting as well for the kind of future of the team. And we saw this nice little kind of thing where either Smiller would be right out on the touchline and Lisa Baume was playing next to the striker quite often. But sometimes they'd switch that round and Lisa Baume would be right on the touchline and Smiller would be inverted. a little bit to kind of create that like five lanes of attack as it were and that I that to me felt I don't want to say significant but I liked seeing the fact that you know maybe this could be our right hand side for for a little while um you know there's certainly the potential there for that for them to get those two games together but speaking of Smiller um who actually went off in the first game and re-emerged with a bandage on a whole leg but then played the full game against Charlton anyway.

20:03But she played the second half of it, Jamie, at centre half. Now, I asked Renee about this afterwards and she said, yeah, we've trained there with her a couple of times. She'd played on the right side of a back three for Hammaby, so that's kind of similar. I did ask Renee whether that meant she felt she needed another centre half and she wouldn't be drawn on that, which is normal. and you know she pointed to the fact that Katie Reid is is near the end of her rehab and should be back soon and all of that but if we're going to accentuate the positives we should also look at you know you can't have it both ways maybe some of the negatives I mean Smiller looks fine at centre half don't get me wrong but the fact that she was fielded there and then the Charlton goal which really comes from a mix-up and now it's difficult to say without seeing it but I think we've read in some of the BCD games that there have been goals conceded because of defensive mix-ups which is unusual because that's the area of the team where we've had the least amount of change I mean Arsenal had a brilliant defensive record last season but do you have any concerns there and I guess concerns that we still haven't added that centre back a couple things I don't have many concerns about that Charlton goal that was just everyone fell asleep in a pre-season game and the throw-in was taken quickly.

21:25I'm not worried about that. It's not like there's an issue with the press, the formation. I don't think this is something that – it's not like we're getting mauled in transition. So, yeah, I think that's a bit of a fall asleep moment. Given if it's a trend in preseason, I still think sluggish goals conceded is something not to be worried about. Maybe tell me next weekend in Pricoli if that happens again. I apologise. But for now we're all good. The centre-back thing? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I think I am a bit concerned. Smilla-Holmberg being the kind of – let's, we need to make anything happen.

21:57That stresses me out a little bit. Katie Reid's return, I understand that she's going to be back soon, but a player coming back from an ACL, their minutes need to be managed. Their load needs to be managed. She's very, very young. Like she was only a question mark in the starting 11 to begin with. She kind of came in and played a few games and it was very exciting. And then, so I'm worried about that being like the, no, that's our centre-back, there's our unicorn. In saying that, I think that we do have great options. I think Leah Lotta and Steph are great options. I'm still worried about that left centre-back role though, can I be honest, because I think it's imperative.

22:28And we saw why these couple friendlies, why it's imperative to have a left-footed centre-back. We are going to come on to that because there's some really good questions about it. However, I don't love Leah and Lotta in terms of a ball progression game. I don't think that that is a tactical implementation that we should play against any big team if we're trying to progress the ball. I like them both as defenders. I'm worried about the partnership. I also am worried about the World Cup year because players want to preserve their bodies. And Lee Williamson is someone that will give her all for England and Arsenal 100%.

23:01But this is a player and a captain of a national team that missed the last World Cup. And when there's hesitancies, when there's niggles, I just think there's something hanging in my mind about this World Cup year that makes me a little bit nervous heading into the season when Arsenal are playing so many games for a player that is very, very injury prone. And God forbid she gets injured again. But, yeah, I'm a little bit worried at the depth there. because I think there's a lot of factors to consider. And I think it's probably one we'll come on to a little bit later in terms of why tactically, Tim.

23:28Yeah, yeah. I see the centre-back thing kind of both ways. I think it's about time. We haven't signed a centre-back since Laia Kadina in 2023. Now, don't get me wrong, a lot of that is because we've produced three of our centre-backs through our academy. And obviously, Steph Catley's been remodelled, I think, personally with great success. and it's it's one of those things where on paper we're not carrying a gap because there's four of them there and that's roughly what you'd expect in your squad but like you say Katie Reid that's going to take some time Steph Catley turns 33 this year there's long-term thinking there I think there's huge justification for another centre-half what I'd say I haven't really heard anything massively firm but i asked renee and she said the squad nearly feels complete and um that nearly that that feels like quite a big word in that uh in that sentence i've heard bits and pieces about them looking at center backs but i haven't heard anything massively firm i think the thing is the mark and i get it a lot of people are going to be screaming into their phones now saying like the market's always rub you can't keep always keep saying the market's dry for them and i i get that i do think over a couple of years yeah you've kind of you've kind of got to stop saying that and act um at the same time i do also think it's true that the market is a little bit dry for the type of defender that we want i think there are defenders we could get like alice sombath went to Spurs she's really good but she's not quite what we need like could we get Ruby Mace out of Everton if we tried maybe but again I'm not sure she's exactly what we need and you know like players like that like Jess Carter might want to come back to England soon but is that really the type of centre-back we really need like it feels to me like there are maybe market opportunities and I don't know by the way about any of those players specifically I'm just throwing names out there but like it feels like we need quite a specific type um and yeah i don't like i don't know renee said that they were still open for business so um you know i i wouldn't rule it out happening before deadline if it doesn't i wouldn't rule it out it happening in in january but um i mean before that just a couple of uh fairly small uh things to wrap this half but both Australian themed one lovely thing that came out of particularly this game against Charlton Kyra Cooney Cross return we saw her in the Paris FC game as well saw her get a wonderful reception from the fans and I think she looks up to speed to me I think there are a lot of justifiable concerns about her missing that much time I'm told she was on a training program that was kind of agreed by the club while she was in Australia but obviously that's not quite the same thing but the goal I mean it's a wonderful goal and it's it's just a it's it's a moment that kind of makes your heart glow a little bit oh tears in my eyes honestly and the replays and the video of Steph running out from the the change room it's all very emotional but yeah in terms of her football I completely agree it doesn't really look like she's missed much much of a beat and I'm interested to see the way Kyra is utilized this season because obviously Georgia Stan was in the team and she's probably nailed on a starter and we saw some some positive moments from her this preseason but I'm excited about about Kyra this is a season where maybe a little bit more direction heading into her role and it'll be interesting to see how she's utilized I think we say every season maybe maybe Kim Little gets less minutes this year but it never happens so yeah it'll be interesting to see um in terms of the reception I oh there's a photo where she's in the huddle I I don't know if you've seen it, Tim, and she's looking directly at the camera and her teammates are all looking at her.

27:31And it just brings a tear to your eye. And the fans at Meadow Park and the reception there, actually just fantastic. That's what football's about at the end of the day. Like it's community. It takes a village sometimes in these scenarios. And I think that's so beautiful to see and a really, a really positive moment of this preseason heading into, I hope it brings her confidence, but I also hope it reminds her that, yeah, that's your family. These are your people and there's so many people behind you. So, yeah, really touching moment. Yeah, absolutely. There was a really nice, we sit behind the bench in Meadow Park in the press box now and there was a really nice moment because Steph was in the dressing room when the goal was scored.

28:07And, yeah, someone got a video of her coming out. But when she came back round to the bench, you know, she kind of sequestered one of the coaching staff's iPads so that she could watch the goal back with Leah Williamson, which was a really nice moment. And another, well, I guess, big piece of news, and this is relevant because we start away at Brighton. You know, your friend, fellow Melbanian. Yeah, we're all related, Tim, you're right. Dario Videsic leaving Brighton a week before the season, first broken by Catherine Batty and Tom Gary following up to say, likely to join Angel City but not until January it looks like Angel City are going to finish the season did they have that guy who used to manage Bayern and who left yes yes and he left right yeah yeah yeah okay um sorry I'm just working that out in real time but I mean how much of a shock was that and you know potentially like I don't mind it in terms of our first game of the season either I like imagine my face at 6am this morning when my alarm goes off and I'm leaning for my cold and flu tablets and I check I have to check Twitter before we record this podcast because there's always something going on and you never know I remember I can't remember one there was a big bomber one day and I was like oh god what's going on anyway my face honestly if I looked at all the WSL managers in terms of who's committed to their projects and who I would say they're nailed on for a few seasons it would probably be Renee Martin Ho and and Dario Vitisic I would say those are the three so I'm shocked because it seems like Brighton have really really committed to their women's team it's been amazing to see there's a lot of funding obviously the training center's coming along but this is a coach that felt like he was steering the ship and it was really really exciting times for Brighton because before he was at Brighton he was at Melbourne City they won the league there but he won the league with youngsters he trusted them he trusted their system with Brighton that was a little like it was there was a bit of a he was teasing it out for a bit and then he brought in some stars to kind of the Fran Kirby's, the Nikita Parris's, these are experienced players and I think he struck a balance and there's a lot of talent in that squad and it really felt like they were building up something.

30:21Obviously, Leah Valti is another one that's just come to the club and she's going to bring a lot of experience as well. So I am totally surprised that out of all coaches he's leaving. I'm actually quite shocked and the NWSL I know is a good place financially to be for a head coach. I don't think that Angel City is going to be a club that are building something. The NWSL is less so about let's build this team from the ground up and this is our squad. It's more so like it's fast-paced league. It's different. It's commercial league. I love the NWSL, but I'm very, very surprised. And I think Brighton, obviously we don't know the processes, but if I was Brighton, I'd be very disgruntled because this could be an exciting campaign.

30:57A week out from the season is, that's tough. Yeah, absolutely. And they've had some turnover with managers as well. It really felt like they got this one right because after, you know, they had like Jens Schoer and that was really weird and lasted a couple of months. They had Mel Clark-Reed, who now heads up the Arsenal analysis team. And that only lasted a couple of months and that felt a bit weird. And with Dario, it felt like they had a really good fit. And obviously it seems like this has come from him more than Brighton, which is, yeah, incredibly surprising. I don't like it for the league because I really like Brighton and I think they can upset the apple cart and take some results off some big teams who aren't Arsenal.

31:43I quite like it for next weekend though, but it looks like Brighton are already going to have a manager in place. The guy from Real Sociedad, whose name I forget, who has resigned just after losing to Chelsea in the Champions League qualifier. we will take a break there and we will come back with part two with your questions submitted on blue sky right after this this is troy millings from earn your leisure on earn your leisure we're all about smart money moves and here's one most people skip car insurance renews on autopilot the rates creep up and nobody tells you. That's what Insurify fixes.

32:27In about two minutes, completely free, you can see rates from more than 120 top insurance companies. And if there's nothing better today, they keep watching and notify you when there's a better rate. So go to Insurify.com. That's I-N-S-U-R-I-F-Y.com. Insurify.com. Hi, PodFans. Max here. Barry's here too. Hello. And now the Premier League is back, Barry, meaning we'll be providing incredibly astute analysis three times a week wherever you get your podcasts. Barry, with the remaining 10 seconds of this advert, can you provide some astute analysis? I think Arsenal are going to win the Premier League.

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34:16I think everyone's quite familiar with who they are and what they do. But Selina Cersei is someone we've seen a bit of in these games, not much. Like I said, Rene said afterwards she very much considers her a third centre forward. And she was talking about how that's such an important position that they don't feel that they can carry anything there. Which, again, I think is quite a relevant comment for the centre back thing, because it seems to me if you're going to say we're going to have three centre forwards because it's too important a position, you can justify having another centre back. But we had a lot of questions about this.

34:51One from at Dad Guna. Oh no, actually, that's a different one. Kevin Byrne, at Byrne. How much do you think we'll actually see from Cersei this season? Is she coming into challenge as a starter or more for rotation? And Lexi M1987 asks, The only player I'm struggling to see where they will fit in is Cersei. What are your thoughts based on the pre-season games? I mean, Jamie, her numbers in Germany don't shout, you know, backup player to me. But at the same time, that is three strikers. We haven't seen her in the wide positions even when Chloe Kelly wasn't available. How do you see this three striker thing working?

35:36I'm not confused. I think I'm interested because I do think that these are three completely different profiles. And when I look at reinforcements in the squad, the two players that are probably the least injured, Stena Black, Sinis and Alessio Russo, like these are players like Touchwood, their fitness is through the roof. They're always there. They're always on the park. So it's not like it's a reinforcement where it's okay. One of them is usually injured. We're going to need a second one anyway. I expect all three of these players to be firing and like ready to play, which is it brings the question of, okay, you look at the midfield now, Georgia Stanway's come in, Kim Little's in there, Mariona's probably going to play a high role, Frieda Mornham, Jeldon Roy-Tiller can play central even though she can be on the wing.

36:16So like the Russo in the 10 thing now becomes, it's not just your starting midfield anymore. That's not your fail safe, which is interesting to me because I do think there are a lot of oppositions where Russo will be deployed in the 10. I think that that's just like when you need control in the midfield, when you need a body in there, she's so good at holding up the ball. I 100 % think we'll see a lot of that this year. However, I don't think that that's going to be the starting midfield every week like it was at the end of last season, which is interesting because then it poses the question of Russo's your starting striker.

36:45I think that's nailed on. Then you bring on Sina Black-Stenius. Then you bring on Selena Cersei. It does feel like there's going to be a rotation where you're in a high, like dense fixture period and you're going to have two of them playing and not all three of them. So I'm interested to see tactically what Cersei brings to the team. To be honest, I didn't really pick up a lot during these preseason games where I'm saying this is why we signed her. This is her role. I think that she's a body in there. She's a good player. I think she's athletic, which is helpful. Again, like Renee's kind of looking at these hybrid players.

37:15She's not versatile in position, but she is athletically versatile, which I think is helpful, and that's kind of what Renee's starting to go for. So, Tim, this is a player I'm very confused by. I think I'm going to pin it down to just there's going to be a dense fixture period she's going to bring a lot. I don't know if she's a game winner. I don't know enough about like when her goals were scored over in Germany. however maybe that's an element of it as well and then also maybe a change of formation there could be a time where we're seeing front two which is something again that I'd like to see Arsenal do more of is change formation based on opposition we've kind of played a 4-3-3 for the longest time ever like since the dinosaurs were here so maybe a change of formation depending on on opposition but I'm excited by Cersei because I think out of all the signings team I have no real idea what we're going to do with her yeah yeah that's I don't have a great idea of this player beyond the numbers which are really really strong and I look at I look at it this way Manchester City scored nine more goals than Arsenal this year and they had a load of attackers last year they probably had one too many um who cares they won the league they scored loads of goals you know I do think there's an element of that to it I think there is probably an element of do we want to play Russo for every single second of every single game?

38:33But I imagine in practice what will end up happening is Cersei and Steiner will share that role a little bit and it will come down to the qualities Rene thinks she needs in a particular game state, whether they're more susceptible to running in behind or that kind of more physical power Cersei seems to bring. She seems to be quite good at getting on the end of crosses as well. So if it's that kind of game where we're being forced out wide, I think it's another option. I think it's another strong option. And when I look at the teams that win the league, they usually have that. They can usually chuck on three or four attackers and we need to be able to do that.

39:12So it might end up with some redundancy somewhere. There might be an attacker somewhere who doesn't get a lot of minutes next season. I'm kind of fine with that survival of the fittest and all of that. do you have a question? I do this one is from Sarah at Sarah JK Official excuse me against Paris FC Lotta and Lear at centre-back saw Arsenal favour the right limiting Olivia's involvement when Steph came on the left was used more if Rene continues to use this centre-back partnership should we be worried that teams will pick up on this and exploit it? Yeah a little bit I think that's a very good point and I think you can see why having a left footer back there is so important and we're going to be playing with a right-footed left back as well I know I've said it before but I think Misa Rodriguez being left-footed I do think that's significant and something that they they look for quite specifically in terms of building the play back there and having that kind of angle I do also think you know we had some different left backs like Emily Fox played left back in one of the games then we had Honor there and then Taylor Hines came on in the second half of the second game I think she was carrying a little bit of thigh injury so perhaps didn't quite get the minutes that she would have wanted to get but I do think there's also going to be an adaption between Katie McCabe and Anna Anna's one of the best fullbacks in the world I don't think it's a big problem but she's a very different player and it's going to open up different angles and a lot of that will be very good and give Arsenal a bit of a different face but it will take some getting used to as well um i think so yeah i i think i think potentially that's that's a little bit of a wrinkle but that's also what pre-season's about is identifying those things and if nothing else it just gives the videotape for the players to look at um and perhaps for those some of those players particularly since most of our defenders are right-footed and if steph catley's not there they're all going to be right-footed um something to be aware of so yeah um but at the same time i do think arsenal will look different on that left hand side and that'll that'll kind of help um over the piece um okay so yeah we we had a couple about mariana on the left now like i said chloe kelly being out i think was part of that calculus however georgia stanway and jerry and reutler have come back into the picture and so is Kyra.

41:46Let's not forget that's a player we didn't have after Christmas last year. So there should be the potential for more players in the spine of the team. And there are two questions here. One from alexlodge.uk. Mariana ostensibly played on the left wing but seemed to pop up in all positions across midfield in the forward line. Do you think this is a formation choice Rene will use to get more of our midfield talents on the pitch at one time? And Atka Fadjibor also asks, Do you think we might see Mariana on the wing again? Her working with Honour on the left side was a like old times Barca thing. Do you think it's an option we might go with more, especially now we have more depth in midfield?

42:26Now, the partnership with Honour thing, that was something that Rene mentioned unprompted post-match, and I did think that that was interesting, Jamie. Certainly. Certainly that's interesting. These are two players that won a lot together and played alongside each other a lot. I think that we'll see it this season I don't think that we'll see it particularly frequently I think that this is like a this is a personnel thing that works and I think Renee will definitely revert to it if necessary I think in terms of Mariana popping up a lot in different positions and she's she's coming to the midfield and inverting that's just what Renee is asking of all her wingers and all her players and I think that's a big indication of the style of football we're going to play the back half of last season Beth Mead was almost always playing as a 10 when she was on the right wing.

43:11Chloe Kelly's getting a lot better at taking the space as well. And she knows how to play kind of a cross pitch ball as well. And I think when you've got players like Olivia Smith and Lisa Baum, those are two players that are really good with the ball at their feet. We're just going to see a lot of inverting. We're going to see, they're going to be on the touch line. They'll be in the midfield, be a lot of rotation. I wouldn't be surprised if some of those tens are going to be rotating into the wing when that's happening. I think that we're going to see a team where that is the, that's the heart of the tactic.

43:36Like the meat on the bone is the fact that this is a Dutch manager that kind of wants you to move a lot. And that worked for us last season. I think it's going to work for us again. So it's interesting. I think the one kind of outlier in that is Caitlin Ford because I think she's a player that knows her style. But I think there will be a place for that this season as well. She's going to take the ball to her feet and she's going to take it to the byline. Olivia Smith and Lisa Baum I think are going to play the role where they cut in and they occupy those spaces inside and just keep the teams guessing because it's so important to be able to do that.

44:06So I think it's less of a Mariona was doing that in preseason. Are we going to see her in the wing? And more we're going to see all our wingers have to take up that responsibility this season. However, I do think we'll see a bit of Mariona in the wide areas, especially when the fixtures come in thick and fast. So a bit of both, a loaded question. But yeah, I think just Dutch football, Tim. I think that's what we're set up for here. Yeah, I wouldn't mind betting we might see it at the end of games, for example. Do you have a question? I do. This is a bit of a bigger one for you. I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

44:36This is from Permanently Exhausted Egg at Fever Bitch. We love this account. What has excited you about the team going into the Brighton game and what has worried you? Despite the goal margin, our defence looked a little shaky against Charlton. Is this a pre-season hiccup or something? We discussed that. I guess what's your biggest positive out of pre-season and something you're still a little bit worried about? Yeah, biggest positive I think is that the attack looks a little bit more spontaneous. it does look like a little bit of a more of an ability to conjure something from nothing I look at this fixture last season Brighton Arsenal Arsenal should have won it they should have won it but they only scored once you know they got into the final third they pushed Brighton back but they just couldn't come up with that moment to go and win the game I feel maybe a bit more confident Arsenal could do that not least as well just because they got more players to do it like we were talking about someone like selena cerce should have come on in that brighton game and we probably would have just thrown all the strikers at them um in that kind of game state so i'm excited about that i'm excited about having a player like lisa baum who i think is exactly another one of the things that makes her so exciting is she's just got everything i think we've all been talking about in terms of like wouldn't it be great to have a wide player that does all of this again without wishing to kind of exert too much pressure um so those are the things and i think i've seen little things like georgia stanway's the one dropping back between the center backs and getting the ball now instead of kim and i think that perhaps drops a little bit of the physical load on kim as well um so so you know i've seen some new things i guess the thing i'm probably most concerned about yeah a little bit about the defense like some of those mix-ups albeit like I say we haven't seen them all and maybe just the sense that um this is a there is well there are seven new players in the squad right they're not they're not I mean one of those is like third choice goalkeeper um you know so they're not all necessarily going to be like in the starting lineup against Brighton but it's a lot of change and we we'd spoken about this in fact even before we made any signings and we knew this was going to be a big summer of turnover If you're ever going to do seven new signings in a summer, do it in a tournament-free summer.

47:04But it's still, I wouldn't mind betting that the first 20 minutes against Brighton doesn't look absolutely amazing. And particularly with some of the fixtures we've got after, you know, the kind of match week three onwards. I guess that's a little bit of a worry. But also, it has been quite a busy pre-season. and you know there was a question from someone about you know how carefully a pre-season opponents selected and yeah I mean like a couple of low blocks a big team playing Everton at the weekend which I imagine is seen as a good warm-up for playing Brighton you know so some variety there but quite a lot of games and games stacked up as well so we're going to do Paris Sunday Charlton Wednesday Everton Sunday um you know largely for fitness reasons but also I think hopefully to get some of those connections going a lot of them behind closed doors as well so hopefully Brighton um won't have a lot of chance to look at what's been happening but I think like general cohesion probably a short-term issue but an issue nonetheless particularly with how our season starts um how and actually sorry the the question about the pre-season opponents came from the same account actually um you asked um that question uh four um let's do one more each um and this one's from at dad guna i'm not asking if we're going to sign another center back good because I don't know.

48:44Is our midfield good to go? I don't know how much load Kim Little can handle all season, but do you think we're short of a body in midfield? Nope. I don't think that. I think that we forget that Kyra is still in the team. Like the Kyra-Georgia-Stanway are the two players, like in that Mariona-Kim pivot that we saw last season. If anything, Mariona is no longer in that pivot. She's definitely going to be the higher player. and then we forget about Freedom Ornam, Geraldine Reuteler, like Alessio Rousa's in the 10. I think that we've gone from a situation where our midfield is absolutely depleted to probably our most stacked area of the pitch.

49:22Obviously, I can still see the issues in like, do we have an actual central defensive midfielder? We don't. And I think when you're looking at the centre-backs and that's an issue, I can see why there's concerns to be raised around the spine of the pitch, 100%. I can empathise with that. I don't think that Rene wants to play with the CDM though. I don't think that's a market thing. I don't think that's a club intent thing. I really just think the manager does not want to play with a six, with a natural six, which is fine by me because it's worked so far. It's really worked so far. So in terms of midfield, you can look at it traditionally and say there's no six.

49:53There's still like we're still light in that area. I think we have the players. I think it's a really, really impressive part of the pitch. It's just where you play them, to be honest, and that'll be interesting to see. And that's probably what my next question to you is going to be. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't have minded maybe a young project player there. But then we had Leila Harper and let her go. So I'm not something you can easily stick a pin in until January. Do you have a question? Yeah, this one's about Kyra particularly, Tim, because I'm interested to see what you think heading into the new season.

50:27But Simon Gerrity has said, what role do you see Kyra having this season with so many changes in the midfield and it being the last year of her contract? yeah so I actually think the many changes in midfield works in her favor I think one thing that I don't know I don't know if held up yeah held her back is just like the massive reliance we had on Kim Little and Mariana and it seems clear to me we're trying to move away from that reliance and we're trying to turn like the midfield into more of a more of a carousel where there's four or five players who play in that double pivot rather than the same two players every single week.

51:08And I do think Kyra would have played plenty of minutes in the second half of the season. Easy to forget as well that just before Christmas, she had forced her way into the starting 11 alongside Kim with Mariana ahead of them. I just think this season we're going to see everything. I think it's going to become a much more fluid kind of ensemble. And I do see Kyra fitting into that. She does have one year left on her contract, but obviously, again, the Kim little question, is there and that might inform things everything I'm told is that Renee loves this player and I think last season she had a difficult start to last season and I think one of the things is if you don't really know what Renee wants from you she wants you to work it out right she's not going to sit there and like um you know draw it out for you on the whiteboard she kind of wants you to figure it out yourself some players I think you know someone like Victoria Pilova for example was probably a bit like I just I don't know what you need or want I think something clicked with Kyra last season and I think around that winter time when Kim Little came out of the team and she came in I think there was a bit of a click there but I think that yeah that midfield should move to something more when more players get minutes and yeah her contract might well be tied to what happens with Kim Little as well because one thing I can tell you for certain if Arsenal don't sign her to a new contract there are plenty of big teams that will take her I know that for certain so yeah I do see her having a I see her having a good role whether that's enough how good is good is it really significant is it kind of coming on as a sub is it like a rotation player does she really really stake a claim i think all that's up in the air um i definitely see her having a like a big part um in the season um there was another question actually i'll just address very quickly from benjamin at benjamin rose um who's asking about emily fox and mariana uh who also in the last year of their deals and whether there's any news there i mean from my end no i don't really know um mariana i think you know she's going to be 31 this season there's a world cup coming i think that's one where given her age you can wait a little bit and see what she wants to do i don't think she'd get i mean she's been at barcelona and been at arsenal like how much bigger a move is she going to get than that at the age of 31 um but maybe she want to go home or something, I don't know, but I think that will tease out later in the season.

53:54Is that enough for your voice today? That is enough. I feel like it's definitely dropped off in the last 10 minutes, guys. I apologize. Everyone's turning their volume up on their headphones, and I'm sorry for that. Yeah, we're getting a bit like the Friends episode where Phoebe has a cold. Yeah, great callback, Tim. Well done. So we'll leave it there. we'll probably try and knock out some kind of season preview next week if we can I'm having a little bit of work done on the side wall of my house so I'll have to see whether yeah, don't want to hear like drilling and hammering in the background so we'll see about that but like I said at the top of the show we're going to have something very exciting for you on the Ask Blog YouTube channel early next week and obviously we will do everything that we always do uh this coming wsl season and i'll be at uh the shoba realty training center for renee's press conference on friday and uh brighton on next sunday so yeah it all starts again um hopefully you'll do the journey with us um again really really great to have you thanks so much for listening do leave a review on your podcast platform of choice um please do also sign up to our Patreon if you want to and have the means to do so.

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56:07Hi, I'm Max Rushton, the host of The Guardian Football Weekly, alongside me, Barry Glendening, my co-host. Hey, Barry. Hello. Now, although every American found us during the World Cup, for the two that didn't, what can they expect? Found us and fell in love with us, Max. They can expect three episodes each week of occasionally insightful analysis covering the Premier League, Champions League and beyond. Football Weekly is back. Watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.