Arsenal Women Arsecast Episode 176: Bridge over troubled water

0:00I always appreciate when thoughtful and luxurious design can help change the way a space feels. That's why I love how the 48-inch panoramic display stretches across the entire dashboard in my Lincoln Navigator SUV. It helps make it easy to stay connected while giving the cabin an open, expansive feel. Whether I'm juggling errands or just enjoying some quiet time, this feature brings a fresh perspective and helps elevate even the everyday moments. Visit Lincoln.com to learn more.

0:59and um i think i slightly admire your your commitment to self-flagellation because um this is probably not going to be a very fun episode to be honest with you but um it feels like the last three or four episodes now we've promised therapy and um we're going to try and promise that again and to be honest i think i need a little bit of that myself after sunday's 1-0 defeat at Chelsea and here to go over some of that and probably a bit more with us as ever is our co-host Jamie Spanger. Jamie, before we go into the game and everything I think it's worth doing like a bit of a check-in on where we are and how we feel at the moment about this season and how everything's gone so far.

1:52I mean, where are you kind of mentally right now? Yeah, Tim, the light is leaving the therapist's eyes. I think that the patient has beat the therapist down a little bit too much at this stage. I don't really know what other solutions to offer this patient. But jokes aside, Tim, I think that there was a massive expectation, at least in my mind, heading into this campaign. I don't think I've been this positive and this excited in a couple of seasons now for a really, really strong start with, you know, we had squad turnover and I think that's going to come up a lot in this episode as well. But an exciting season with some fresh faces, new roles for the same players, a manager that's kind of finally getting a say in terms of squad selection.

2:37So I was excited. And maybe that expectation has caused a lot of my disappointment as well because it was so much higher than usual. but I'm finding it hard to regulate it and not kind of write it off already and say wow it's not even October yet and we are we're in a bad spot we're in a very bad spot seventh in the WSL table so yeah I'm feeling pretty flat Tim and kind of I'm struggling to rationalize it to be honest yeah I'm very the flat's a good word for it that's kind of how I feel like after the game yesterday usually I try and do like my match piece pretty quickly after the game on the same day as the game I just didn't have the energy for it to be honest and I wrote it recording Monday evening I wrote it on Monday morning instead and frankly I went to the pub and I just had a couple of pints and decompressed and yeah flat's a really good word for it because that's how I feel just that kind of losing at Chelsea always sucks.

3:35And in isolation, losing a close game, 1-0. Been there, seen that, done that. We've won close games 1-0. You know, it can happen. But obviously, it's pretty impossible to just take this game in isolation. You can't anymore. And obviously, we'll get into some of the issues and what we think the issues are. But even today is one of those days I've not been on social media very much because I think one of the phrases Renee used in the post-match was, it can get heavy, and she was talking about the players, and I was like, yeah, I feel like that. I feel like this is quite heavy. And one of the things that can happen, no violins, please, but one of the things that can happen in my role, I guess, is sometimes completely indirectly, you absorb a lot of it because you're reading the comments sections and you're putting out quotes and you're seeing responses to it and like you you completely understandably like you just you see a lot of frustrated unhappy people and you do have to disconnect from that a little bit um particularly because I feel frustrated and unhappy about it as well like I I experience those emotions myself and sometimes at times like this is difficult to try and be like you know rational slightly impartial i guess journalistic voice when that's not really how i feel um but anyway that's that's kind of um that's where we are um let's kind of crack into the game a little bit then because there is quite a lot here i think even though it was 1-0 as a relatively low event game i don't think i don't think either team created loads of chances the xg kind of had this as a bit of a 1-1 draw, Chelsea 1-0, which is what happened.

5:24But quite a few changes again. And I do think it is worrying that in pretty much every game, we're completely changing the midfield and the forward line. But went with the midfield three of Stamway, Kyra Cooney crossing Kim Little with Mariana on the wing and a cabobering goal. That's not one I was expecting and i don't um she was fine like i think she played well um and because of that it didn't come up in the post-match to be honest uh nobody asked that question i might ask it um ahead of the paris game instead but how did you feel about that team selection mariana on the wing i mean it seemed like we i guess where are you did you feel like that was a tactical thing like oh we want to overload the center or was it a bit Kyra's playing really well we want to put her in and we're kind of trying to fit players in I guess where do you come down on that I think I come down on it in the fact that I think Rene was trying to do something with that starting lineup I'm not necessarily saying it worked but I think she wanted to have the most possession that she could if you look at this Chelsea midfield the times that Arsenal have been able to overrun Chelsea especially in that that 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge last year it was because the Arsenal midfield just dominated the game and Chelsea couldn't get their foot on it.

6:39And you've got someone like Kira Walsh, she's a very possession-reliant player. And if you're taking the ball away from her and kind of making sure that you're overloading the central areas, I think from a tactical standpoint, I can understand why that was the starting lineup. I don't know if I understand Mariona on a wing specifically. I think that the midfield three makes sense because you're opting for players that are very secure with the ball. The only thing I can say about the lineup up is I saw I was confused by the fact that we've changed our midfield and our front three again. Like we've not had the same one, which is ridiculous and I think is causing a lot of the issues.

7:14But the same thing, at the same time, I did think, Tim, it looked like we were trying to go for a very direct approach against Chelsea and the Lisa Baum selection made sense to me because you want her to carry the ball. I think that the Mariona selection also made sense to me. So in terms of a tactical standpoint, Tim, I see what Rene is doing because in the past that's how we've gotten on got one on top of Chelsea so yeah I don't want to criticize her yet but from the team sheet I can kind of see the vision yeah I think that's where I am as well I think we'll go into the substitutions I think that's where the criticism really starts to be honest not that there isn't criticism before that but yeah I think it's probably a mixture of those things I think she did have like a game plan to yeah pick the players that were secure on the ball, try to stop the game becoming transitional because we know Chelsea are very good at that.

8:06They're very good at hitting like Lauren James and Alyssa Thompson very, very quickly. And I think they just wanted to limit the turnovers, keep some control on the game. And for the first half an hour, that really worked. I thought Arsenal were well on top, were really kind of dominating the game, dominating the ball, getting all the second balls. and I think this is part of what's kind of so confounding Jamie we've started the last three or four games really really well it's just it drifts when we don't score but you know we had some chances like Mariana hits the post from a good counter Lisa Bowne to your point I think she has all of our first three shots in this game and I think she gave Katie McCabe a tough time um they're just for all that dominance they're just there weren't enough clear-cut chances and i think some of that jamie is maybe just having a lot of ball dominant players and not enough players who want to go in behind to your point having i'm fine with having mariana on the left but mariana with like on a bachie that's very central like i wonder if maybe taylor heinz is more of an overlapper could have stretched the game a bit more because we had control and and I think that's a good thing to aim for anyway in the first half an hour away at Chelsea even if you don't create a huge amount but they're just there wasn't enough bang for the buck here when when Arsenal were really on top certainly I just think that there was so many times and my mind casts itself back to him to an instance where Mariana puts a really good and positive through ball through.

9:47It's almost like probably our best chance of the game. And Emily Fox is like bombing it up the pitch, but she runs inside and inverts across the winger. And all it does is bring Alyssa Thompson into the central area and then suddenly Arsenal are clogged. I think it's the shot where Katie McCabe gets a deflection on Lisa Balm's shot because she kind of cuts in. And all that does there is add another Chelsea defender to the mix. Kira Walsh is kind of tracking back as well. And it means that Lisa Balm has little to no space to use the ball because she's not going to take the wing in that instance.

10:17She's always going to take the inside. She then has no option in the channel should she need that. So she has to take a shot. She's off balance. The defender's been able to block it because she has time to track back. And that happens so much in this game. To your point, Mariana and Ana Bajie, it doesn't work because Bajie keeps inverting. Emily Fox is doing the same thing in this game. So, yes, you can have players that are really, really good at keeping the ball, but you're going to have to have a player that's really, really good at finding the space. like the possession is worth nothing if every single one of your players is a ball user and then you add your number nine who's clearly out of form and we see Russo when she's stressing she likes to get the ball she likes to drop into the midfield then when she can't make an impact up front suddenly you've got all these players and they're all in each other's way so I think from a tactical standpoint this is what I meant when I said it was a bit of a gray area earlier I can understand the aim but I don't think it was well balanced with any sort of okay we've got the ball but what are we now going to do with it?

11:09And it's the same problem we've had week in, week out. So I don't care about possession dominance anymore because it's frustrating to see it not come to fruition. Yeah, yeah. And it's, you know, I think we'll talk a little bit maybe about the psychology of this later, but it's kind of with Arsenal kind of starting games quite well. I mean, I know we have a question about this in the second half. It does feel like there's a different game plan every time. It was a very fine line between being flexible and doing a very different thing in every single game. But it is a good opening half an hour. It's just they either don't get the finish or they just don't get...

11:53None of the shots were on target in the first half. And it's okay to say Kim Little hit the post, but that's not a clear-cut chance. I think Mariana is a better one. But then something happens. Georgia Stanway goes down. I think she misses a tackle on Alyssa Thompson and she gets a bit of a bang. And the press box at Stamford Bridge is right behind the dugouts. And as always in these situations, all the players go over to the bench. And I think something changes for Chelsea there. I think Sonia kind of gets them together. They start to close down a lot more quickly. Haven't had a chance to watch the game back.

12:33So I don't know if they make a positional tweak somewhere. because I guess one of the things Arsenal were trying to play off is, you know, Alyssa Thompson and Lauren James kind of, they're not, Lauren James is a build-up player. Like, Alyssa Thompson's not a build-up player. Like, those are players you hit straight away, but otherwise they're not involved in the game, really, if you take the ball away from them. But something happens there. Chelsea do come back into it after that. I think Arsenal stopped dominating. albeit I don't think Chelsea have Arsenal under a load of pressure, but the goal Arsenal concede, very sloppy.

13:16I think there's a lot of players that don't cover themselves in glory. And even Rene said afterwards, she said it was like the United goal, in that it's not so much that Chelsea create it, it's more that we give it to them. And there's a bad pass from Mariana, there's a bad pass from Steph Cattley, Onabache is trying to get it onto her right foot instead of clearing with her left. I think Kyra is relatively blameless in this. And then Annika Balba makes a really good save, but Emily Fox doesn't follow in and Alyssa Thompson does. It just felt like a very sloppy goal. Something that I really, really got frustrated with in the last 10 minutes of this half, and I think it's like a mentality thing, is we switch off so much.

14:03and defensively the second that Chelsea start to get a little bit more of the ball our press is so so slow like the way that we're setting up is there's so much space between every single Arsenal player when Chelsea have possession so Chelsea are then able to move and that's what they want to do they want to be able to play fluid football and get you on transition so they're running into pockets and Arsenal players are just kind of playing zonal football and it's really frustrating the final action with the press is not there so as soon as Chelsea say hey we could probably just start managing possession here.

14:31Arsenal don't really know what to do about it. And then in this goal, they're so flat footed. And I know this is in possession, but I think it's so reflective, Tim, in the way that we defended in this game is it's both. It's just flat footed and it's like the final action isn't there. And something kind of switches off in the last 10 minutes of the first half and switches on for Chelsea where we just start being lazy. And this goal is so, so amateur. Like defensively, this is so amateur. Steph Catley, terrible pass. If you can't pick out a player in that instance, bomb it down the wing, like just bomb it down the channel, reset and reset the press, reset the formation.

15:04Why are we trying to hit a five yard past or play that's on a two on one? And then Mariona kind of doesn't really look like she wants to be there in this five minute like instance where she's, she's low on energy. She's lazy in her pass back. But I think for me, what really annoyed me is those are two really big mistakes. But what really annoyed me is on a bad day. So behind her player and the chase here, like she doesn't even look like she's going to get her foot in. And then it's just not good enough for Emily Fox and Leah Williamson, who are both not on a player at the back post. They're kind of ball watching until Borba makes that pass.

15:34And Emily Fox is like, that's what she prides herself on. And that's what we pride herself on is the effort and the final action. And to not chase that player is so frustrating because against Chelsea and against Arsenal, playing against Arsenal right now, it's about those fine margins and those lapses and concentration. And we have about five of them in this instance, Tim, which made me ropeable. it's a really really hard goal to concede yeah when even like emily fox who i thought was herself largely in this game just like really really good but yeah she doesn't she doesn't really react there um great news she signed a contract anyway at least there was um a bit of that um this week and um yeah that i you know there was there was a lot of interest in her from the NWSL in the summer, there was a pretty big offer.

16:21I think Bay might have been sniffing around on that one, which is why I stopped being hugely bullish about her signing on during the summer because I was aware that there were offers there and good ones, and I wasn't sure what was going to happen. But thankfully, she stayed on and from what I'm told, Arsenal gave those offers very short shrift anyway. so at least there's one bit of good news this week albeit before the game um so halftime we're 1-0 down I mean at this point even though like I don't think we'd played badly and even when the period of domination stopped I didn't necessarily think Chelsea were hugely dominant I think they just came back into it a bit but I mean what was your feeling at halftime in terms of like the likelihood of scoring two goals to win it or even scoring one goal to draw yeah my my my energy was not happy granted it was like 2 30 in the morning and you're kind of watching Arsenal do the same thing every week Tim to be honest like I was I was negative going into the second half just because of how bad we've been we've scored two goals in the WSL like Spurs have scored 15 yeah like this is not a team right now that is scoring goals it's it's so baffling it's like I'm like I'm in the denial stage of grief right now where I don't actually think any of this is happening but to be honest Tim like the way that we were playing and and and the chances we weren't creating the lack thereof uh yeah I didn't feel positive at halftime whatsoever yeah I thought like maybe we can draw this um and get a goal and I do feel like there's a lot that's psychological here where we're starting games quite well that tells me that the players are clear on the game plan they have some buy-in to the game plan but I think it just gets to a certain stage and if they haven't scored that the fear gets them um I think we saw that in the second half and you know beginning of the second half it's it's a bit it's kind of a not quite a non-event but not a great deal of incident kind of happens.

18:34And then on 60 minutes, Arsenal make their first double change. And I think this is where a lot of the criticism, and I think rightly so, is going to come from. Now, first on, I think, 61 minutes, we get Steiner Blaxtenius and Caitlin Ford on Felisa Baume and Mariana. Now, swapping out the wide players, albeit then Steiner came on and I mean

19:06Rene was asked about this afterwards about taking Lisa Baum off and she said look there's some stuff that I won't share in this room because she was asked if it was physical basically because she's 19 she's getting used to the league I mean and usually I understand and and Rene also referenced You know, we were asking a lot of the wide players on Mariana's side, Ellie Carpenter's bombing up and down, and we knew we kind of wanted to change it. But first things first, Lisa Baum is the last player I would have taken off. And she had a shot in like she'd had like half of our shots at one stage. And I just don't think she should have come off.

19:47and I think I understand the frustration that Caitlin Ford and Steiner Blackstenius are the first kind of players that Rene throws at this, both of whom for me are players who are much better in stretched game states and I think Scott Willis put out some good data and you can see the shots and the threat flat lines for a good 10 minutes after these subs. I mean, personally, I think this is too big to pin on individuals, but I do understand why people are like, we bought some new attackers in the summer and we're sending on the same players and we're sending on players who are just not best in these scenarios.

20:39And I think, Jamie, these subs, some of these substitutions really confused the players and killed quite a lot of belief. this I think is the most clear example of break glass in case of emergency like and this is something I'm really beginning to be anxious about when I watch Renee Slagers kind of manage game states because at the start of her tenure when she was the interim it was kind of what we prided her on it was like in game problem solving and how do I put how do I get this player to problem solve and how do the players do that for themselves and in this case it's okay my front three that I've rotated for the fourth time in four WSL games is not working.

21:18I'm going to then rotate the entire front three in the 61st minute at Stamford Bridge because I think that that is going to help. We need to throw anything at this Chelsea team, forgetting that the Arsenal team need to be able to know what they have to do. It's so opposition dependent in a reactive way, not in a tactical way because you're looking at this game and you're saying, okay, the only part of the first half that made me happy as an Arsenal fan was I thought Lisa Baum got the better of Katie McCabe every single time and her stats actually don't reflect that which is which is interesting and that's why we watch football with our eyes people because I'm seeing a lot of Chelsea fans kind of criticize Lisa Baum in this game and I thought Katie McCabe wasn't able to hold position the goal that we almost scored was because McCabe kind of got sold into Baum came into the inside and then we had room at the back.

22:05This is a really strong first half. And from a tactical standpoint, Tim, I can understand the Lisa Baum thing. Like I said, like, we'll come on to Olivia Smith. I know her leg was very heavily strapped as well. Like I don't really know if there's much about that, but if there's not being anything said, I'm just kind of going to take it as if she's fit to play. But I understand Lisa Baum starting because of the directness. That's a tactical implementation that I can understand. Taking her off when you're struggling to get or gather any sort of momentum and directness towards goal makes no sense to me.

22:35That substitution alone, like in the last couple of weeks, we've been forgiving it because it's like this is a young, new player. She needs to transition into the team. We do have players that can fit into that. Watching Stena Blackstini as Caitlin Ford, Chloe Kelly come on and all three of those players, especially the wide players are out of form, was so frustrating because to me it thought that's the game over now, like Chelsea now adapt because now their fullbacks can come into the game. I know that Chloe Kelly used to be praised to track back. She's not doing that as much recently. Caitlin Ford, like if you're looking to score a goal and you've got a player that hasn't gotten a goal and assist in like 20 WSL matches, that is a massive concern.

23:12That is a massive concern. Like the selection here is making me so anxious, Tim, because it just feels like Renee is going with what she knows. And that comes back to the same argument that keeps me up at night. It's like, does she have the players that she wants to have? Is the backroom doing their job to support this manager? Or is the manager just lost any sort of clarity? And that's what this was. This was a substitution again where the players have no idea what they're doing. The role isn't being prescribed to them. The starting lineup kind of makes sense if you really squint. And then it's like a completely different game plan 60 minutes later because something's not going right.

23:46Right now the players are confused. Like Kim Little mouthing to the bench or like yelling to the bench, am I playing in the six? Georgia Stanway looked confused. Obviously, Emily Fox came off for a couple of seconds because she went down, but Alessia Russo on the wing had no idea what she was doing. It's just this is an Arsenal team in a playing group right now, Tim, that doesn't know what their job description is. And I think the manager is just panicking and pressing that panic button every single week. Yeah, yeah. It's, you know, the title of my piece is The Washing Machine. It's fully in the washing machine, like, you know, just like, we'll try this and hope it works.

24:20like it is just throwing out solutions now. And I mean, I don't, well, I wouldn't say this gives the manager latitude per se, but there are a couple of half chances. One, Ana Barche does really well on the left, picks out Caitlin Ford with a cutback and she takes a touch, which is a very poor decision in that moment. And Chloe Kelly, quite similarly, she gets set up on the right-hand side and she takes a touch and Katie McKay blocks. And, you know, neither one of those might have gone in, but I do think the fact that they both elected to take a touch suggests there is a strong confidence part of this as well.

25:15I'm not hand-waving the tactical part or the recruitment part, the substitutions part. But I feel like an even slightly confident Arsenal, at least one of those players, hits one of those first time. Why, after three, four games of playing 10 defenders in the penalty area, your muscle memory tells you to take a touch there? I don't know. And I can't explain it in any other way than there is a strong element that this is really in the players' heads right now. I couldn't agree more. There's also one with Mariona before she gets taken off where she takes another touch and she could have hit it first time.

25:56And that's like such a hard thing to speak about on a podcast and pretend that we are the Oracle because you can't talk on a player's mentality when you're not there. But it's undeniable. Like the mentality of this playing group isn't there and it hasn't been for a couple of weeks now. The Manchester United game was the hardest game for me because the players look like they didn't care. In this game, the players look beaten down but like there's not a lot we can do as fans or as analysts or whatever we're doing I think that this is a mentality thing that has to come from the group and my like biggest fear and every listener of AskCast has heard me say this bloody sentence a million times and they're probably tired of it but it was when Renee finally got her first season like my biggest fear as an Arsenal fan is if this playing group has the mentality to do it when there isn't a driving force behind them or there isn't a narrative or we're not the underdog or there isn't this big factor that's changed and and now we have to do something in the face of adversity can we start a season with a big pre-season and a good goodish summer window and perform without external factors without this big narrative and this pressure and I don't think a lot of these players can do that and and there's turnover in the squad so that's a generalization that I can't make but Arsenal is a club and Arsenal women is a club for the last decade we've played our best football when things when our back is against the wall.

27:14It was the Wolfsburg game was like this big, big, amazing story in the Champions League and our injury crisis and the way that then we got into the Champions League qualification from the skin of our teeth because it was just pure heart. And then obviously the Champions League with the interim manager and coming back from there. And I struggle to watch this team when something like that isn't happening because it feels like the players can't respond and they look so low on confidence right now. These are some of the best players in the world. Like you said, there is no world where Chloe Kelly at the Euros last season would have taken a touch there.

27:44She would have hit it first time and put it in the back of the net. So, yeah, it's sad because how do you fix that? We can't fix that. We can't offer a solution there. We just got to hope that the backroom can and that go on a boot camp or something. I don't know. But, yeah, I couldn't agree more, Tim. It's there. It's palpable and, yeah, you can definitely see it. Yeah, I feel like we need like a proper goal, like a well-worked goal. like I don't know you know penalty against Kürger and a bit of a Hail Mary cross from Leo Williamson to Smiller Holmberg like don't get me wrong I don't want to pick holes in the goals we've actually scored but it feels like we need like a nice team goal where something they worked on on the training ground happens and it goes in and just to get like a little bit of that feeling and then there's another kind of double sub with nine minutes to go Selena Church comes on reuteler comes on for her debut uh for this nine minutes i mean i think that's pretty confounding um at this stage and again it just feels like every possible like substitution um every single player and they've all been asked to do different things like it feels very washing machiney and again when those two players come on and i don't think it's their fault there's a flat line again in threat and shots it disrupts the rhythm um and i think you know i think it's quite clear that these two summer signings and are not highly rated by renee like we can only go on her behavior and they're either not coming on or they come on as a bit of a hail mary when we want to wallop the ball into the penalty area it doesn't feel great that those were the the kind of summer signings and i asked renee afterwards about whether the substitutions confuse the team and she said I don't think so I think we have a lot of clarity clarity in the way we want to play in principles um all players can execute that they know it uh but of course there's different qualities in different players so you have to make small adjustments in what you want to achieve I mean yeah I think it's just one of those where she can't answer yeah they probably did and I don't I don't really like I don't really know what to do at this stage it did feel kind of Hail Mary-ish again and it didn't really feel like those players had a great deal of clarity but Jamie sometimes sitting in the press box there are a few times a season where you kind of really struggle not to shout or you know bang your table or something and the last couple of seconds both Caitlin Ford and Steph Catley have the ball there's five minutes added on it's 95 minutes and they pass the ball to each other and the final whistle goes and um you know look when caitlin had the ball she was very frustrated she was gesturing like where is everyone and when you look at it it's really galling that like not everyone is just running into the box because all there's seconds left all the only choice you have is to smash it into the box and hope something drops but that felt very um yeah that felt very symptomatic of the lack of confidence the lack of ideas and the lack of assertiveness that I think we've seen for a few games now I would just add a lack of intention and a lack of like fight as well what are we doing and it's like this is a game where it's so frustrating again tim and i will probably echo this in the second half a million times but there's no way anyone's watching this 90 minutes and saying our chelsea definitely deserved the three points without shadow of a doubt like arsenal in terms of controlling the game looking better in the first 30 minutes i'm not saying they deserve to win at all by any means but i'm saying you can't say with certainty 100 of your opinion is that Chelsea deserve to win this game we didn't make them earn that to this point that usually one of these teams has to earn a victory against one another exactly right it just felt like such a deflating result again same as Manchester United same as Crystal Palace like even Kerger in the midweek oh my gosh was that a close call before that would have been the most generational crash out of my life at seven in the morning like honestly like we laugh but I'm not well Tim this is driving me insane but what are we doing like that performance we didn't give everything we didn't give everything to Chelsea Chelsea didn't dominate it wasn't like the last couple times other bar last season which was amazing that we've gone to Stamford Bridge and we've said this is a world-class WSL winning team that are just unfortunately outclassing us and just want it more and we're not playing well we just don't want to be there like and that's why I'm so frustrated with the mentality because I think there's a confidence issue and again like so much of that comes from a club and if you want to look at something like for example it was like Manchester United last season they're struggling to get results across the line a lot of that onus is falling on Mark Skinner but again as a as an outsider you can't look at that and say the players are low confidence because of xyz we don't know like we can just only hope that tactically and on the pitch that can be solved and that's the same thing with this it's like okay what is the problem because it looks as if the manager finally has more support Jodie Taylor's been brought in to provide the club more support.

33:11She's finally had a summer transfer window, Renee, to pick her players. The players are players that play together at an international level quite often. So from an outsider's point of view, what's the diagnosis here in the last 10 seconds of the game to not be hail-marrying and wanting to win the game? Why do Arsenal no longer want to win? And that's why it's so frustrating. It's fine if you're not confident. I understand that as a problem that we can't really have a say in, but the effort is something I just have such a gripe with it. I have such a big gripe with the fact that these players are showing low effort.

33:41And we've seen that time and time again for the last couple of games. And Tim, it's getting so frustrating. And this is a point-back example. Like Steph Cattley and Caitlin Ford were, this is some of the worst football they've played in a while for Arsenal, I thought. The rest of the players, though, bomb it forward. What are we doing? Get in the box. Get in the box and call for it. Like force them to pass you the ball. I'm so frustrated, Tim. I'm so beaten down. Yeah, and it just looks like the players are as well, frankly. I think the number of them that are out of form, that doesn't happen by coincidence.

34:13And I do think it's going to be a bit of a job to pick them up because I think we've seen low confidence for a few games now, quite frankly, manifest itself. And the only way you get out of that is with results. And that makes Wednesday night very, very important. um we'll pause it there for the first half and take a little break and we'll be back with your questions submitted on blue sky in part two right after this

34:49therapy's biggest impact doesn't show up in some dramatic breakthrough it shows up in the smallest moments you bite your tongue instead of escalating you put your phone down instead of firing off that text. You say what you actually mean instead of what would hurt someone else the most. Nobody applauds those moments, but they quietly change your life. That's what growing feels like, and that's exactly what Grow Therapy is here for. Grow is therapy that works, covered by insurance. Sessions average$21 with insurance, and some pay as little as$0 depending on their plan. There are no subscriptions, no long-term commitments.

35:26You just pay per session. Grow connects you with thousands of high-quality licensed therapists across the U.S., offering both virtual and in-person sessions, nights and weekends. You can search by what matters, like insurance, specialty, identity, or availability. And you can book a therapy session in minutes and begin in as little as two days, not the national 48-day average. See if you could pay as little as$0 for therapy in seconds at growtherapy.com slash start now. That's growtherapy.com slash start now. growtherapy.com slash start now. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan.

36:07I'm Jake Stouck, co-founder and CEO of Serval. We built Serval to automate the IT work that slows companies down. Onboarding, password resets, access to applications, my laptop stopped working. while employees wait for help, their real work is put on hold. IT desperately wants to automate this work and that's why they need Serval. You just tell Serval what you want to automate in plain English and it's built. No drag and drop workflows, no expensive consultants. Employees get unblocked and IT teams go from drowning in tickets to building what actually matters. With Serval, IT becomes the AI engine powering the entire company.

36:46This is a new way to run IT. We guarantee you'll automate 50 % of all tickets and we'll prove it to you in a free four-week pilot. Go to serval.com slash tickets. That's S-E-R-V-A-L dot com slash tickets.

37:18Like bare-knuckle fights in the Caribbean, massive parties, beach events, DJs, cigars, tequila tastings and non-stop action. The lineup reveals coming soon. Cabins are disappearing fast and the prices won't stay this low. Reserve your spot with just$200 down at BKFSEA.com.

37:41Okay, welcome back to the Arsenal Women Ask Cast on AskBlog.com with Tim Stillman and Jamie Spang are going over Sundays. is quite deflating 1-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge. Before we kind of start up with the questions just to note that the AskBlog app has been redesigned so both for iOS and Android done quite a bit of work on that in the background in the summer and like the site carries no advertising anything like that doesn't collect any data any of your personal data either and a few bows and whistles attached to that as well and obviously that includes our women's coverage there is a separate tab for that on the app now uh just like we have on the website um and also it has um unfortunately not because of the women's team but it does have a gold badge now uh given the men winning the premier league so it looks uh very very nice in the app library but anyway um enough of that we have uh asked for questions on blue sky i think this might be one of the highest number we've ever had um and that usually happens when things are bad to be honest with you um jamie i'm gonna let you go first and ask the first question of course this one is from nick's clips who loves to ask a a very very good question all of the time my uh blue sky has decided that it doesn't want to wake up because it's being like Arsenal.

39:08Here it is. Increasing the depth in the squad was seen as a necessity, but I'm only seeing negatives. No clear starting 11, no time for connections to form with the constantly changing team sheet. So many sub options that find the right game changes isn't working and Renee seems overwhelmed with the choices she can make in every match. There is no cohesion, combinations aren't working, and before long players will become disgruntled with sitting on the bench. We should get Nick's clips on the podcast because that was brilliant um how do we turn this negative into a positive it was intended to be tim if you were the manager next week what are you doing here yeah that's a really interesting question like uh there is a question do we just try and go back to something like kim and mariana um at the base of the midfield type thing but then i i also don't think that that really exists anymore because like katie mckay but left back would be part of that right um and and that you know that that option isn't there anymore and this is where like the washing machine effect has come in because it's like do we put all the new players in do we put none of the new players in do we go back do it and like whatever we do now whatever renee does is going to feel like the washing machine until something clicks and works and I do think it needs a result I do think like I said there's a big psychological element to this there's a big loss of confidence but it I think it needs to be like a convincing result you know that's going to be very difficult against Paris FC I watched them play Barcelona last week and we played them in pre-season they're a decent team i'm not expecting to go there and turn them over by very much but like if we can just get the right game plan for man city and win that game and then go into the international break like it feels result dependent to me i i don't have the answer about like if we pick this team or if we do this um but i do think i have seen like i've seen the plan in the games when they start i've seen the plan i've seen like i can see what they're trying to do here and the players are kind of executing it but i just wonder whether every game is so different different selection different game plan and then when we're not one nil up after 25 minutes it all gets a bit nervous and then we have to start relying on the substitutions to chase the game rather than to like retain the game or try and stretch a lead so like um yeah it it does feel to me like this feels like result dependent it feels like and not and not like scraping a stoppage time penalty against the part-time team i think it needs to be like a good result and a good performance and i I do think that will fix a lot of things.

42:15But I think in general, it could be that we've gone too big too quickly with too much change, too much rotation, too much change in the game plan. And we've scrambled everyone's brain a little bit. And I think it's really interesting that afterwards, Renee talked about keeping the complexity away from the players, was a phrase she used. and I don't know whether that represents a bit of a shift as well because usually you know and I think after the United game she talked about we need to get the you know that's her style right get the players input I want to know what they feel I don't know what they think is going wrong and now she's talking about keeping stuff away from players in terms of complexity and I don't know if that represents a change as well whether she's thinking ah perhaps I'm putting too much on them perhaps i need to show them i need to tell them like i i don't know i could be reading too much into that but yeah it it feels like confidence is a massive massive issue and there's only one way to correct that and it's with the results and performances and i don't know where that's coming from um at the moment if i'm completely honest um why don't we go for Or this one from Queen Goona at Sofire.

43:37Another slow start to the season. That's something that's very dependable and consistent at the moment. Are the slow starts to the season down to the manager or the players? Also, do you think Slager's substitutions are pre-prepared or is it just that her in-game management has been poor? So one on slow starts, one on substitutions, two of our favourite subjects. I love these topics. I love these topics. Slow starts, I think you can break it down into a Venn diagram with three circles, should I say. Players' mentality, confidence, I've said enough about that this episode. I don't need to go on about it.

44:12Everyone knows how I feel on that. The manager, I think that you've just made an excellent point, Tim. Like at the start of every game this season, I've kind of looked at it and said, I can understand this team sheet. I can decode this team sheet. And I did the same for this Chelsea game. I thought, like I said at the start of the episode, I can see what we're going with here. let's hold possession let's be direct let's kind of overflow the central areas I understand what the intention is uh even against Crystal Palace throughout the 90 minutes I thought she coached a win like this is on the players but after halftime it feels like she doesn't know what she's doing again and I don't know if that's like stage fright what's going on in terms of Renee like like what is the the factor there I think that she just has players once again and this was the issue last season she has players that she doesn't really know what to do with and that brings me on to the third circle of my Venn diagram, which is I still don't believe that recruitment are doing a good enough job to provide the manager or any manager with the platform to succeed.

45:09How many cycles does this club have to go through? Like how many managers do we have to sack before we realize that something else has to change? Because we have the exact same problem every single time. Like it's a great start with a strong manager, someone that we really think is going to carry us towards WSL glory again. And then they fall off, a bunch of things happened the players no longer look like what they want to be there we get another manager suddenly they're Ronaldinho's like this there's clearly something in the back here and like I wrote an article for the halfway line about it last week where I was talking about kind of personnel and one was freedom on and being left out of the match day squad and obviously that happens again this is a player that we didn't need to re-sign if you don't want her don't re-sign her like don't that's as simple as that you don't have to have freedom on him at your club I like her like I I think that she has like a lot of potential and the way that we saw Alessia Russo and Frieda Mornem kind of blossom last season is something I'm annoyed we're not seeing this season at all.

46:03But you don't need to keep her at the club. It's the same as Caitlin Ford. That's a lazy signing. Like I know that Rene values her and that's a break glass in case of emergency. But like this is a player that is no longer lifting our season. We're just so complacent when it comes to playing, like playing group, contract renewals. It's like this player is already there. They will do. whereas our rivals are going and buying the best players in the world because they want to fight for them they want to put money on the table so I think when you look at the onus of responsibility it's it's a Venn diagram right now where it's like players aren't doing well enough maybe that's a motivation thing because they don't think the manager values their their playing style maybe that's it maybe the brand's not fitting in there Renee tactical implementations make no sense to me when it comes to halftime but then at the same time we still have a squad that the manager doesn't want like there's so much wrong and it has to start from the top in my opinion um I'm gonna leave that there because we'll come on to that but substitutions I don't think that I don't think these were pre-planned and I think that was the issue I think that this was like these are the players that I know throw them on and hope for the best I think if it was pre-planned it would have kind of made sense to go off the back of who she started with how do you kind of keep bringing on let's overload the midfield let's lead with directness don't bring on a completely new front three of clarity like to me with no clarity that just is a is a panic button I don't think that's pre-planned and I think we've seen pre-planned this season Tim but I think this one was very much please please be a hero Steena Blackstinius like save me if no one else can yeah I I feel like I felt like this for a couple of years I think I've said this before but like I can't resist the comparison between Arsenal women and Manchester United men and the United men's team go through this like they get a manager they get a bit of an upward tick and it's like ah here we go and then it's like oh no um and then they buy some players it's like oh here we go we bought some good oh no it's not working again like yeah it does it does very much feel like that um your turn for a question right yes yes this one is more tactical i'm getting frustrated guys listeners at home i I hope you're feeling the same way I am.

48:10This is from at Ariella W. Another thing I've noticed beyond finishing problems is the pressing. Ability to get the second, third ball, and the ability to win duels has been lacking, from the eye test at least. I get the theory behind not pressing the first player on an opposing team, but if you're not winning the second phase of that process, it doesn't work, and suddenly they've bypassed half your press. What isn't working in the tactics that's causing this, and what can we do to change it? This is very technical, Tim. Yeah, I think a lot of this is just down to the constant personnel switching.

48:40Yeah. This was an area Arsenal really wanted to do better in this season, the kind of transitional high turnover, you know, players coming in from the Bundesliga, which is a very transitional league, getting someone like Georgia who's going to play bigger, spread the play a lot. And those passes don't always come off, but they give you the chance to counter press even when they don't. having quicker more decisive players but also some of the players we've brought to do that are not playing anyway like Roy Tiller and Selina Churchy in particular Lisa Baum is she's playing and she's doing well and one of the reasons is she's very good at doing stuff like that she's good in the one-on-ones she's good at all the stuff that we haven't been good at for quite a long time um which i think is a big part of why she's looking so good and the manager's really relying on her quite a lot but i i suspect this is just where yeah there's four different midfield threes and four different front threes um mariana has played as a central midfielder as a 10 and a left winger in three of the four games already russo i mean there must be times where if you could just stop the game for a second on the pitch and just be like which position are you playing at the moment she'd have to think about it for five seconds like am i a 10 or a 9 at the moment i've forgotten like the yo-yoing backwards and forwards between those two kind of states we've seen um you know we've seen baum and smith for example we've seen them invert we've seen them on their natural sides like there's just a lot of chopping and changing and i think that makes it very difficult to build a very coordinated press and I also think when it comes to the press that's where you miss Frida Frida's very good at that she's very good at blocking off passing lane she's very good at closing down and forcing those turnovers and obviously she hasn't been there she hasn't been playing and the player that's most like her broadly is Geraldine Reuteler and she's not playing either so like we've we've kind of taken out some players who are quite good at that but I I think the main reason is just like there's just so much change there it's just impossible it's almost impossible for them to continue to be coordinated both from game to game and then the substitutions and then the substitutions are all different and the substitutes are all asked to do different things game to game I I think the press isn't there at all and I think as symptomatic of, you know, very much a wider malaise in a lot of what we're seeing.

51:22How about this one? A bit more of a soft factor one that I think is interesting from Shane Thomas at TokenBG. I'm wondering if all the bullish pre-season talk from the club about going for the title inadvertently put the players under too much pressure and now they're playing with fear of failure. Of course, we should be going for the league, but would it have been smarter to keep that talk in-house? No, no, no, no. That was a harsh way to answer that, but I'm feeling frustrated. I think that these are professional footballers and if we're not talking about winning the league after nearly, it's been nine years, nearly eight years since we last won the league, what are we doing?

52:06What are we doing? It's time to kind of look at that. I also don't think it's been overly like laid on in terms of Arsenal should be competing for the title I think the title in my opinion before the season started was still Manchester City's to lose like they are the exciting team to watch but I do think if as a professional outlet where you've underperformed a lot for many many seasons in terms of the league title and you've now got a golden opportunity where as fans you see this as a manager finally having a window where there's not an international tournament and your players can regroup I think it's very fair of an assumption for fans and media alike to say Arsenal should be competing for the league title this season and I don't think the players are gonna gonna feel that pressure I don't think they will like when you look at some of the players in this team Leah Williamson's Alessia Russo's Georgia Stanways players like that like they felt all the pressure in the world in terms of how high it can get from a women's football perspective with the Lionesses of the Euros last summer I don't think that these are players on an international stage shy away from it like you've got world cup winners in badger and mariana in your team so i don't think that that's an issue of oh the lights have been too bright and they're nervous and there's there's a fear of the of collapse in terms of the the title race i just think that's an expectation that i think should be placed on this playing group and this club to be competing for the league title and to be seventh uh at the end of september is yeah pretty pretty poor pretty poor yeah i i think it's one of those things you can only speculate about I suspect it hasn't helped in hindsight I wasn't quibbling with it at the time when they said it to your point I think I've never gone into a season thinking that Arsenal didn't have the talent to put together a title challenge I don't think I've ever thought that about pretty much any of our teams but I guess if you were going to do the thought experiment if Renee could have the time back would she do that again I suspect probably not um but at the same time I don't think it's and I don't think Shane's suggesting this either that it's the reason but you know it's it's probably part of the of the cocktail um as Renee would say um have you got a question I do these ones are a little bit more existential Tim this is from At Bolton Gooner.

54:25On a scale of 1 to 10, how worried should we be given the improvement in the mid-level clubs, for example, LCL, Liverpool and Spurs, who are all above us in the table, that if we don't get our shit together, qualifying for Champions League is a massive doubt. And do we need a leadership change or is it a trust the process? And then NRAALF said, when a team is underperforming, football's default is to sack the manager. Does this team fit that description? and if not the manager what else could change so yeah how worried do we have to be in our future here Tim yeah so yeah I think that's a totally legitimate worry that we we don't have a divine right to even third place um and uh Renee Renee was asked a question in the post-match press conference about like the title race and is it over and all of that and she said we have to earn the right to be in that conversation again um and that's how i feel about it is like it's it's still very early in the season i mean i'm not saying like i don't think we're going to win the league but at that way but it's still like there's there's 22 games left right there's a lot of football to play we've got to play all of those teams um so you know i wouldn't say it's keeping me up at the night at the moment i think we'd have to be further into the season however i think we'd be very foolish to dismiss the quality of those teams um and yeah i think those those teams are more capable than ever of of pushing for those places and you know i guess to echo renee there we we've got to earn the right we've got to earn the right um for it we we've got to come back into that conversation and that's going to take a little while before we start worrying about ramifications and where we're going to finish we've got to go right back to basics and get the performances and then we can start to think about that but yeah that's a totally like we have no right to dismiss that concern at this stage like it's as simple as that in terms of a leadership change um i don't know um i think that's probably more going to be a question for the international break for the next two games don't go well for example um at that stage then you've got to think because my position i think is still that this season should be a judgment season really for renee i think this is the point where it's like it's your team it's your squad it's setup like there are no caveats anymore um and i think to change things before the end of the season there has to be a really really there has to be a really good reason for it and i'm not i'm not saying there isn't by the way at this point but also like there has to be a replacement there and unless you like sometimes you do just come to the stage where you you can't worry about that anymore a bit like the stage we got to the onus where it was like okay we're not necessarily sure that the answer managerially is out there and we can go and appoint them but this just has to stop at this point and i think for example if we were to lose the next two games i think you could absolutely justifiably um make that argument i i think honestly like they're not going to do this If they sack to tomorrow, I don't think anyone could have any huge complaints.

57:57You know, it's not what I do at this moment in time. I still think, you know, you've got to see at least how the next two games go. But really what you've got to look at when you make a decision like that is, is this past the point of return? Like, have the players checked out? Can the manager turn this around? um we've got a question in a minute that i might i might go into a little bit more about that about rene whether you know rene's got um the attributes to turn it around but yeah like but i i wouldn't like dissuade if anyone and i know a lot of people feel like that change needs to be made now like i'm not out here telling you you're wrong or stupid but that way um that's there's a perfectly reasonable position to hold even if i'm not quite there yet but probably not a million miles away either.

58:50So how about this one then, which probably builds on this a little bit, and it's from Ralph Wilde at the Wild Edge. In 2024, after four games, we had five points and the fourth result being a one-goal defeat to Chelsea. The team looked lost and frustrated and Jonas Eideval resigned shortly afterwards. Two years later, after four games, we again have five points and the fourth result is again a one-goal defeat to Chelsea, except this time the next game is City. What is different this time that should give us confidence Renee Slagers can turn this around? Did you just see the light leave my eyes, Tim?

59:35Has he read that to me? I think the campaign that's behind her is something that is different to what Jonas had. I think that we've seen plenty from Rene. And we saw a lot from Jonas as well. I think that Jonas had a lot of strengths. Just by the end, it wasn't there. But his last full season in charge, I still think, was massively disappointing in terms of the Conte Cup. And we really, really struggled. We obviously exited Champions League before it even started. And that campaign lacked a lot of bite. We weren't in European football yet. We still weren't competing for the league title against Chelsea.

1:00:10And that was really frustrating. I think that that was a massive year of underperformance that was saved by a League Cup victory in Wolverhampton or wherever I had to travel to. We all had lots of fun that day. But I think that when you look at this season and the state that Renee's in now, she comes off the back of a much better result in the last 18 months. And obviously I think it's very easy to say that if we didn't win the Champions League, this conversation's very different because how much longer can we still ride the coattails of that Champions League trophy? but last season like you're still competing in Europe you're you're you're in the you're in the title race until the last day despite a very slow start to the season I think this is a manager that has turned it around before and that's not just I'm not just talking about the interim period I'm talking about last January like we were in we weren't in the same situation last season but this is really really bad situation but we were struggling we got a couple draws on the road Aston Villa at home and Tottenham away and we were struggling for form and this is a this is a manager that got the Christmas break under a belt, obviously had time to kind of recalibrate what was going on at the club and the direction she wanted to take this playing group.

1:01:17And then we were unstoppable from January to May. I think that this is a manager that can turn around bad form. And not only can she turn it around, she's not someone that I can picture rallying the troops and yelling and singing some sort of like William Wallace cry, but I can see her going away and saying, these are the problems that need to be fixed. And I think that she has the tactical brain to do that. I don't want to discount this manager yet because she's done it at Arsenal and she's done it at an Arsenal team that had nothing to do with a manager getting sacked. This was just, we started the season badly.

1:01:47How do we return from this? And we looked unstoppable after them. We truly did. We were a great, great side six months ago. So yeah, I think that she has the attributes to problem solve. I think that she has the football brain. She's still young enough to understand the playing group. And that's something I think we forget about a lot. This is a very, very very new head coach in probably the the women's football job other than maybe the head coach of England or the USA that has the most eyes on her like at all times so this is still a person that needs to grow a lot but to cut a long story short Tim yeah I think she's done it before and I think that she has the attributes and it's it's different to Jonas where it felt like the playing group's done the manager has no solutions we're playing the exact same way every week yeah I'm with you on on that i think she has shown the aptitude to turn it around before i'm not saying that's good enough by the way like in the long term not saying oh and therefore everything will be fine again like the season could be like buggered already and that's that's a very bad position to be in but i'm with you on that also there was bad air with the fans around yonas um with the kind of with the viv thing um and he points to that as very much the reason that he resigned and that it was there was just like a real cloud over everything and he he realized that that relationship couldn't be fixed I don't think we have that with Rene we certainly don't have it in the stadium I don't think at this stage and you know to your point probably winning the Champions League has has given her a bit of protection from that as well but then there are only so many times she can turn it around before the players are just like oh god are we back here again and yeah um she's got a job on her hands put it that way um why don't we do do you have one more i do i'm gonna switch it to you to go first though because my my blue sky has decided that it doesn't want to know so you go first and i'll finish us off with a banger okay um okay so how about this one because we haven't we haven't really discussed like the change in the goalkeeper which i was really surprised about not not necessarily unpleasantly but um and this one's from dick burn at dickie burn maybe inconsequential in the end but um it's along the lineup changing game to game what do you think was behind anika borba going in over mesa a change just to give minutes to borba or something tactical was it necessary i mean i was thinking about this before the game jam you know i was like there must there must be like some tactical reason i didn't really come up with anything and i'm not saying that makes it a bad decision i thought annika borba played well um and so that i as dickie says slightly inconsequential and in a good way but yeah do you have any theory behind why she played over Misa?

1:04:49No I think that this is this is a question that I was I was racking my brain for because my first thought was oh maybe you want to catch Chelsea on transition and you want to play a higher goalkeeper but that's Daphne van Nobselaar it's definitely not Bourba. Bourba and Rodriguez both play quite late I guess the only thing I can maybe think of is you don't really need the left-footed keeper as much when you're playing a front three of Mariona and Baum and Russo because you are going to be playing along the ground like I think that the way the Arsenal approached this game was we need to play a possession-based game as we've said and it needs to be short passes and it needs to be along the ground and you're less tempted to put that long ball in and I think Misa Rodriguez is quite good at a far ball and maybe that's something is Borba's just playing out to Leah Williamson and and Steph Cattling kind of recycling possession other than that I really just tend to think it must be a niggle on behalf of Misa Rodriguez because even if you're playing minutes you don't really rotate your goalkeeper for Chelsea away at Stamford Bridge so maybe there's something tactical to it Tim but I really think it's a rotation thing I wondered whether it was um because you know Chelsea playing Melvin Mallard up front really good in the air means they're going to put more crosses in maybe they felt Borba because I think the thing is I don't have a good idea of Misa Rodriguez as a goalkeeper yet because none of the teams we played before Chelsea really tested us in that respect so I don't know if maybe they just thought there might be more crosses and Borba's better at that I do wonder as well whether they were thinking about Lauren James shots from the edge of the area and I think Borba's bigger than Misa and maybe they just thought if Lauren James sends one towards the top corner, Annika Borba's got a longer reach.

1:06:37Those are the things that come to mind, but I think I do plan to ask about that in the press conference tomorrow. What about one more question then, if your blue sky's playing ball? She's here. This one is from at Kofaji Ball. I remember Elle, who's a very funny Twitter presence as well, I very appreciate Elle. I remember Jonas mentioned after he left about lack of support from areas in the club. Could Renee be experiencing something similar that is impacting her ability to coach or manage? I mean, maybe, but like they've hired a lot of people. You know, so Jodie Taylor's obviously in there as a bit of a buffer between Renee and Claire.

1:07:28as not a buffer another layer in there the coaching staff's got bigger um again the set piece coach has changed there's another coach added to the coaching staff the analysis staff um there's been some changes there as well um so i kind of doubt it to be honest um you know i don't know i can't say anything about the quality of any of those individuals i don't know i don't think any of us really know that but um i i don't get the impression she's under supported in that respect she certainly has more in place than yonas did um and i know the club would um own the fact that yonas was under supported um at times and that's a big part of the reason they made the changes they made because they recognized that i think they recognized it at the time it It just takes a little bit of time sometimes to get the right people for those positions.

1:08:28So I don't know. I don't think so. But, yeah, maybe there are questions about the overall quality. I don't really know the answer to that. The thing that worries me, Jamie, is the Reuteler and Churchy thing. That really worries me. They brought two attacking players in, and it just doesn't look like she wants to use them. and at some stage either she either renee has to change and say either i want more say in who these players are or if she doesn't want the say she has to work with what she's given we can't keep having this we can't keep having players bought and not used and they're getting frustrated and stuff this is a world cup year as well and um let me tell you now i think we're going to feel that a little bit in january um as things stand i think there are going to be some players who are looking at potential world cup places and across the wsl january will be a bit mad because of that um and actually some of those middle teams again might benefit from that you know a couple of years ago like Beth England moving for example when when she first went to Spurs like because she was looking for her World Cup space and Jordan Nobbs going to Villa and you know like January in a tournament year tends to be a lot more busy um and I wouldn't be surprised there are some Arsenal players if things don't change who are who are looking at like loan moves or moves in in january and um yeah that's that's not a healthy situation so like something has to change there for me and and i do think some of that has to come from renee to be honest it's you either say you want more of a say or you work with what you're given like you can't have this this halfway house and it'll affect us in terms of recruitment going down the line because if we keep buying players who come here and regret it it's it's a very competitive market it's gonna be very difficult to attract players if we keep if we keep bombing out like this um I don't think it's healthy so that's something that concerns me I don't know where the fault lines are but um yeah I think Rene's got to make some compromises there and decide what she wants recruitment wise um Yeah, I think that's my big worry.

1:10:56And I don't necessarily think that's a lack of support. It's just the way things are, that something's not quite right there. Anyway, I think we'll leave it there because that's been quite heavy, right? Yeah, let's leave it there. And let's get really excited for the Champions League and Manchester City, guys. It's going to be a good week. Yeah, indeed. So my alarm's going off in six hours' time. so I'll be in Paris. Arsenal are doing all their pre-match stuff in London anyway, but I'll be in Paris for the game and we'll have all of the usual coverage, as well as from Manchester City on Sunday.

1:11:35I'll be in Manchester as well, so Jason, our videographer, so hopefully we can get some good vlog content as well. And Jamie and I will have a podcast for you next Monday, Tuesday, depending on your time zone, when we kind of go back over the 3-0 win at Manchester City that sets the season back on track. So do look forward to that. Maybe you're just one of those people who listens when times are bad and we lose, and maybe you won't listen to that episode. But we appreciate all of you. Do take care. You're going to sound like Jerry Springer here. Take care of yourselves and each other, and we will speak to you next week.

1:12:32I'm Jake Stouck, co-founder and CEO of Serval. We built Serval to automate the IT work that slows companies down. Onboarding, password resets, access to applications, my laptop stopped working. While employees wait for help, their real work is put on hold. IT desperately wants to automate this work, and that's why they need Serval. You just tell Serval what you want to automate in plain English, and it's built. No drag-and-drop workflows, no expensive consultants. Employees get unblocked, and IT teams go from drowning in tickets to building what actually matters. With Serval, IT becomes the AI engine powering the entire company.

1:13:11This is a new way to run IT. We guarantee you'll automate 50 % of all tickets and we'll prove it to you in a free four-week pilot. Go to serval.com slash tickets. That's S-E-R-V-A-L dot com slash tickets.