Arsenal Women Arsecast Episode 180: Every day is like Sunday

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0:59uh somewhat departed a few decades ago now um he used to open his shows sometimes and he used to say excuse me while i plaster on a fake smile and trundle through this shit one more time and that's going to be the spirit of this podcast to be quite honest with you because i think we could easily just rerun the birmingham and manchester united and crystal palace podcasts and very few people would notice. There'd be a name here and there slightly out of place. The conversations about the starting lineups might be slightly out of place. The details of the games would be pretty much identical and even Renee Slagers was moved to say in the very first line of her press conference, after the game on Sunday, it feels like we are playing the same game again and again and I think we can all get on board with that.

1:53and to go over a very familiar game with some very familiar storylines, as ever is our co-host Jamie Spanger. Jamie, hay fever aside, how are you doing?

2:06Jamie: Hay fever aside, hay fever is the best thing that's going on in this morning, actually, Tim. I feel like I'm stuck in the back rooms. Yeah, prepping for this podcast was I felt like I was watching United, the Man United game of the Emirates. So I'm struggling. We really had some hope last week, Tim, and now we're back to square one, but that's okay. We're going to get through it, and we're going to get through it together, Tim. We're going to get through it together, absolutely. So let's have the starting line-up discussion, shall we? Because obviously we potted after the North London Derby win last week, and I think we were both of the opinion that's a good first step, an okay first step, not a riveting performance, but we were probably never going to get that, and what we really needed to do is get some momentum, get a run together.

2:53Good 3-0 win against Benfica on Wednesday night and there were signs there that, particularly in the second half, okay, this looks like a team that is playing together and I can see some patterns here. So the starting line-up drops for Sunday and I have to say, this is so foolish of me. I've been so confident before so many games so far this season because I've just kept thinking that this just has to stop at some point and probably we'll pay Prover some cracks and go on a bit of a run. And that's the attitude I came into this game with. I was really confident that we'd not necessarily make short work of Aston Villa, but I was confident of an Arsenal victory.

3:39I thought we'd get on a slightly 6 or 7 out of 10 run before the November international break. That hasn't happened. And I think this is a significant setback and tells us that that's probably not going to happen now. But the starting line-up, I wasn't hugely surprised, Jamie. There was only one change from Wednesday night. Leah Williamson, who was rested on Wednesday night, coming in for Elisa Di Almeida. I expected to see Ford and Hines on the left again. I expected to see Russo behind Smith up front. I may be, you know, Rene was quite effusive about the right-hand side against Benfica on Wednesday night of Bacchier and Reuteler.

4:21I have to say I wasn't as, I thought it was okay, but nothing that I was, you know, came away hugely enthused about. But Rene, I think when you get into a bit of a funk and you get a couple of victories, you do tend to keep it the same. So I wasn't hugely surprised by the starting lineup. What about you?

4:40Jamie: Yeah, the starting line-up's just continuity. And like you said, that's exactly what this team needed right now. It's coming off the back of this really, really scrappy win against Tottenham and then a pretty impressive and resounding attacking performance, thanks to Alessio Rousseau, against Ben Beaker. It just feels like continuity is the answer. I would agree with the Rotella and Badgett right side. I think there's time to explore that. And before this game against Aston Villa, I thought, hey, that's a partnership we might see more of and I'd like to see more of it. And it's not always going to be perfect straight away.

5:13Jamie: Ford and Hines, I think, were obviously fantastic against Spurs. So our expectation of them was much higher. So going into this game, the starting lineup, I wasn't surprised. I thought this is what we were going to see. I was surprised that she went again with Roy Tiller and Badgier, but it was a good, hopeful thing of, okay, we're trying out the squad and we want everyone to have a role. Later on, we'll come on to what happens in this game. But yeah, I was pleased. Yeah, I was kind of okay with it. I think our good friend Unbiased Arsenal made quite a good point as well on Twitter about Rene seems to want that wide 10 ahead of Barthier.

5:48So we had before the international break on the left hand side, her with Mariana ahead of her. This time it's her and Reuteler. There's clearly something about wanting her to do the overlap and having a slightly wide 10 again. Again, it didn't grab me in the Benfica game particularly, but René talked it up quite a bit afterwards. However, the game starts. Now, of course, this is where I want to start because it's the start of the game. Now, René was really, really scathing about the way the team started the game. She made the point in nearly every question she was asked. she made the point about even when she wasn't asked about how we started the game she kept saying like the way we start the game is like kind of paraphrasing here kind of the biggest problem and here's what she said afterwards we don't start with enough urgency i think the ball speed wasn't high enough the energy wasn't good enough on the pitch we didn't want to win enough duels the basics which gave us the wins against spurs and benfica weren't good enough from our side today now I want to know what you think of that Jamie because I will I'll tell you what I think in a minute well what did you make of I guess the way we started the game and do you do you chime with

7:07Jamie: Renee's assessment of it yeah I was reading the post-match quotes and she says energy in every single answer and she really she complains about that and the way that she kind of scathes the players I think is something that we've not seen from Renee except we haven't in the last couple of weeks little glimpses of it I think this is most critical she's been of the team but then she finishes off one of the questions with I am responsible for the lack of energy and intensity but doesn't really go into depth or detail as to why which I think is a cop-out as a manager to energy is the easiest thing to say our intensity and our urgency wasn't high enough and that's why we weren't we're second to the ball or that's why we uh didn't like complete passes it's very easy as a manager to say that and then to scathe your players in that regard but then take it back and say I'm responsible for it.

7:51Jamie: So I've found the post-match press conference a little bit weak, but in terms of the start of the game, I thought Arsenal looked decent. I thought the last 10 minutes we actually didn't look bad. I think our intensity was there. I think a lot of it came from the left channel. Caitlin Ford and Alessia Russo did really, really good at kind of coming and taking the ball at Lynn Vilms and making her a little bit overwhelmed out of possession. I think from the start, it just felt like Russo was underlapping and overlapping Ford and that was kind of working. So I didn't think it was incredible. I didn't think it was groundbreaking.

8:19But I think our energy in this game drops as the game goes on.

8:24Jamie: I think the highest point is probably the first 10 minutes. And again, I'm not saying it was amazing, but I don't think it was that poor from the starting whistle. I'm so glad you said that because that's what I thought as well. I was, well, I'm not here to say that that was a brilliant start or that it was good enough or anything like that. But I honestly felt like it's the way we started pretty much every game this season. I don't honestly see any difference even Benfica I thought Benfica the first 25 minutes were quite weak to be honest and then we gradually got into it I didn't see any difference from this start to any of the other games which again is not to say it was a good start it wasn't it was like you I just felt it was a bit six seven out of ten building into the game a bit so I was kind of surprised i i haven't had a chance to watch the game back yet but i'm with you i i felt it was okay and actually i had a far bigger problem with the second half than the first half um so i was kind of i i usually feel like my assessment of the game i go into the press conference and come out and think yeah that's that's pretty much what i kind of thought happened whereas this time i was I'm like, oh, okay.

9:42I don't necessarily have anything against it because they could have started a lot better, but I just didn't see any difference really to any of the other starts to games we've had. The Spurs game, we started very badly. I don't know if maybe that was more her point, the fact that it's more of a continuous theme and that we haven't started games that well. But I didn't necessarily think the start of this game was the problem, as it were. But you mentioned the kind of the overlaps there. I felt the same. You know, Villa played a kind of, played that back five, sometimes went into a four. De Landers is very good at going out and kind of going fishing.

10:24But I felt the channels were there, Jamie. And I was particularly on the right side because that's where I was sat in the first half. I felt the channels were there. we just didn't have the right players in the right places to exploit those spaces I didn't really want to see Roy Tiller in the channels and Olivia Smith up front I wanted to see Olivia Smith in the channels and Roy Tiller and Russo attacking so my impression of the first half where a lot of it was just kind of I think there's space there for us I think we've just got to rearrange a little bit that's what I felt I couldn't agree more and I think Villa set up

11:03Jamie: to use the channels. Like you said, they're a team that really like to use their wingbacks. But as a result of that, when they come out of possession and they drop back into a back four, there is plenty of space for Arsenal to exploit as well. So it was a game of the wingback. Every time, I think, in the first half a couple of times, Roycella gets the ball and she doesn't really know what to do with it. And there's also a couple of instances where Georgia Stanway or sometimes Lee Williamson has the ball at their feet and Roycella automatically makes an inbound run into the 10 position and then it's clogged up in there because Aston Villa are a really, really man-marking the middle and the channel's empty.

11:36Jamie: So it did feel like that was another instance of a game where you look at what is happening on the pitch and you're thinking, I just don't think Rene Slagers knew what was going to happen or what the opposition were going to do. And I'm not saying Aston Villa played a great game because they didn't. It was ridiculous. It was 28 shots to one. I'm not saying I'm praising Villa or even I know sometimes we want to give grace to the opposition when they do with such a resounding defensive performance. This game really frustrated me from Aston Villa because they think they're a better team than this and to be fair they got what they needed and they got what they deserve but I was frustrated with the way that Rene Slagers didn't have anything planned for how Aston Villa were going to play and they were always going to play with wing backs and as a result Reutel is not the player that you play and then I feel bad and I think we're going to come on to this a million times in this podcast but then you feel guilty for the player because it's like you've been thrown in a scenario where the opposition and the way that we need to exploit them has nothing in common with your skill set so So, yeah, it was frustrating, I think, seeing that.

12:34Jamie: And I think Caitlin Ford did a good job in the first 15 minutes of using that. But from the other side, it just felt like there was no hope, which, again, frustrating because what's the tactical identity, Tim? Yeah, indeed. So Stanway, Russo, Hines, they all have shots from that kind of left side channel. I think there was the opportunity to have shots from the right side channel, which just didn't materialise because we didn't have the right players to platform that. However, even before the goal, we still look very open to the counter. And obviously Villa, there's a couple of things about Villa.

13:13Like we at the back end of the pitch, we got Brian Sorensen ball, which is back five, pass the ball around, suck the opponent in and go through quickly. but up front in the first half it was very much what natalie arroyo had been doing which is that kind of split striker system where they don't have a central focal point but they kind of they swap like chastity grant goes on the right and when the time is right she's the one who goes forwards and then um i forgot uh van's guard is the other one who's kind of drops back into midfield but again when they want to go long and they need physical presence she goes up so they kind of rotate that striker which is exactly what they were doing under Nathalie Arroyo but I mean the Villa goal I've literally I just did like because I haven't had time to do an analysis piece I just kind of broke down the goal a little bit with screenshots on Twitter and it's kind of unbelievable how many mistakes there are in the press I think there's been a big problem for Arsenal this season.

14:20And this is kind of what I mean about this isn't about individuals anymore because there's like four individuals who will make a mistake in this. And this goal is pure Brian Sorensen ball. It's pass the ball around, wait for the team to come on to you, then go over the top of them and go through. So, you know, Anna Patton goes back to Akuma. She sits and she waits. And Arsenal, like the children of the corn, just get sucked into the light. go towards her. You know, Roy Taylor goes to Delandes. She asks, if you look back at the goal, she's got Jean-Francois behind her. So she asks Cuny Cross to fill in there.

15:01That gets Cuny Cross sucked in. And then Olivia Smith goes to charge down the goalkeeper. I don't know why. That is not a player you press. And when she does that, that means Stanway shuffles forward. So a comedy of errors in there. Really, it's only Russo is the only person. And there's a point where if you pause it, you can see the look on Russo's face because Russo's pressing who she's supposed to be. And there's just a little second where she looks around and she's like, what are you guys all doing? And so Akuma clips the ball over the top to Lucia Kendall. And because the whole midfield has gone, this gives Leo Williamson a decision.

15:41Do I just stay back or do I have to go and fill in? She goes and fills in. Personally, I understand why she makes that decision. It's the wrong one because she doesn't get the ball, so end of. But I think there's quite a few people who make mistakes before that. And then from there, Arsenal are in trouble. I have to say it is a really good pass into Chastity Grant in that it's long enough that Steph Cattley is not getting there, but short enough that Mises is not getting there. and I feel for Steph after that because the way she defends it is exactly how you should defend it she doesn't she doesn't give a side the problem is she's eight yards from goal right and what you want is your center back defending that 20 yards further forward where there isn't like the avenue for a shot so I don't think Steph Catley does anything wrong there it's just by that point She's like eight yards from the goal.

16:39So, of course, Chastity Grant's going to shoot. And I think, Jamie, this goal says so much about what's bad about Arsenal at the moment. It's poorly coached players not knowing their roles, not knowing what they're supposed to be doing. It leads to a number of individual errors. And like I've said many, many times, I think when times are bad, people go to their agendas and they go to the players they don't like, the things they don't like, the selections they don't like. but I think there's a point where you call all of that off and you say everyone is playing badly. There is a big problem here and I think it really showed in that goal.

17:17Jamie: This goal is the thematic undercurrent of the season. Like if I've told you, Tim, how many times have we conceded because we've just been absolutely mutilated on a break, then it's been a few now. I completely agree with the sentiment of when something like this happens, people just scapegoat who they really don't want to be in the starting 11 because you're right, this goal is just so frustrating from so many levels. I think what frustrates me the most is obviously Akuma has the ball even before Lucia Kendall takes the really good touch that she does before passing it out into the channel to get to Lynn Vilms.

17:50Jamie: Leah Williamson's already in the midfield and that's not me saying why she's already in the midfield. It's saying the goalkeeper had the ball for that long and Arsenal didn't correct their shape for that long that the centre-back had already moved and progressed into the midfield. It's not as if the ball's been played, Lucia Kendall's taken the touch and then Leah's stepped because there's no one in there. It's that the goalkeeper has the ball to her feet for a long while before Smith presses her and Kyra Cooney cross, Georgia Stanway are still just absolutely nowhere to be found. And Taylor Hines has then stepped into the channel and she's been caught out as well, leaving the channel open for Lynn Bilm.

18:23Jamie: So I've seen a lot of people scapegoat Leah in this goal because she's in the midfield. And I understand that because her positioning is incorrect. She doesn't win the ball. It means Steph Kelly is singled out. But the fact that your centre-back has to step that high into the midfield that early proves that what are the players doing? They're so switched off, Tim. And when you're supposed to organise your press, when you're organising your structure and the goalkeeper has their ball and you're still not in your structure and the centre-back's already making that decision, it's already present in the midfield, it's frustrating because it means no one knows what they're doing.

18:53Jamie: This is the goal that kind of sums up the season, I think. Not one player knows what they're doing. The communication's off, the formation's off, the energy, and this is what I understand from Renee is the urgency in this goal is awful as well. Like as soon as Leah steps and misses the ball, Onabadje is still like as high as Alessia Russo is in the right flank and she's not come back either. So it's just Steph Catley against Chastity Grant and whatever she's planning on doing. And then she's lucky because Vansgaard kind of makes a run as well. So it's just really frustrating. Every player, and I agree other than Alessia Russo, in this goal is completely out of form.

19:26Jamie: Even Caitlin Ford, there's an argument that she should have tracked back and followed Lynn Vilms better as well. So, yeah, this just sums up Arsenal, Tim, and it's so frustrating. Yeah, like there's no need for Reuteler to go to Deslanders. There is no need, like Caitlin Ford should step in instead of Georgia Stanway and not get sucked in. And like, why do goalkeepers do that, putting their studs on the ball? And like, literally the whole reason they do it is that they want you to do exactly what Arsenal did. I can't believe how easily, because it's been going on for a few years that goalkeepers have been doing this.

20:04It's a very, very well-known manoeuvre. And when you press as well, one person gets it wrong, it all falls apart. And this is a failure with many authors, unfortunately. And it just speaks to a team that looks badly coached and like it doesn't know what it's doing, quite frankly. and those kind of out-of-possession basics. So Arsenal kind of come back into it, a couple of long shots, but don't really look like equalising. There's a double sub at half-time. I'm not massively surprised by that, but the problem is Rene had kind of banked on these new partnerships, and then you go 1-0 down and you rip them all up, and then you're just back to square one again.

20:49So Emily Fox comes on. again like if she's playing left back in the first half i think maybe that goal doesn't happen because she's the player with recovery pace um and then you know baum comes on for reuteler i mean and again emily fox plays at left back this is a whole other issue that on a bache hasn't played at left back since that birmingham game and that's what we bought her for and now we're in a situation where we've got three really good right backs and that's not sustainable and it feels very very messy but I mean Reuteler and Hines coming off I was talking about how fans go to their agendas when things are not going right so the managers sometimes and that to me just felt like those are the players with the least amount of trust of the manager who hadn't been getting minutes and that was the first place her head went to take off the two players that she clearly doesn't really trust that much who are joining an ever increasing growing list of players that Renee Slagers has and doesn't trust.

22:02Jamie: This is the most damning indictment on what is going on in this squad and what we've been kind of echoing for the last 12 months and especially in the last couple months of who's your squad and why don't you know them and why aren't you utilizing them and okay, you've had a summer, no international tournament for the first time in your tenure as an Arsenal head coach where you've brought in signings, you've been able to train with your squad, you've been able to instill an identity and we're still at a point now where it's almost worse and I think it looks worse on Renee that she started Reuteler and Hines in this game and then when things have gone badly, dragged them, then just not starting or playing them at all because at this stage it's like you're pointing the finger and you're blaming the players that you've never really given a chance to work their way into the starting 11.

22:46Jamie: And then when they're not immediately picking up and playing well, they're gone. And this happened a couple of times last season as well. Like Renee has done this with players before, but it's a lot easier to kind of brush it aside when results are coming in and when victories are happening. Like Kyra was that player for a little while where it wasn't a perfect performance from if she's gotten half an hour on the pitch and she's kind of struggled, then it's going to be four or five weeks until we see her again. and that is kind of in Rene's managerial armory, which is not a good trait to have.

23:15Jamie: And it's definitely not a good trait to have when you're in turmoil because how do you fix these problems? So I don't think Breutelar worked at all in this game. So I'm not exactly – I'm not at all criticizing the substitution, but I am criticizing where it's coming from, like a 45-minute split for a player that has no idea what she's doing. She's playing right wing and she's making the runs of a 10 because she clearly needs to be in the middle space. And then Taylor Hines comes off a brilliant performance against Spurs, but then she comes back in and struggles in this game and that's the immediately, like, you're pushing the red button and saying, let's just throw Emily Fox on because that's all I know.

23:47Jamie: So again, it's another thing. We've spoken about this every week. It's just a damning indictment, Tim, on how this manager doesn't know her squad and doesn't know how to tactically get her way out of situations. It's just throw on the players she trusts and hope for the best and it doesn't work entirely in this game. Yeah, and obviously Arsenal are again in a position where they're chasing a deficit. it's the fifth time in their eight WSL games they've gone 1-0 down um there doesn't look to be enough firepower in this team really to to do you know we squeeze out a 2-1 against Spurs like it's not like a you know it maybe used to be where Arsenal go 1-0 down and you go yeah they'll probably still win 4-1 though you know now it's like 1-0 down is is a real boulder to push up the hill and arsenal they flash a bit like fox and stanway have shots but they're both on the left side and they're both on their left foot and this squad is so unbalanced in so many ways and that's another one um that they only really have one kind of left footer in attacking positions um kim little comes on as a number 10 um you know in 2026 that's not what i'm using kim little for I'm using Kim Little to, you know, come and control a game from the base of midfield.

25:07But we put her on as a number 10. Steena doesn't get on until the 82nd minute. She's on the naughty step now. Like, it's amazing how quickly players graduate from, you're one of the only ones I trust and I'll use you all the time, to, I don't trust you anymore. And that's kind of it. Like, Steena, again, like you said about, you know, Reutel coming off, I'm not necessarily saying I was screaming for Steiner to come on I'm not really screaming for anyone to come on at the moment because they're all playing badly and again I don't think it's because the players all just lost form magically but again just some alarm bells here about the ideas which none of which will come on to the goal I guess the Steiner one does work I'm not sure the plan was for her to chucking a great cross in the right wing.

26:00But all of the, I don't know, maybe it's just the headspace we're all in, but all of this just felt pretty uninspired and it looked pretty uninspired. Like you, Jamie, I found the second half quite a lot more kind of disturbing even than the first.

26:15Jamie: Yeah, couldn't agree more. The second half I think is the most frustrated I've been all season watching Arsenal and the moment that really, really annoys me. And I think it's hard because I want to agree with Renee's sentiment of the fact that the urgency intensity and energy aren't there but I also don't agree with the way that she's saying that and I don't agree with the the scathing review of the players although I didn't think they were great I think like you said when every player is out of form there's a broader issue here but something that really annoyed me I think was around like the 55th or 56th minute the second half Emily Fox picks up the ball on the left wing and she carries it inside the midfield and runs half the pitch and there is not one arsenal player moving and it's ridiculous like she first of all picks up the ball and she looks forward in the left channel and she looks to play their ball into the midfield none of them they're all sitting behind players and then she inverts and charges the midfield and not one player is making a forward run the striker isn't there alessia russo is kind of to her right the left winger is giving no opportunity for an over or under lap for Emily Fox there and that's the player that you bring on and she's injecting the energy but no one's responding to it and I think in that moment I was watching this team and I was thinking what more does what more needs to happen like they're so lost out there it's so upsetting again Emily Fox had more tackles than any other Arsenal player and she played 45 minutes like this is the intensity that then the level that we're demanding and I don't think we've ever actually been able to be critical of Emily Fox when it comes to raising the intensity and putting in energy.

27:44Jamie: But every other player on that pitch really, really annoyed me. And I think that when you bring on a player that brings that standard, you notice how bad the starting 11 was and how low energy they were. And this second half, it was like, it wasn't even like the Birmingham City game when our quality was really bad. And when we're seeing passes, I think we hit like 91 % of our passes. That wasn't it. It was just when doing nothing of it, the players aren't moving. There's no movement. No one's running into the areas no one's trying to find the spaces it's just yeah this was the hardest I think this is the worst I've felt all season in the second half Tim yeah definitely there's there's yeah um there's some apathy I think as well in the crowd that's that's really beginning to and that's that's when things are bad um really but Arsenal do get an equaliser with five minutes to go I must say I I didn't massively see it coming.

28:36A bit like Leo Williamson hitting a big cross to the back post for Smilla Holmberg to get a late equaliser against Manchester United. I'm not sure how much they've been working on Stina Blackstenius on the right wing, putting in a brilliant cross for Russo to head in. I've always had this theory since I was a kid that centre forwards are the best crossers of the ball because they know the service they want. and this was part of that genre. So Baum slips one down the line, Steiner looks up, crossing to Russo. It's a great header. Russo really the only player who looked herself, I'd say, in this team on the day, albeit I felt she was better in the first half than the second half anyway.

29:26But it's kind of the same old story. They get the equaliser. that gives them a bit of momentum but it's too late um there is something Renee said afterwards which I did chime with actually she said um you know the goal led to less composure in the box because there's stress and pressure on us to score in stoppage time there were three overhit crosses that went out of play and and Caitlin Ford smashed one into the upper tier and it's frustrated me to tears because it was like you do not do that in stoppage time under hit the pass under hit the shot make sure the ball stays in play do not kick it out of play and let Aston Villa take as they're quite entitled to do take 30 seconds take their goal kick or their throwing or whatever like make sure you're definitely not over hitting things but obviously the the pressure and the stress was high uh stanway has a chance in stoppage time actually when you watch it back you can see like she slashes at it a bit and they cut to renee on the sideline and she's kind of saying like calm down calm down like she can see that the pressure's on them a bit but um i think it's difficult to say jamie i know we had 20 odd shots but i think the xg was two which is 20-odd shots and about 2xg is about the going rate for Arsenal at the moment, which is really poor.

30:57I don't think any of us can come out and say it was any, you know, that the result was a travesty or anything of the sort.

31:04Jamie: Yeah, Max Aradwan actually put out a couple of great things on X during and after this game. One of them was from the first half, 0.06xg per shot, and we had 12 shots. So that is ridiculous. It says a lot about the quality. and his point was we're not struggling for shot volume and we're all aware of that. The quality is so damning. The biggest stat that really annoyed me of this game and of the entire season is Arsenal have a bigger XG than Manchester City. We should be scoring more goals than Manchester City who are currently 12 points ahead of us in the WSL table. So it is, I feel for Rene in this kind of moment and this is why I'm so divided is I think my stance on how I feel about Rene is probably it's not fixable, is there.

31:46Jamie: I really agree with that and I think that's what I side with. But at the same time, when you've got the opportunities to score, the shot volume's high, you can't hold the player's hand while they kick it into the back of the net. There has to be a level of professionalism and there has to be a level of self-motivation to be able to do that. And that's when the IQ and the intelligence comes in in football. Like you said, the last five minutes, we need to have composure. And whether that is the fact that the players are low in confidence, which I truly believe, I also think there is a lack of a leadership presence in this team.

32:17Jamie: and the team is struggling because of it. And I think we've got new leaders up and coming, like Alessia Russo, obviously, captains the side against Benfica, but she's very different to someone like Katie McCabe. And I think there's always going to be a little bit of a transition period when teams have to self-motivate again because they've lost some leaders or they haven't. Maybe just the leadership looks different and that's okay, but right now I feel for it because the shot volume is there. I feel for Rene and this is the only kind of empathy I have. The players have to do better. They've got to do better and that's what this last five minutes is.

32:47Jamie: So, yeah, a really, really frustrating trend that is just kind of continuing to get worse, Tim. Yeah, and actually they had in the press box, they had the kind of game on the screens in front of us. And usually the second the full-time whistle goes, I'm out of there. But I stayed and I watched and I watched like the footage of the huddle afterwards because I was interested. And René looked furious during the whole thing. um I I considered asking her what was said but I felt like it would be a waste of a question because she wouldn't say um that that was my estimation of it that she'd just say that's not for public consumption which is what most managers would say so I chose not to ask it because I thought I'd be wasting one of my questions really but she looked incredibly frustrated and a lot of kind of remonstration didn't do the kind of lap of appreciation with the players afterwards she went straight down the tunnel she was actually quite quick out again um for the post-match press conference full disclosure i was very happy about that because i got home for the for the men's game which was um a lot more fun than this was um but it was interesting because she said afterwards um freddie cardi from the goona asked her about like you know is this is this about improving an attack or approving in defense and she said i think it's energy in general so how do you present yourself me included how do i present myself on a match day in the warm-up at the start of the game every individual who is in the team general energy and that's body language communication verbal non-verbal connecting doing your actions with full intent and conviction and i don't think that was good enough today and again it's she she's included herself in there but to your point Jamie I almost think that's almost just like a verbal tick that managers have to say but this is this is like quite I don't want to say accusatory that's not the right word but she's she's getting stuck in to the players there which again in isolation in and of itself is is not there's not really a lot wrong with that it's just it's not like her and to me that level of frustration and again understandably she was frustrated in the press conference never seen that before this season never never never seen it like three or four times now where she's been visibly kind of um moved shall we say and it kind of feels like piling on when you're saying stuff like this but like to me it just shows it's broken it's just it's fundamentally broken and we're all in limbo here until until the manager changes that's that's just how I feel Jamie yeah I do not like this at all I don't like the post-match it really rubbed me the wrong way and it's not like you said it's a completely fine thing for a manager to say in isolation but given the circumstances it just feels like such a cop out and it kind of just feels like she's trying to get her stab in which is frustrating and that can be that self-preservation as well like it's very easy like I said earlier to blame energy and urgency because they're these two intangible factors in a football game where when a player's playing really well and their press is really good or they're making a lot of tackles a lot of like Jules won it's very easy to say their urgency is high and when the player looks sloppy it's your urgency and your energy is low so it's like picking on the intangibles for me is the most frustrating part of this press conference because that's not the reason we're losing games like we're losing games because the side has no tactical identity we don't know what brand of football we're playing the players on the pitch don't know what they're doing the substitutes don't know what they're doing you make changes to the starting 11 and then frustrated where they're not falling in line with what you're trying to do even though you have no philosophy at all so how is a player going to know how to play their role and I think what is so annoying about this press conference is it's the intangibles that's the only thing she can blame because we don't have stats or metrics or we can't really look at a game and say oh it's because of energy and that's how we're going to measure this she's not talking about the tactics and she's not talking about anything like that so to say I'm responsible for this about something that we can't measure and something that is so player focused is such a cop out for me and I think this is the final nail in the coffin this press conference Tim it really just to me felt like you don't know how to analyze the game and come away from that and I'm sure you will in during midweek and you don't tell the press everything that's fair enough but this to me was like okay yeah you don't you don't know what you're doing with this dressing room anymore and doesn't feel like there's any solutions at all so yeah it's broken I think yeah it's all very passive aggressive and um yeah I and I just I don't see a way out of it um but there we go um so lovely cheery first half uh for you um pretty sure the mood's not going to lift that much in the second half so what we'll do is we'll have a nice little break here um we'll let the kind of steam evaporate from our ears and let you do the same and we'll be back right after this

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40:12Okay, welcome back to part two of the Arsenal Women Ask Cast and AskBlog.com with Tim Stillman and Jamie Spanger looking over Sunday's 1-1 draw against, was it Man United? Was it Birmingham? Was it Aston Villa? they've all blended into one at this point. Going to start with a nice easy one here for you, Jamie. Thanks again for the questions. We put out a call on Blue Sky for questions. And the first one is from Camilla at Roots Samin. What do you think has changed with Renee to get to this point? Things that were a strength in her first season, making impactful subs correctly changing players positions like Mario and Steph right speeches to get players in the right mindset seem to just not work anymore what do you think

41:03Jamie: happened yeah this is a really interesting question and I think I'm going to try and phrase this in a way that doesn't take away from our opening season but maybe just brings context to it and I think that season we spoke a lot about how Arsenal thrive under the narrative and when there's adversity, we kind of know how to come out of it. And that's always been something in the Arsenal DNA. Like when things are hard, we play well. And when things are supposed to be easy and we're supposed to be winning games, we seem to bottle it. We saw it under Jonas with the Wolfsburg semifinal and that end of the 2022-23 run.

41:34Jamie: It's always been kind of in our DNA to respond like that. So I think that's a factor. But in that 2020, the Champions League winning season, Mariana Caldente nearly wins the Ballon d 'Or. She's unbelievable. She kind of strikes gold with this this double pivot of her and Kim Little and then obviously Alessio Russo is also in the running to win the Ballon d 'Or we've got individuals that Rene seem to be able to inject energy into and I think that was the biggest praise that we had was she came in and she gave the players the freedom to think and that was tangible a lot of those games and the biggest one for me was the Real Madrid quarterfinal at the Emirates the players problem solved on the pitch because Rene gave them gave them all the freedom to do so and right now it feels like she's not giving them freedom, but she's giving them no direction.

42:17Jamie: And I think when a manager's kind of playbook is to be like, okay, I want the players to kind of feel what they feel and I want them to be able to lead the tactical identity. I think that can be so beneficial, but it's such a fine line between chaos and not having any sort of identity instilled. And to me, I just think Renee is a very free coach. She's a Dutch manager. She does play Dutch football. Without a joke, It is a little bit of like it was a total football with how versatile her presences are and so on and so forth. But I think it's so hard to manage that balance of, okay, do what you want, but now we have no idea.

42:51Jamie: And I think that's not what this team needs. This team needs direction. This team needs identity. I think there's a lot of players that thrive under a philosophy. So I don't really know where it changed. I also think we can go into the back room and we can say again, like the recruitment wasn't sharp enough. It wasn't in line with what she wanted. But whose fault is that? We're not in the back room. We don't know if the recruitment team's saying, Renee, which kind of players do you want? And she's saying, oh, I don't really mind. Or if they're being quite frigid and not giving her what she wants.

43:16Jamie: So, yeah, I think that this is a manager that's going to thrive in her future. She's still very young, but it's about striking the balance of you need order and you kind of need a philosophy. And I don't think she's very good at kind of coming up with that herself. It's very player-led and that's kind of struck us down this season, Tim. yeah I think my um assessment of it is this has gone from a small bog small job to a big job I don't mean in terms of the size of the club or the stature or anything like that what I mean is when she came in there was a very particular set of players um the very particular set of issues it was you know things have gone a little bit stale under Jonas we got spruce things up a bit but but this job from the point that she took it permanently stopped being the like the interim job stopped and it became a rebuild job and it became a big rebuild job at one of the biggest clubs in the world and that's what this was supposed to be this was supposed to be we we've had like the same core squad for several years we're turning that over and we're putting together the squad for the next seven or eight years this was big picture stuff that that when renee perhaps her second contract not her first contract the second one she signed in january at that point it became a big picture strategy job and i'm sorry to say i don't think she's been able to do it um where the fault lines are to your point the recruitment has been bad because not because we bought bad players i don't think any of the players we bought i would say are bad there are a couple i've barely seen play so i can't really say um but i don't think we bought bad players but there is clearly a disconnect there in terms of the players she trusts and that she wants and either she hasn't been assertive enough to say that she doesn't want certain players um or else i don't know what's happened basically so there's too many players who are inactive that she clearly doesn't trust who are on the naughty step and this became a big picture squad rebuild job and and i just i'm sorry i don't i don't see any evidence that that element of it has been anything other than a disaster to this point um yeah unfortunately the the interim job the short fix job has gone and i felt she was not flawless by any means but quite good at that she was quite good at being a coach um basically but this became this went from being a coach to being a manager and uh unfortunately i think she's come up short on that gives me no pleasure to say that at all um i really really wanted this man i I want every Arsenal manager to succeed, but I really like, I like Renee.

46:16I want her, I respond to her. And I really wanted this kind of Renee Slager's Jodie Taylor kind of dream team. I really wanted that to really take the club forward. I think it would have looked and felt great for a club like Arsenal to be taken forward by two kind of, I don't want to sound patronising saying this, but like for their positions, like two young women in those roles. I felt that was really exciting, but it's not worked. It's as simple as that. And I think the cord just has to be cut on it and they have to try and start again and hope another manager can put some of these slightly jumbled pieces together.

47:02Why don't you ask a question and we'll both have a go at it?

47:06Jamie: This is a big one. This is from at Cooney Crossbro. The higher-ups don't feel like they're capable of making a tough decision regarding manager's position. Idabel left on his own terms and so did Joe, if I recall correctly. Emma Sanders of the BBC has mentioned that for now it seems that if Rene leaves it will be her decision to do so. Isn't it a little bit concerning that the club would rather wait for a disaster to unfold instead of making a big decision like this? Yeah. Yeah, there's no denying that. I would say because we had another one I was going to read out as well, which I think is a really good question and a really good challenge.

47:41It's similar. It's put a little bit more starkly from Matt Swift. How much does Arsenal value its women's team? Does it value it enough to make the difficult choices that are needed? This is a serious question. So at the moment, apart from a good or lucky Champions League trophy, it's been dire for more than a few years now, and they haven't changed much. I'd say this isn't specific to the women's side. this is how Arsenal are and it's kind of how Arsenal have always been throughout their history they're conservative small c conservative about managerial changes look at how bloody long and Unai Emery lasted and this unfortunately this is what this reminds me of Unai Emery it took them till late November you know and so even with the men's team they let it circle the U-Bend for a few months before they stepped in and sacked the manager um so there is an element to which it's a long-standing club philosophy to give managers time um however um i use this phrase entirely too much and i hope people will forgive me for using it but when it comes to like managerial changes we all arrive at that point at a slightly different time some of us arrive at it earlier than others um but there comes a point where everyone arrives there and the phrase i'm going to use is um i assure you this is a famous saying not one of mine the saying is it's like pornography you know it when you see it right and everyone knows what that is when they sees it and and it kind of gets like that with managers in terms of sooner or later everyone arrives at that point and it's just like you can see this isn't going to be fixed it it just isn't and so it does feel frustrating and a bit like we're locked in a loveless marriage until someone does something it feels like a stalemate and the longer that stalemate goes on the more our season circles the u-bend um unfortunately so yeah i think that is very frustrating i think supports every right to be annoyed about that.

49:54What do you think about that one?

49:56Jamie: Yeah, I completely agree. I think it's at a point now where some people called it months ago and I probably didn't, but I'm also backing that as well because I think that there was reason to have hope for the last few months. And I think the last couple of weeks have been the quash of that hope. So I can understand why myself and others have maybe taken a little bit longer before the international breakers of the firm opinion that it needed to be then. And I think what we've done is waste time now and we've got two more draws and only one very, very narrow win against Spurs under our belt since then and that was an opportunity to close the gap and we didn't.

50:28Jamie: So I do worry about the club's ambition and I do worry about the fact that are we waiting for the manager to resign and how much more damage needs to be done now, Tim, because we're so far off the Champions League spots. It's not just the title race. Like we're so far off that spot and that is frustrating and we're dropping points. both of the promoted teams in Birmingham City and Palace, Villa, who we should be beating, this happened last year as well. We were kicking ourselves for that one draw last season, the Spurs and the Villa one. This season, we've got four. It's time. It's broken. And I think that it's a very, very fair concern that fans have that the club aren't being proactive to that season because they weren't proactive to the onus one.

51:05Jamie: And maybe in a world where he didn't step away when he did weeks earlier than we are with Rene now, then we wouldn't have won the Champions League that season it would have been a lot more ugly so yeah I can completely empathize with the way fans feel I'm frustrated I am yeah that's a very good point that season was salvaged um you know because it happened early enough and it it happened because of the manager um and you know that that's what that job is is sometimes you want to make difficult decisions and you have difficult conversations it's as simple as that um that was your question wasn't it um what about this one um i think on the left footers we kind of covered that a little bit okay this is this another quite small one that will probably be solved in one or two sentences from uh l at kcc gunner how do we fix the 9 10 problem we have a lot of nines a lot of tens or players that can play in those positions yet the easiest solution for the manager seems to be to clone Alessia Russo.

52:12Rene was a bit annoyed by a question at the end about Russo in the 10, which is because it was the fifth consecutive press conference it's been asked. And obviously she was a bit annoyed about the game anyway. And obviously Russo played as a 10 against Benfica, scored a hat-trick, plays as a 10 in this game. I wrote something in my post-match piece, which I didn't express brilliantly, which I said it was the least of our problems, by which I was saying it is a discussion point. It's just I think there are about seven or eight that are bigger, more worrying discussion points. But yeah, I mean, it does just seem that Renee trusts one player for both positions and she can only play her in one of them, basically.

53:00Jamie: It seems that Renee trusts one player for 11 positions. I think that Alessia Russo is the one player that can probably walk away from this unscathed in terms of her self-image based on what Renee does with her. But to be fair to Renee in this game, I would have been frustrated to front that question as well because I thought Alessia Russo was the only player that played well. So when you're nitpicking at that, I think that she will realise, it's just hard at the moment, that that is a very, very bigger picture question and we've spoken about it a million times I know she's being good I still I still don't like it I still don't like you're wasting a number nine you're wasting one of the best strikers in the world one of the best players in the world and at least she's converting now which is really good like she's scoring goals from the 10 and maybe it is a situation where she needs more time in the midfield to score goals but that's your striker you've recruited a midfielder Geraldine Wichel is a 10 she's a hybrid Frida Mornham obviously has been injured we haven't said her name in months.

53:54Jamie: That's another natural 10. Obviously, Mariana Caldente was kind of an option for that before she moved to the wing and then before she got injured as well. But for me, it's just recruitment. The manager doesn't have a 10 that she wants to start and that means that Alessia Russo is the player that she trusts the most. And sometimes you just have a player that's better than other players and that is Alessia Russo. She's amazing. She's a phenomenal footballer and I would rather earn the 10 than on the bench. I would rather earn anywhere on the pitch so I can empathize with the Rene in that regard.

54:21But the

54:21Jamie: recruitment's been so lackluster and whether that's her fault, whether that's the backroom fault, it really frustrates me again. It's just a sign of 10 that you trust. Sign a midfielder that you trust and play your striker as a number nine or try something else. Play Olivia Smith in the 10. Try something else because something's not working. If Russo's working, it doesn't necessarily mean your left, right winger and striker are working. It doesn't necessarily mean your front four unit is working. In this game, it wasn't. Leslie Russo's playing fine, but your unit's not working and therefore where our shot volume is so high, but it's not efficient.

54:54Jamie: Our passing into the final third isn't there, so it's frustrating. I just think if you recruit a 10, it solves your problems, and I'm so done with everyone being versatile but not being able to play properly. It's doing my head in, Tim. Yeah, Reutel is really versatile. She's not trusted in any position, which is great. Your turn for a question. Yeah, this one is an interesting way to look at it. I think this is us. This is some copium, but I really like the question. It's from at Zolk99. Is it time to regard this season as a transitional one? Probably Liddell's last season, new midfield combinations, a new goalkeeper, one new and a very young winger, and a change in defence.

55:34Jamie: How much time should they be given to gel as a team? So I guess if I'm spinning this, Tim, is there a reason why we're so bad? And should we kind of forgive them a little bit? I mean I think it kind of was yes going to be a transitional season and that's not being wise after the fact we discussed that several times over the summer the problem is the club kind of said we're gonna you know we our ambition is to win the WSL which I mean I understand that's the ambition every season but you know they really wanted state it and put it out there um and and they have the players to do it whether they have the balance i'm not sure but they have the talent they definitely have the talent to to win the wsl um we're gonna it's gonna have to be a transitional season however at this point like i'm looking at a lot of these questions and stuff about like individual players and stuff like that and i just for every single one unfortunately my uh i'm not going to lie to anyone unfortunately my mind just keeps going these are all questions for another manager that that's where i am like i'm i'm just thinking like this is over for some reason we're kind of carrying on in this misery um and ultimately at some point soon these are all going to be problems for another manager and another manager that i i can guarantee you there will be kind of out of work managers around now you know like nwsl season well there's obviously the playoffs but that finished this weekend swedish season's finished you know the market might free up a little bit there are there will be some presumably some out of work managers i don't know who i promise you there are there will be managers who are looking at arsenal right now going i think i know what i do with this and uh i'm thinking about it because i might get a job interview for a couple of weeks so there's there's quite a lot of questions here about players and i'm just like this is we're in like waiting for godot territory is just like great reference it's just like yeah this this this is all just stuff for the next manager's in trade um unfortunately like that's that's kind of where i am so so yes it has necessarily been made a transition season but at the same time we have to go for that champions league spot and if there's any bright spots that london city lionesses lost they've only picked up one point from the last two games.

58:24Man United drew. So we haven't really gained... Well, we gained a point on LCL. We haven't really gained a lot of ground. Those are the teams we're looking at now. We haven't lost ground on them this weekend. So this season is salvageable. We can go for that third place. We've got to play LCL home and away. We've got a game against Manchester United on the last day of the season. We can do it. But... we're not going to be able to do it if we just carry on in this kind of state of semi-animation, to be honest. So, yeah. How about this one? From the same person, it should be said, at Zolk99, what was the biggest difference between the match against Benfica and the one against Villa?

59:13Did the two wins make the players too complacent, meaning they didn't start the last match with the right level of pressure and determination to win?

59:23Jamie: That's a great question. I don't think it made the team complacent at all. I don't think that. I just think it's the same thing we've seen all season and we finally got a result out of it. I think there's an element of looking at this Benfica game and saying it made everyone complacent because it's Alessia Russo's going to save us, save us Alessia Russo, because that is what she did and it was a phenomenal performance. I also think when you look at Benfica and Aston Villa, they play very differently. Like I mentioned the flanks earlier from Villa, they also really really wanted to get Arsenal in and behind like they had five offsides in this game which means Arsenal were playing a high line and that's what shot us in the foot like for the goal however we got them in the offside trap a couple times because it was obvious what they wanted to do with Grant and Vansgaard it just meant we didn't have the players to stop that when the goal happened and again it's like you're kind of adjusting for the team but then you don't have the personnel uh to do so so that was frustrating whereas I think in the Benfica game it's just a different way.

1:00:17Jamie: I think when Arsenal keep the ball it's less of the channels and more we have the midfield and I think the midfield did a really good job during the week. So I don't want to say winning makes us complacent because you can say that about the Spurs game and then we went and beat Benfica 3-0 and a good side mind you. They're a decent team. They're probably alike to Aston Villa as well. So yeah, I don't want to say it's complacency. I think it's just two different results. I think for some reason right now when we walk into the WSL the team think they're going to a haunted house and the performances in the Champions League are just different.

1:00:47Jamie: So that's frustrating. Maybe it's less eyes. Maybe it's less media attention. Like less people are watching Arsenal play Benfica, I guess, than they are watching players in Villa. So I do think you just need to look at the opposition and weigh that up. But at the same time, if winning is making this team complacent, I think it's the manner in which we won, which was Alessia Russo v Benfica. And I think, yeah, there's complacency from the manager and complacency from the team that she's going to save the day again. I think it's just we didn't go 1-0 down against Benfica and we nearly did when I think Kyra under hit a back pass and that was a bit scary and it could have been the same game let's do one more if you've got one more I do this one is from our good friend at Nick's Clip 72 to what degree do you think the loss of Mead and McCabe has affected our set piece success rate both among the best set piece takers in the game but it seems like apart from stanway we didn't include set pieces in the profile of players we recruited seems naive to willingly lose that advantage do you think it was ever an advantage tim no yeah thank you um so with the set piecing yeah it's really interesting like around this time every season i get who is our set piece coach and uh it's like yeah they change they keep changing the set piece coach like patrick vingquist was there till the end of the 23 24 season then chris bradley was there for two years he didn't have his contract renewed and now they've got nikita runnacle's in um who's the set piece coach and i i i do find it a bit extraordinary that people keep blaming the set piece coach when it's like well this is the third one we're saying this about and sooner or later um it's about the players um you know the same way that the best manager in the world will not win charlton the wsl right because because they don't have the talent you need the talent it's the same with arsenal with set pieces we don't have other than russo we have pretty much no one that you'd say is legitimately good in the air and you can't coach your way out of that there is no set piece routine that makes anyone better at heading the ball and so again the problem is recruitment yes I don't think delivery is a big problem Kyra you'll know this better than me Kyra and Steph Catley been taking them for the Matildas for years right but they get Alana Kennedy on the end of them for the Matildas we don't we just don't really have anyone like that and it doesn't like they could move Nicholas Jova over to the women's team wouldn't make a blind bit of difference because you can't make people good at heading the ball if they're not good at heading the ball it's that simple so I don't think that's really had a big impact because we were rubbish at them last year and the year before that and a lot of it is because I do think and again not wise after the fact we discussed this in the summer when we were discussing the transfer business we were a bit like we thought we needed a bit more speed at the back not really sure we got that and we felt we needed a bit more height not really sure we got that either so um yeah I'd say chalk that up to something else around recruitment I mean do you have a different take on that no I couldn't agree more I think we've always been bad at set pieces like we've had this conversation for three seasons now and like you said it is just personnel and attribute and apparently we're not signing the personnel or attribute that we ever need ever ever like I don't understand I don't understand Lisa Baum signing is fantastic.

1:04:25Jamie: I think George Samway brings something, but we have been crying out for stability at the base of midfield, which I don't necessarily think George Samway brings, but she brings other attributes, which is great, but it's also similar to the players we already have. And then we have no speed at the back, like no left-footed centre-back that is like ready to evolve into that position after Steph Catley, no height, like we have no aerial threat. And that's been the case since like the Leon home champions league game in the group stage, like four years ago, when we put like five corners in, in the first, in the last 10 minutes.

1:04:57Jamie: And Wendy Renard was just like, I could have told you that four years ago and we're still in this situation. So if we can do it, Tim, I don't really know why the recruitment team can't do it. So I agree with the set pieces thing. Like we're losing big takers, but we still have them. It's just, we don't have anyone to kind of finish that product ever. Um, which is beginning to drive me into a pool of insanity, Tim. I'm going insane. Yeah, I mean, we scored one against Benfica, but yeah, I mean, the amount of corners we get. I know a lot of people don't like short corners, which short corners have as high a success rate.

1:05:35Actually, to be honest, in the men's Premier League, that has probably changed in recent seasons, but I think we should basically take all our corners short, to be honest. um is that enough of that I think that's enough of that yeah I'm making myself angry I need to breathe I'm so worked up right now and like like I said I came home and I watched uh the men's game against Liverpool uh regretted not being there um and you know that that kind of uh punctured it and this brought it all back but but it has been therapeutic as well um we hope it's been therapeutic for you as well listener um we we will for better or for worse have another podcast after the liverpool game uh we'll be going up to anfield this time hoping for um a similar result to the one the men got um so we'll we'll be back uh with another podcast i'm not sure when we'll record that because i won't be back till like sunday evening um from liverpool hopefully we'll record it on monday uh and then i'll be in barcelona for a few days after that um not a game i'm looking forward to but it's a lovely city um if i can get there because of the strikes um but yeah anyway thanks thanks for joining uh our private hell here going over that again uh keep it with ask blog news we will have even though there's no midweek game we'll have the newsletter this week as always and we'll have all the coverage we usually do of the Liverpool game which will probably draw 1-1 and do exactly the same podcast for you next Monday so do look forward to that until then take care of yourselves

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