Jonas Eidevall explains how Arsenal changed their tactics in 2nd-half destruction of Aston Villa Women

Just Arsenal News

·26 March 2024

Jonas Eidevall explains how Arsenal changed their tactics in 2nd-half destruction of Aston Villa Women

Our Arsenal Women defeated Aston Villa 3-1, as expected, to bounce back from the London derby loss to Chelsea. I’m sure some Arsenal fans who watched that game and saw the score being 1-0 at halftime, Villa with the advantage, were already convinced it was another disappointing matchday.

During the break, Jonas Eidevall and his technical bench must have done something remarkable, as the girls were a different animal in the second half. The Gunner women came back and ran amok against Villa, scoring three goals, but the woodwork and the Villa keeper kept it from getting any worse for the Carla Ward-led side.

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One wonders what Eidevall said to his players at halftime to make them come back hungry. Fortunately, he gave us the answer after the game: “We changed two things.” Jonas told Arsenal.com. “Villa were really, really compact in their organisation in their 5-3-2. It was really important to attack on one side with a structure and start dragging their 10s out on that side and then, with speed and determination, go over on the other side. That was where we would open them up.

“Once we got that clarity in the second half, we dragged them out and changed the point of attack and started to create some really clear chances. The other thing we spoke about was that Villa really wanted to play out from the back. When you win the ball in those moments against a low block, we needed to be much more forward oriented when you win the ball in these pressing situations and try to create from that.

“We did that really well in the second half as well. At times when you are 1-0 down, you want to try to put over so much information but I think experience told me and the team, in these situations, it’s important to get the details right that we really need to focus on what is going to make a difference.

“We said let’s not review what happened in the first half, let’s look into the future and paint a picture of what is going to be for us to be successful. I think we did that well, big credit to the players because they problem-solved, they were solution oriented, cool under pressure in the second half. We were so methodical and we kept on believing if we didn’t convert, we would create more chances. That was a really high performing team in a pressure situation.”

Some may argue that our Gunner women won the game because of their individual brilliance, but this is not true. If it had been down to individual brilliance or player skill, the first half would have been better. It’s clear that the coaching staff did a superb job at halftime to help Arsenal pull off the comeback win.

Congratulations to Jonas and the ladies for listening to the boss

Michelle Maxwell

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