‘There’s no time when you play Arsenal’ – Bristol City must be quick and clinical says Smith | OneFootball

Bristol City head coach Lauren Smith says that her side must be quick in their work and clinical with their opportunities against Arsenal.

The Robins travel to the Mangata Pay UK Stadium in Borehamwood to face The Gunners this evening.

Bristol City have worked hard on their defensive structure in recent weeks but the consequence has been that attacking opportunities have been restricted. Head coach Smith admits that getting the right balance between attack and defence has been difficult this season. She says that her side must work quickly on and off the ball and be clinical if they are to get any success against latest opponents Arsenal.

“It’s something that we have fought with all season; the more defensive we have become in our structure and our shape, the less accessible we’ve been at the other end,” Smith said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “When we do change our shape to become more attacking, we tend to open ourselves up and the Brighton game in particular, concede some goals.

“We are aware of where our strengths and weaknesses are. Something we’ve worked on is how we are going to get out of that block and how we are going to make sure we build up the pitch when we do get those opportunities. We’ve done it well against some teams; Manchester United away we had some good amount of ball, so I know that we can do it, we just have to have the belief to do it.

“We have to be quick and clinical in everything. Even if that’s from our build all the way to the finish, there’s no time when you play Arsenal, they’re right on top of you, they’re a bit like Manchester City, they want to counter-press you and score lots of goals.

“We know what we are coming up against, we know what we can work on but luckily, what we’ve got in the back pocket is that we’ve done it well before in different games, we are not chasing something that we can’t achieve. We know that we can counter-well, score goals and cross well, so we need to rely on doing that in a good way against Arsenal.”

Smith went on to say that Bristol City must aim to stay in the game and build despite the fact that they’re highly-likely to have less possession throughout.

She said “Arsenal are a good team, they’re great to watch and move the ball so well. Their style and identity can be picked out and you have to look at them and say ‘wow’.

“We know that we are going to spend long periods of the game without the ball. They move it so well and will try and break us down.

“We have to be aware of their threats. Last time, that was Katie McCabe from the second phase of a corner. I think they have many differences in how they can see a game out. We just need to be aware of what they can look like.

“The girls have taken on the game plan and the information really well. I’m hoping we see some of that and we stay in the game for longer which allows us to build.”

Bristol City’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Arsenal kicks-off at 6.45pm this evening.