Arsenal head coach Renee Slegers was glad to see her side keep a clean sheet when they faced Manchester United in the Women’s Super League on Sunday.
And she hailed the contributions of senior players – mentioning defender Steph Catley’s role in supporting 18-year-old Katie Reid in the back line.
“Katie’s been with us a lot, she’s been doing that consistently within our training environment, but then doing that in training, in a safe, isolated environment, we’ve seen that, but we never knew what it would look like in the league, in competitive games, in front of a lot of people with pressure on but she does that so so well, so she looks exactly the same.
“We have a lot of leadership in the team and Steph is a really, really good leader. She has constant communication, small details, so I think Katie and Steph feel connected all game through. Steph is really important.”
Renee Slegers: I’m happy with the clean sheet
The goalless draw against United – with just one shot on target for the Gunners – may have come as a surprise bearing in mind Slegers’ side had scored nine goals in their previous two matches, first against London City Lionesses then against West Ham United. However, they had also conceded early goals and had to come from behind in both as well – so the head coach was pleased with that progress.
“I’m happy with the clean sheet,” she said. “It’s very important for us that that’s the foundation, so the players invest a lot and they did well. On the ball, especially in the second half we have more possession, more stabilised possession in the final third.
“We didn’t have the same quality of decision making and execution today as we usually have. I think we had one shot on target – if we were to play again, we would’ve wanted to do that better and challenge their defence and their goalkeeper a little bit more.”
Slegers thanked the travelling fans for their backing at Leigh Sports Village and added that she was looking forward to Arsenal’s next Women’s Super League match, on Saturday, 27th September, when they play Aston Villa at the Emirates.
“They give us so much energy and we want to feedback and we want to deliver our football so we’re so grateful and this was great, having a thousand supporters here today and we look forward to the home games again as well.”
