Jonas Eidevall was full of praise for Caitlin Foord after the Australian international scored a brace in Arsenal's 4-0 win at Liverpool in the FA Cup on Sunday.
Katie McCabe and Kim Little were also on target for the Gunners and speaking of Foord, their Swedish coach said: “When she plays like she did against Chelsea, or like when she came on against Manchester United and like she did today, she helps us so much.
"She is not only a player that can create offensively, she is really good at understanding her positions and helping the team off the ball, it gives us a little more solidity.”
McCabe and Foord swapped positions shortly before the opening goal and Eidevall explained: "We do that quite a bit, the players are good at that. Sometimes when we are counterpressing or we lose the ball and have to start to defend in positions, instead of losing time by players interchanging back into their natural positions, we can be comfortable and confident enough to stay where we are and start our defensive actions there.
"Their positioning was a consequence of that and both players know their roles into different positions well enough, they can handle that.”
Leah Williamson and Rafaelle started at centre-back and Eidevall added: “The team selection was in some parts about building some relationships and in some parts it was about giving some players a chance who haven’t played for a while. It was a mixture.”
Rafaelle claimed an assist for the opening goal for Foord as she slid a pass into her path and Eidevall was pleased with the Brazilian, adding: “The high line we play is very important, especially when you want to be a pressing team, you will be left in one v one situations.
"It is impossible to construct a system where you will never be exposed to that and if you want the players to press and cut off the short options, then you need players who can handle those situations and Rafaelle was very strong and brave there and that works very well for us.”
The Arsenal boss also went on to comment on Liverpool’s tactical approach, saying: “They played like we expected, they played like they do in the Championship. They are an aggressive man marking team, I think you saw that they can leave spaces at the back and created a lot of one v ones with our players.
"You have to be able to cope with the other team’s players one v one. If you look at Leeds in the men’s Premier League, they played the same in the Championship and it took opponents in the Premier League time to work them out.
"I remember Arsenal playing Leeds in the FA Cup when Leeds were in the Championship and you could really see how overwhelmed Arsenal were because it was a surprise. But once you get used to it you can see the different spaces that open up.
"I totally understand why Liverpool tried that, they are going to get promotion and for them it was very important to see how that playing style fits in against a WSL team.
"That will help their decision-making for next season so much and their recruitment and how they build their squad. So I totally understand why they played like that, it will help them to plan.”
Arsenal are next in action against Reading on Wednesday evening at Meadow Park with a 7.15pm kick-off.
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