‘That’s a burden I have to carry’ Slegers on difficult decisions over fringe players

Arsenal Coach Renee Slegers says that players not making the squad is ‘a burden I have to carry.’ So far this season, Kyra Cooney-Cross has yet to play a minute, while USWNT left-back Jenna Nighswonger has yet to make a matchday squad this season.

Arseblog News asked Slegers about the decision to select two goalkeepers on the bench ahead of Nighswonger for the 5-1 victory over West Ham. ‘All players are performing really well and working really hard in training, Jenna is one of them, we felt like we wanted an extra goalkeeper in that game because of other reasons.’

Arseblog News then asked Slegers whether there ought to be questions over the decision to recruit the player in January given how seldom she has featured since signing. ‘It is of course, very hard. But like I’ve been saying, we recruited Jenna and she’s part of us. She’s part of the team we have.

‘That’s a burden I have to carry. When the whole squad is fit, we have so many options and I will only be able to start 11 players and I will only be able to change the maximum of five players, and that’s the rules within the game that I have to work with, even though it hurts me as well.

‘But that’s the rules of the game and at the end of the day, it’s my job, so I’ll have to carry that. But not saying that I don’t find that hard, that that’s part of the culture.’

We followed up by asking what conversations happen with players who are finding minutes difficult to come by. ‘We had conversations with every individual player at the start of this block to manage expectations. This is what we see the block how the block will play out for you, but nothing is ever set in stone.

‘So anything can change at any point. So that’s the conversation I had with all players. And then it’s about individual management, what do I feel like I need to communicate? and what do I think the player needs at this point in time and that that’s what I have to manage. Basically on a daily basis to see where and how to communicate.’

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