Arsenal girls defeated Crystal Palace 2-0 away on a chilly, wet Sunday to arrange a Subway Cup semi-final at dwelling towards Manchester United on 21 or 22 January.
It was a weird day within the competitors, with Chelsea successful 9-1 at Liverpool, Manchester Metropolis beating West Ham 5-1 shortly after the London membership had sacked their supervisor, Rehanne Skinner, and Manchester United defeating Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 after being a objective down.
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Then got here the night bombshell, with London Metropolis Lionesses sacking their supervisor, Jocelyn Prêcheur, who had been doing a superb job with a promoted aspect.
Being a WSL supervisor is a troublesome job and is as difficult as being a Premier League supervisor. Of the 12 present managers, one was appointed in 2021, Mark Skinner, one in 2022, Brian Sørensen, and all of the others after July 2024. Sonia Bompastor, with 17 months within the job at Chelsea, is now the third longest-serving supervisor. Renée Slegers is the fifth longest-serving supervisor in publish.
The Palace win is unlikely to reside lengthy within the reminiscence. It was a mediocre efficiency that bore the hallmarks of squad rotation and gamers who had not performed collectively for a very long time. Slegers made seven adjustments from the staff that began towards OH Leuven, and it confirmed. She was utterly proper to take action, because it was the fifth and ultimate recreation of the block and a few gamers wanted a relaxation.
All however one outfield participant who had began the 4 earlier video games on this block got a relaxation. The one exception was Kyra Cooney-Cross, who had not been getting common minutes earlier within the season and was more energizing than most. She is now getting constant recreation time and is bettering in her understanding of the position assigned to her, even when her positioning nonetheless wants correcting throughout matches by the teaching employees, and she or he typically takes too many touches in harmful areas.
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The principle concern is that placing the suitable steadiness between rotating gamers and sustaining efficiency ranges is extraordinarily tough. As seen on Sunday, and final season away to Aston Villa and Brighton, when too many gamers are rotated directly, the staff struggles to perform as a cohesive unit and issues emerge.
The defensive construction is disrupted, passing lanes disappear, off-the-ball motion is lowered and the passing recreation not flows. Clearly, Slegers has not but discovered the suitable steadiness relating to large-scale rotation. She averages 2.94 adjustments to the beginning XI per recreation, rating sixth within the WSL, and 4.83 substitutions per recreation, the very best determine within the league.
Ahead gamers are rotated probably the most, and this season she has additionally begun rotating full-backs, helped by the summer time signing of Taylor Hinds, whose versatility permits her to play on both aspect of the defence.
Beneath are the minutes performed by the 22 gamers utilized by the Arsenal supervisor within the first half of the season. The utmost potential whole is 1,620 minutes.
There’ll inevitably be motion within the January switch window, with a few gamers arriving and a pair departing. Nonetheless, general minutes distribution and cargo administration shall be essential from the beginning of 2026, with 10 or 11 video games scheduled within the opening block of 43 days.
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Arsenal will compete in 5 completely different competitions throughout that interval and might want to carry out on the highest degree, with fixtures towards Manchester United twice, Chelsea away, Manchester Metropolis at dwelling, two FIFA Ladies’s Champions Cup matches and UEFA Ladies’s Champions League play-offs towards OH Leuven.