A review of the women’s league season, by Andrew Crawshaw
This is part four of our major review of Arsenal Women’s season; the final part of the series. Previously we have published
Part one: the review of the league season
Part two: Two cup finals in one season
Part three: Arsenal women in the FA Cup 2018, from Yeovil to Wembley
Here we take a look at the players in 2017/18…
Player ratings A excellent to E (not fit to wear the shirt)
These are my personal ratings and reflect my impressions of watching the team through the season rather than any rigorous analysis of their performances. You are welcome to your own opinions which may well differ from mine.
Sari Van Veenendaal (GK) C+ Good in open play, but her distribution leaves a lot to be desired at times.
Anna Moorhouse (GK) C A reasonable backup keeper but not really threatening Sari’s place as No 1.
Alex Scott Right Back and Club Captain – Didn’t play enough games to warrant a rating and retired at the end of the season.
Emma Mitchell Left Back B Solid all season and missed when not available.
Josephine Henning Centre Back Injured all season so no rating.
Leah Williamson Centre Back B solid all season and maturing well.
Louise Quinn Centre Back B+ again solid all season and chipped in with some important goals.
Jessica Samuelsson Right Back injured on international duty and unable to play all season no rating.
Jordan Nobbs Midfielder A– She covers every blade of grass on the pitch with excellent end product in terms of both assists and goals who could ask for more.
Kim Little Midfielder B+ missed the early part of the season through injury, has been excellent since her return to full fitness.
Heather O’Reilly Midfielder C- has been used more as a sub than a starter, one of the most senior members of the squad, perhaps starting to lose effectiveness.
Dominique Janssen Midfielder C+ solid and dependable has a great foot with free kicks and long range shots.
Danielle Van de Donk Midfielder C+ again solid and reliable.
Danielle Carter Striker B- Reliable goalscorer, sometimes drifts out of games.
Vivianne Miedema striker D+ has had a problem with a foot injury all season and rating reflects this. For the Dutch National team she is a deadly striker but has yet to produce that form for Arsenal. Her first touch is not always as good as it should be and the ball gets stuck between her feet far too often. She should be getting at least a B+ rating but I can’t give it to her this year. For me the most disappointing player in the squad but I’m expecting a massive improvement next year.
Katy McCabe Striker C- Solid squad player not really threatening to be a starter.
Lisa Evans Striker (but has played most of the season at Right Back) B- has learned her new position well and not found out too often.
Beth Mead Striker A player of the season and finished as top scorer. More to come from Beth I’m sure.
What should we look forward to next season?
It is all change again for Women’s football next year. At the moment we know there will be two divisions, the top one being fully professional and formed of somewhere between 10 and 14 clubs, the second with teams probably with some professional players.
We don’t know how many clubs will be in each division or who they will be. It looks likely that Millwall won’t be part of this setup as they haven’t the finances to keep their club going. I believe that this weekend may well see some clarity from the FA, I will do an update when things are clearer.
I would also hope that next season matches will be spread more evenly throughout the season which certainly hasn’t been the case this year. There have been too many long breaks followed by spells where we have had three or four matches in quick succession probably inducing the injuries and fatigue that has beset both ourselves and Manchester City amongst others. Chelsea with their bigger and stronger squad seem to have coped the best but abetter distribution of fixtures would be of benefit to all clubs.
From our perspective, we need to get our long term absentees fully fit and able to play on a weekly basis. We have been hampered by having established international defenders Josephine Henning and Jessica Samuelsson missing for virtually the whole of the season meaning that our fit players have had to play virtually every match. It will also help if Vivianne Miedema gets the extra confidence that should come from being fully fit as we need more goals next season.
There will also be a new Women’s Academy set up to replace our present Development squad and on 15 May the club announced that they were accepting applications to trial from ‘elite female players who have aspirations of playing for our first team’. To find out more information and to register, please click here .
We will need to add some more players to the first team squad either by promoting some of our existing youngsters or by external appointments. I would like to see us having a couple of bigger players, like our men we are basically a team of skillful but of relatively small stature and at times we have been on the wrong end of stronger and larger opponents.
And elsewhere
- Is Arsenal really going to bring Lucas Perez back into the first team?
- Ramsey, Wilshere and Lacazette to leave in huge Arsenal shake up?
- The 70 players now tipped join Arsenal and the transfer window isn’t even open
There have been some adjustments to the Arsenal Team since I drafted this series of articles.
Heather O,Reilly has left the club and it is strongly rumoured that Josephine Henning will also leave.
So far we have signed Austrian Centreback Viktoria Schnaderback from Bayern Munich and are rumoured to be in the process of signing Lia Walti and Tabea Kemme both from German side Turbine Potsdam.
Dutch trio Sari Van Veenendaal, Dominique Janssen and Danielle Van de Donk have all signed new contracts as has Jordan Nobbs.
OT but relevant to some Arsenal history. Anthony Taylor robbed us of 3 points in the opening home game a few seasons ago against Aston Villa.
I always wondered if there was something in the bias. Today I’m certain there is. Aston Villa are playing Fulham and Taylor is ‘playing’ for Villa. 2 clear red cards against Villa, only interpreted as yellow but no mercy for a Fulham player that committed 2 yellow card offences. I do not really care who wins as long as football wins. Sadly in todays playoff Final football is losing yet again because of PGMOL expertise.
At some point this morning, the “stylesheet” for the thread about Lucas Perez changed for me, to what I presume is the “mobile” version (desktop being the other choice). In the past, this “stylesheet” change seemed temporary, but the Perez page is sticking longer than usual. This page (and the other Ladies’ page) is still the old “desktop” stylesheet.
Menace, you may well be right, I couldn’t watch the game but listened on the radio and it seemed as though he got at least four Important Decisions wrong, mostly in Villas’s favour.
My best friend has been a Fulham supporter since he was knee high to a grasshopper and always manages to get me a ticket when we play at the Cottage so I am delighted that they held on to their one goal lead and won promotion back to the PL.
They play football the proper way and I suspect will give a few sides a surprise next season providing they can hang on to their best players.
Gord,
My phone has been stuck on the Seattle Ladies report from a couple of years ago. I have to click on the latest report that is listed when it will reset for the rest of the session. Annoying – I’ll raise it separately with Tony.
I am glad Fulham won and I am glad PGMOL lost.
I wont watch to night’s game as I think the result is a foregone conclusion For Real.
I have a small problem with to night’s game.
I don’t want loserpool to win but tomorrow morning I have a two hour online English lesson with someone who lives in Hamburg but is from Spain and a great fan of Real. He will rub it in if the English team lose. He did support Arsenal against Athletic but this game has become an England – Spain game.
Second half, time to go mow more grass. Both teams with one sub in the first half. Salah was subbed because of no energy due to fasting?
Come on Real Madrid!
Two one to Mad. The second a great overhead kick from Bale just on as a substitute. Always a degree of luck with them but undeniably spectacular when they work.
Sarah was wrestled to the ground and landed awkwardly. Not sure if the Mad player got a card.
Nearly an equaliser, Mane from outside the box with a grubbed that came back off the post.
Grubber, not grubbed
Real won 3-1. Two goalkeeping errors and the Bale spectacular overhead kick. Liverpool to buy a new keeper in the transfer window?
Haha at Liverpool, so Chelsea win something that won’t help save their star players, similarly Athletico suffer a similar fate, where will the GK merry go around stop?
Bale says; I don’t fancy moving, so does Karim.
A little boy said 2-0 as his second choice over 1-0 and I said he was a future bookmaker.
Welcome back Fulham, the Capital marches on!
Missed both games investing in my future but worth every second missed.
CR7 doesn’t even have to score, euros all over again.
The Liverpool boy from the train called it correct, Ramos on Sarah, get well for the WC I pray for you. Insha Allah.
The future looks bright.
COYG
IWIT
TTGS
FTQWB
Thanks for the report Andrew. 🙂
Glad to see Liverpool!!! lost.
I think the question that needs the correct answer from Jurgen Klopp,the Reds manager, is will he ever win a final Cup match for Liverpool as their manager? It’s not easy at all for a team to reach a Cup final. But he has been fortunate to be getting his Reds team into Cup finals. Twice in Europe but lost on each occasion. Domestically,I think Liverpool reached the League Cup final under him but lost the matvh too. In the FA Cup, I can’t remember now if Liverpool have played in the final under him. But if the Red had won the FA Cup under him, I think I’ll remember that. Now, Is he then a loser manager for Liverpool in Cup finals?
You have to feel sorry for Liverpool fans who went to Kivi. A round trip of nearly 6 000 ks for two mistakes and an injury to their key scorer and a spectacular over head kick by a Welsh and former spud player, just to rub it in. Sometimes life sucks.
interesting how the little englander media are condemning of ramos blaming him for the salah injury etc complete contrast to their attitude towards stoke players when they were assaulting the arsenal team