Vivianne Miedema is expected to return to the pitch for Arsenal Women, soon after missing more than 10 months due to an ACL injury she suffered in December 2022.
Even though she has yet to play for our Arsenal Women, she was named to the Dutch women’s squad for their two UEFA Nations League games against Scotland next week.
In response to his No. 11 joining the Dutch Women’s squad for their upcoming fixtures, Jonas Eidevall has hinted that Miedema might get minutes in our clash with Bristol City women, according to Arsenal.com. Eidevall said that he could offer her minutes and hopes she responds well enough to have a say in the Netherlands’ UEFA Nations League matches.
“They know that Viv is really close to returning to play, and maybe she can make the squad here on Sunday as well for Arsenal, which would be a big thing for for us as well” said our head coach during his pre-match press conference. “That still makes her a doubt if she could play competitive games for Netherlands, of course, because we still don’t know how she would react.”
On the burning issue of whether he sees Miedema and Russo playing together and if either one of them could be an impediment to the other, our Swedish tactician stated that will not be the case as he has a strategy to get the best out of the two in the hope that they can work together. Eidevall notes the two’s versatility, saying that they can both play as a No. 9 or a No. 10, a situation that he will look to exploit by rotating the two in the two positions to see which works best for whom and using them together in the two positions.
“I can see that working in different combinations, and that’s very exciting. We could see Alessia starting the game against Aston Villa as a 9, but we switched her to a 10 when Stina was coming in as a 9, and we worked on that partnership.
“What does that tells us? Miedema can play both as a 9 and as a 10. I think Alessia can do the same; she can also work as a 9 and a 10, so when we see them play together, when they do, what will bring their best qualities out of each other? We will have to see.
“That’s the exciting thing in football; I have an idea in my head. But that doesn’t count for much until it transpires out to the pitch. And I’m very excited to see them working together on the pitch, but we haven’t had much time to do that so far.”
How excited are you to see some Miedema Magic Gooners? We may just get a glimpse this Sunday!
Michelle Maxwell
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