Does Blackstenius’ hat-trick deserve a start against Liverpool?
Jonas Eidevall and his Arsenal Women squad walked away 6-0 winners against Reading midweek, after a completely dominant display. Eidevall rotated a lot of the squad and gave a few girls some extra minutes because it was the Continental Cup, but after such a dominant display, should Eidevall be thinking about giving some of these girls a few more starts? Especially players like Stina Blackstenius who managed to bag a hat-trick on the night.
This season Eidevall has made it clear that his number one choice is Alessia Russo to lead the line and I’m not saying that Russo hasn’t been good, because she has, but Blackstenius is producing great numbers and when she’s on the pitch, seems to always be able to find the back of the net.
It does leave us Gooners questioning why she doesn’t get more starts, because she’s clearly good enough and has been scoring goals. If Russo had cost us a bucketload I’d understand feeling the need to play her in every game, but Russo came to us for free, and yes her wages will be good, but does that really warrant playing her over Blackstenius every week?
Maybe Russo is doing more in training and stuff we don’t get to see but from where I’m sitting, Blackstenius should be starting more games than she is, and is making a bigger impact on the pitch than Russo has been, certainly when it comes to scoring goals..
Russo has scored 5 goals and 2 assists (all competitions) and Blackstenius has scored 11 goals (all competitions) and for me, the numbers speak for themselves. We look a much better team with Blackstenius starting and I know a lot of Arsenal Women fans will say “but she’s only starting cup games with weaker sides than the WSL” and I get your point, but I don’t think it matters who the opponent is, she always puts in 100%.
Russo does a lot more off the ball than on the ball and, because she was Manchester United’s best scorer, I think we as Arsenal Women fans all expected her to be finding the back of the net regularly, but we haven’t really seen that yet. Russo is good at linking up plays and is good at turning her back to the goal to create chances for her teammates but is that enough when you’ve got a centre forward scoring almost every game she plays?
In my opinion, I think Blackstenius should be starting our next game against Liverpool. I think it would be rather harsh of Eidevall not to start her after bagging a hat-trick vs Reading. For me, it sort of sets the wrong standards if he does drop Blackstenius for Russo. It makes it seem like it doesn’t matter how well you do, he will stick with his favourites and I’m hoping that’s not the case. So, yes for me, I’d start Blackstenius on Sunday, against Liverpool.
What’s your thoughts Gooners?
Daisy Mae
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In my view its very much picking a matchday team of 15 . The finishing 11 is just as important as starting 11.
I’d like to see more of Lessi and Stina on the pitch at the same time but I doubt that’s going to happen too often from the start of games.
Russo seems to have a knack of starting strongly and even getting on the score sheet, surely I would give her the nod to start this one.
OT there is a report out naming Arsenal amongst the top ten worst clubs at transfers.
Now this may gives credit to a fan claiming Arsenal has lost some £363 mill in the last decade.
I would start Russo
In one word to answer your question: NO!
Congratulations girls on going to Anfield and leaving with all the spoils.
Well done with a clean sheet intact as there are still considerable work to be done, correcting that huge goal difference in what shaping up to be a three horse race
Does anyone actually watch women’s football? I know it is having its status artificially inflated because ‘equality’ but every time I happen to see moments from games there is never anyone there. Probably because it just isn’t very good.
Ben you need a bigger spade if you are intent on digging your own grave!!
If you were in my house, you wouldnt last long with my Sue to face, given such misogyny!
I confess I also WATCH ONLY A LITTLE OF WOMENS FOOTBALL.
BUT IN MY CASE I AM FAR TOO BUSY TO WATCH IT ALL.
I miss a lot of mens football too, unless it is OUR club OFCOURSE.
Jon, no one should have enough time to watch every match available. Whether it is misogyny or not, I was definitely baiting. I just don’t happen to find women’s football entertaining.
The fact that on any occasion women have played against men or boys they have been demolished demonstrates the gulf in standard.
Do you compare women athletes at the Olympics to the men. ????
Nope. In most disciplines women’s sport is equally as entertaining a men’s. My dislike of women’s football is entirely a personal opinion and I am not advocating they not be given equal access to the same opportunities as the men.
I am simply stating that I personally don’t find it very entertaining. There is too much disparity between those that are good and those that aren’t and it is highlighted more within the women’s game than the men’s.
Also, I am not in the brigade of people screaming that men and women are equal, because they’re not.
It’s the laughable notion that female footballer should be paid the same as the men, when the revenue from the women’s game is miniscule compared to the men’s game. The men get paid way too much and at the last WC the women were paid proportionally more of the revenue than the men were.
I don’t support Joey Barton’s vitriol towards the women’s game, I just don’t like it. That said, I also don’t like having it thrust down our throats that if we don’t tow the line that it is just as good in every way we are sexist and as bad as Hitler.
That is your opinion Ben and that is fine.
But it is also a fact that Womens football is becoming more and more popular. In fact attendances have trebled across the board this season, and the fans know they can come to Arsenal without the tribalistic mens fans, and also see some excellent play and a lot more goals!
You just have to accept that a lot of people have a different opinion to yours….
Pat I too agree that mens football, being far richer financially and far more attended generally speaking , means that men SHOULD be paid more wages then women in the game.
This is simple financial reality and in no way denigrates the womens game or denies that women are equal to men as people, though not as football players, simply for obvious physical differences.
I totally disassociate myself from BENS daft references to Hitler! Sigh!
Jon, I was of course being sarcastic in referencing Hitler. However, it is not without more than a grain of truth that anyone not towing the woke line these days finds themselves cancelled and labelled disgusting things simply for holding an alternative opinion.
Everyone should have equal access to the same opportunities. My 14 year old daughter is a fine sportswoman, and is a far superior swimmer to me, as well excelling in hockey and tennis and I would hate for her not to be able to play those sports because she’s female.
Indeed, most women only sports are just as technically good as the men’s, it is simply a difference in physicality that separates the sexes which inevitably makes sports like football slower and less exciting. But as more girls and women take up the sport it will improve and may one day share the same platform as the men.
I firmly agree with all you say in this post.
I could not obviously agree with your original use of “Hitler” and found it distasteful and way over the top.
I will be clear though and say I have been actively and constantly campaigning against the sinister and damaging illiberal tyranny of WOKE and think it one of the gravest dangers mankind faces currently.
Not as great a danger as global warming or wars, but still a damaging and foolish philosophy, which as a true LIBERAL, I cannot stand and I will fight against, til it “dies”.
I absolutely do and if my 14 year old ever decides that she wants to play I’ll go along and support her. I am not trying to deny anyone anything, be it women from playing at the highest level achievable, nor am I saying that female players lack talent, it is simply a much slower, and at the moment, generally speaking there is far more variability in quality. When that gap evens out a bit it will be a better sport all round.
Pat I see no possibity of being able to sensibly compare women to men, be that at Olympics, the shopping mall or anywhere, as the notion is daft.
To bear any sensible comparison, you MUST compare like only with like.
Unless you wish to compare “a cauliflower to a chair” and so on!
Ben I too dontfind womens football that entertaining , at least not in the compulsive way I find TOP LEVEL mens football.
The standard is plainly lower and simple physical differences highlight the lack of speed, strength and REAL physical competitiveness which makes the mens game so compelling.
It would be a deliberate omission , which I WILL NOT encompass, if I did not mention the undoubted fact that having followed mens football since being a very small child, it is obviously not the same now i(in my seniorfyears) , to develop such a new passion for a relatively new type of football; meaning slower, less pacy, less strong etc
I go as far as to say it would be ODD INDEED, if at age 72, I could ever get as passionate , in this modern era about womens football, as I have been for the last 70 years with the mens game, which I HAVE LOVED WITH A PASSION AND STILL DO, ALL MY YOUNG, MIDDLE AGED AND NOW OLD LIFE.
I am very sure that many men of my older generation feel exactly the same, for the same reasons too.