Every word of Jonas' pre-London City presser

Jonas Eidevall held his pre-London City Lionesses press conference at the Sobha Realty Training Centre on Tuesday morning.

The boss was asked about the importance of the two upcoming cup games, Leah Williamson and Laura Wienroither's progress, and more.

Here is everything he had to say:

on the latest team news...

Katie McCabe returns to the squad after her suspension. Apart from that, nothing.

on reacting to defeat at West Ham...

We have to look forward. We have to acknowledge what things we need to do better, what things we need to continue doing. Of course we’re very frustrated with the result and it doesn’t entirely mirror the performance in that game, but we need to take ownership of all parts in that performance that can help us get better results. There are plenty of things still that we can improve and do better on so that’s what we need to put our focus to.

on what to expect from London City Lionesses...

Experienced side, lots of WSL experience and international experience in the squad both from the players and the manager, so we expect as always a competitive game and we need to be in our best state to get a result.

on Emily Fox settling into the side...

Like I said before, I think it’s been a very good integration process. I think she’s been phenomenal. The staff and players around her have also been phenomenal in helping her and doing so. We’re happy to have her here for a little short while before she probably goes to the Gold Cup.

on if we will face a low block against London City like we did against West Ham...

Even if I think we created enough chances to win the game against West Ham, the easy thing to say would be to be more efficient with the chances. I think there are things in how we position and use the whole field in order to make it difficult for them to defend in a low block. We can definitely improve on that and we need to do that. We learn from every game, winning or losing and there were some crucial learning points from the West Ham game that we need to put into action.

on what we can learn from Sunday…

As I said, even if I think we created enough chances to win the game against West Ham, it’s easy to say we need to be more efficient, but I also think there are things in how we are positioned and how we use the whole field in order to make it difficult for the opponent to defend in a low block. It’s something we can definitely improve on and we need to do that, so we learn from every game, win or lose, and there was some crucial learning from the West Ham game that we need to put into action.

on whether he might rotate our starting XI again…

I think we have a very competitive squad, so I’m not seeing that we have two line-ups - one for the league and one for the Conti Cup. We need to have competition in the squad and I think we saw that at the weekend with players coming off the bench and doing very well, so competition needs to be alive in the squad and we will need all our players to step up and step in for the team. I’m going to name the strongest team possible tomorrow and then what that is, it’s for me to decide.

on conservative passing and how he struggled to overcome West Ham's low-block…

I think we tried too few high-risk, high-reward passes in the game. There is always a balance in that in terms of how much of a direct, opportunistic team you want to be. How much control are you looking for? I think there were a handful of situations, both in the first and the second half, where I said  'I think we should go for that pass' and we opted for safer passes. And I think we have too much quality in our players both on the ball and off the ball. 

So we should be able to look for those situations and look for them with determination. And in those situations, we're so well balanced as well, so it doesn't matter if it doesn't come off all the time, because that actually can just create another good counter-pressing opportunity, for example. So for me, that's one of the major findings from the game. 

Another one that is very basic, but we played without width too many times in the West Ham game. And we've been quite good with our structure but that was really a step back for us from a positional perspective. And when we didn't figure out which players needed to provide width in the different phases of the game. But of course, we're gonna learn from that. Sometimes it's how football is. Things have been looking good and then you take a step backwards. 

That's such a fundamental part when you're trying to break down a low block: to provide width, to be able to stretch their defending line and to ask them which spaces to defend. And I think our positioning made that a little bit too easy for West Ham on  Sunday and our decision-making on the ball, not trying to play passes forward a little bit more often, also made it too easy and convenient.

on whether these two upcoming cup games have extra importance after the West Ham game…

I don't think like that. I don't think with that mindset at all. I have a very easy mindset as a coach, and that is: I prepare the team as well as possible for the next game that we're going to play. And we're going to do our very best to win that football game. And that's, in essence, always what you can control and that's where we need to put our focus. 

So these games here, they have the same importance and in all three competitions, we want to do as well as possible. Not only that, we need to see things in both the short term and long term from that lens. To present as good a version of yourself as a team every day in training and when we play games is the only way to develop. If you're not doing a 100, you're not going to develop and that's why it's so important to strive for that always. So, for us, every time we go out and play a game, it's the most important game that we have ever played because it's the next one. And that's the mindset for both these two games.

on Laura Wienroither’s progress…

She’s progressing. She has started to join very early bits of team training, as of this week, so that's very pleasing. But that obviously also means that there is no way she's going to return to play on this side of the international window and after that, we probably can give a more accurate update on where she's at.

on whether Leah Williamson is ready for more minutes…

She has recovered well from the game, which was pleasing. I thought her performance was good. It was really nice to see her back playing in the WSL again. Now we need to see how she trains and then it's a team decision on who's going to start tomorrow. And then we recover and then we train again and then we see against Manchester City. And that's way too early to say something about but so far so good.