Jonas Eidevall believes the winning mentality shown by our continental champions this summer will help the entire squad, but that every player has previous success to draw from.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of the WSL opener against Brighton, he noted the resilience on display at the summer tournaments and how we can aim to replicate that this season.
"With mental strength, it starts with believing because if you concede a goal, you will have different emotions going through your body and you can let those emotions take over and influence your actions," he said. "You can give up or think it's going to be one of those days where we’re going to concede another goal. Or you can remember and say ‘now, wait a minute’.
"For example, the English players who went 1-0 down against Spain at Brighton now have the memory that says, ‘no, it doesn't have to be that way’. Instead, it can be one of those days as well where we score in the 80th minute and then we get an overtime goal.
"Once you have seen that they work, why wouldn't you choose to always believe in that scenario instead of the other? That's what I want us to do, to believe in the positive outcome every time. Is this is going to happen every time? I don't know, but I will believe it will."
Eidevall also took the time to point out that this winning mentality was not isolated to our recent summer champions: "It's important to emphasise that we have a lot of players that have been in finals, who have also won things before this summer. I think it's the shared pool of all those experiences that is really important.
"We will have players with fresh memories of success or they will have fresh memories of failure. But every one of us will also have some memories of some really, really huge successes and that's what you have to keep remembering: to keep believing in those situations. So, of course, we're trying to use all those experiences from a positive point of view," he added.
Specifically, with Beth Mead, who won Player of the Tournament and Top Scorer at the Euros this summer, the boss hasn't noticed a difference since her return to London Colney: "Beth brought the same intensity to the Euros as she had been doing with Arsenal, and she brings the same intensity back to Arsenal again now."
"You know what’s funny: in football, we always look backwards and we think that history will always be the guarantee for the future, but remember, what did you guys write about Beth Mead last summer? Not much, because then there was someone else who had performed well during the Olympics and you thought ‘that’s going to be the result for next season.’
"You never know with people and the future, and that’s why it’s important that no matter how much you have won, it’s about what are you doing in the present and how you are moving forward. That’s where Beth needs to look, but every player in Arsenal needs to in order to achieve new things, because football never stands still. As a club, or a player, or a coach, we can’t stand still."
Read everything else Eidevall had to say in his pre-match press conference
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