Every word of Jonas’ pre-Bristol City presser

Jonas Eidevall held his pre-Bristol City press conference at Sobha Realty Training Centre on Friday morning.

He was asked for the latest update on Frida Maanum, how we’re approaching this weekend’s game and his reflections on our Continental Tyres League Cup win.

Here’s what he had to say on the following subjects…

on Frida Maanum’s progress:
Yeah, everything is looking good and that's the most important thing. She's on a graduated, monitored protocol now to return to play. She will not be available for selection on Sunday but after that, if everything goes as planned, it looks promising for her to be available to play again.

on whether she’ll be available for Leicester City:
That’s the next game, yeah. 

on Lotte Wubben-Moy’s displays this season:
I think she's really developed this season in almost all aspects of her game. She's improved her playing position. She's improved her duels. She's improved her leadership on the pitch. It's a really nice example of a player who is applying herself 100% every day. And that's not this season only. That's the seasons before that. But in football, if the rewards would come directly linked to your contributions, I think football would be an easier world to succeed in. A lot of people would be doing the right things every day because you get constant positive feedback. But that's not the case. Football is not that linear in its development. So you need to keep on going, keep on going, keep on going, keep on going. And when you don't think you will see progress or get a reward, you still need to keep on going, keep on going. And then it comes. And that's why you need to be so mentally strong in this game, and Lotte is a prime example of that.

on how we’re approaching the Bristol City game:
With 100%. I think they have been a very, very competitive side. They ask a lot of different tactical questions for you as a side. They obviously have had a long time to prep for this game. I think it might be three weeks now without a game, so we need to take that into consideration as well. We know we need to play at our very best in order to be able to win the game. 

on team news:
They're just coming back in here today, so it's screening and we need to see them on the pitch. So the one we have an update on is Frida and that the game will come too early for her, but for the rest, we'll wait and see. 

on Stina Blackstenius’ future:
Stina has been very good for us this season, I agree with that, I think she has developed a lot during the time with us as well. And, I believe she can develop more, and she can become an even better player. 

on the impact of not having an extra attacker this season due to injuries:
When we build a squad, it's definitely the plan that we should be able to have two players on all positions. But to your point, I think the forward line is one of the most important ones to be able to get fresh legs on and to have finishers and starters on, of course. So the plan when we build the squad is of course to do that. Then we always have to be adaptable. Things are never going to go exactly to plan and I always think it's going to be one position for every team that you will need to either play one player a lot of minutes on or you need to find and be flexible with different solutions. So, I'm not using that as an excuse in any way. 

on Bristol City’s change in defensive structure:
Yeah, like I said before, it's a really competitive side. They also have players returning back here that have been away with injuries, they’ve had three weeks here now to work together as a team. So I go in there with the most respect for the opponent and our performance needs to be really good. 

on whether being favourites in this match is dangerous:
Yeah, but this is the thing and I've made that comparison before with a plane crashing and that you need to check all systems and you need to go through all protocols in order to make sure that something is not failing that makes the plane crash. It's the same when we play a football game, I can't tell you beforehand which run is gonna be the important one to win the game or what pass or what action. Therefore you need to treat everyone with 100% and it's the same with all the games that you're playing competitively. I never have the mindset of thinking about games that are easier or harder. It's a competitive game, it's the next one, it requires 100%. And I think when we talk about being a more consistent team, these are the games that we need to win and we need to apply ourselves 100%. If there's something I've learned here, coming into the end of my third season, is that the league has been lost in games where others from the outside have thought that we were going to win beforehand.  And we haven't been able to do that, and that tells me something about, okay, we need as a team to be able to apply ourselves even better, coming in with an even better performance in these games. For this last block here of the season for the future, if we're going to give ourselves the best chance of winning.

on how Frida Maanum is recovering mentally and physically:
Yes, of course, we're not going to disclose any medical findings and so on here publicly. But what I can assure you is that the support around Frida has been phenomenal and the monitoring and the protocols and the testing have been of the highest of standards to ensure both her mental health and wellbeing, but also to ensure a really safe protocol in return to play.

on whether there’s an update on Viv Miedema’s fitness:
Like I said before, just like with the moments in the game, which I can’t tell beforehand, the ones that are going to be game deciding or not. It's the same thing with us when we're trying to get players back. We need to do everything every single day to get our players back on the pitch as quick as possible. She is definitely progressing. She's not available for selection for the Bristol game, but she's back on the pitch, early parts of that. We obviously have more stages to see before she's finalised in being able to return to play, but she's a lot closer now than she was last time I got the update.

on winning the Conti Cup and whether interactions after the final whistle overshadowed the achievement:
That was a real pity because it was obviously such a nice moment for the team and the club to win the second trophy here in two consecutive seasons and in the way that we did it and with players’ performances that I thought was incredible but sort of drowned in the noise. I thought that was a real pity. You have a player like Laia Codina coming in at half-time, she basically doesn’t put a foot wrong in the whole game and has a massive part. You have players like Manuela Zinsberger that pulls off this amazing save in the 85th minute that makes us stay in the game and gives us the opportunity to win it. Lotte Wubben-Moy starting, a rock in the defending line for 120 minutes, Arsenal through and through. There are so many of these individual stories and I thought they performed at a really, really high level. If there is only one thing that I think had some dark shadows over that game is that they didn’t get fully in the spotlight they deserved.

on those final few minutes of the final:
From my perspective, like I said after the game, I’m very happy with the way I conducted myself and emotions are of course high in football. There are two really competitive teams that want to win and sometimes one team tried to stretch the rules and that’s fine, that’s what we have the referees for and they were also doing a very good job in the situation and making sure that we were staying to their agreed rules. So, from my perspective, I wouldn’t change anything.

on if he is surprised by the FA not taking action against Emma Hayes:
Not really anything I’ve thought so much about. Like I said, I thought the comments that I heard after the game were very irresponsible and they were not mirroring the conduct that I had in the technical area. That, I thought, was irresponsible, but that’s basically all I think about it. The other parts, I think when we shake hands after the game, that’s a very minor incident. For me, that’s nothing.

on how he personally felt about the post-match comments:
I think always when you make comments about other persons you have to take into consideration what effects that may have. That’s why you need to be, especially when you’re a leader, you need to be very good with words. You need to understand the consequences of both your actions and your language and that’s why I think it’s really, really important that we treat each other with a lot of respect and that we stay at facts as much as possible and don’t get too emotional. It’s never nice when people say something about you that you don’t find it’s true. Maybe I’m lucky in that situation that everything I do is recorded. So for me it’s not my opinion or someone else’s opinion. Everything is on video, everything is recorded, so I need to be accountable for my actions and that’s what I take responsibility for. In these situations here, I am accountable for that, I’m very happy with the way I conducted myself and I wouldn’t do anything differently if I could re-do it again.

on being banned from the touchline at the weekend:
I have been banned before, many years ago. And it was the same reason: I left the technical area just like I did [for the Conti Cup] with the celebration. At that time, you didn't have yellow cards. That's a very new thing coming into the game that a coach can receive a yellow card so there I got sent off to the stands for leaving the technical area. I was subsequently suspended for the next game. The regulations were very different back then. You were not allowed to have any contact with the team 90 minutes before the game, not during half-time and then it was 90 minutes after the game as well. And of course, it was an away game so I had to step off the bus before we were coming into the stadium. I had to be outside, no contact at all with the team and then had to walk out of the stadium and wait for them to come by with the bus and pick me up on the way back. But we won the game, that was the most important thing! Now it's very different because I am allowed to be in contact with the bench through telephones or radios. I'm allowed to be in at half-time with the team. I'm just not allowed to be on the bench and in the technical area. I’m not allowed to shout but believe or not, I have other ways to communicate other than shouting.

on whether he’s spoken to Emma Hayes since the Conti Cup final:
No.