Frida Maanum's football education

What do you remember from your very early days being coached?

I remember quite a lot. I played with the boys until I was quite old at around 13. That was partly because there was no local women’s team but also because, unfortunately, the level with the girls’ teams wasn’t as high back then. I was in a normal club team, but I was also in an academy, where I had some French coaches. That was really tough and probably a tad harsh in terms of teaching!

Their coaching always had a big focus on the small details, playing with the right foot and how you touch the ball. I definitely appreciate that now. I think as a young girl or young boy, you need a good balance. Learning something the hard way is sometimes the best way to learn and make sure it sticks.

That approach may not work for everyone, but for me personally, I definitely got a lot from the way they coached me and the way they taught me on the pitch. That also allows you to handle periods in football or in life where things get tougher because you've been through those kinds of things when you were at a young age.

Who were your early influences? What players did you look up to when you started and why?

I feel like I’ve always been the kind of player who wants to be on the ball and wants to be creative. If you were to watch a game from when I was younger, you’d probably see the same tendency in my game. I think that's been a red thread throughout my whole career.

Since I was young and especially when I went to a football academy for many years, that was the philosophy they focused on: to always be on the ball, try and pass with quality and do something with the ball when you receive it - not just boot it long! So I definitely think that formed my game in many ways, and I think you can still see that on the pitch today.

I remember my early coaches always speaking about Zinedine Zidane a lot, so I guess he became a role model in terms of how he played. But I wouldn't say that I really had one specific idol when I was younger. Looking back, I definitely didn't have any female footballers to look up to because obviously, you couldn't really watch the games on TV.

It’s really sad when you think about what representation would have meant back then, but when you think about it the opposite way, it's good that it is so different these days. It makes me really happy and proud that we have the role we do right now, helping young girls and young boys look up to female footballers in the same way they’ve looked up to male footballers forever.

"It makes me really happy and proud that we have the role we do right now."

Can you pinpoint a stage in your career, or an age group, where you made the biggest leap?

I don’t remember a specific age, but I do remember when I was still playing with the boys. The boys in my team were great and at one point, I was named captain because I’d been there for a long time and had a strong position in the team. But when we’d play certain opposition, there was always chatting beforehand about us having a girl in the team: "On top of that, she’s the captain, so we can win against them blah blah blah..." The kind of things people like that love speaking about.

I was probably around 10 or 11 at the time, and I could tell that the boys around me were getting older and stronger, so that period of time was quite crucial for me. I knew I had to have the technical ability to compete with them because I probably didn't have the strength they had. I had to step up my technical ability to even cope with the competition they had within the team and with the players we played against.

How has training evolved since your first seasons in the sport?

A lot has changed outside the pitch as well. We have pre-activation before a session so we're in the gym for an hour before we even get on the pitch. I think it’s good because you have to take care of your body, especially now we have so many games. We need to have the strength from the gym to be able to cope with a busy schedule.

On the pitch, it’s hard to say how it's developed. I played in Sweden before and the training sessions were different there. I don’t think we did as much tactical work, whereas now, I feel like training sessions are getting more tactical, especially during the season because it's always tight turnarounds.

I think the way the women's game is developing, it’s becoming more similar to the men's game in terms of the tactical shifts game-by-game. We never have long to go through the technical details but it’s important to do. Teams play in such a different way so it’s up to us to switch on and forget about the game that’s gone before as quickly as possible. I think the hardest part of being a footballer is always being able to switch off from that and focus on the next task.

I've learned a lot through experience. I always watch the games back, whether good or bad, either to learn from it and take it with me or move on. I do think that's a big part of resilience in football, as is recovery. And then, where I can, I like to switch off from football a bit as well.

What else did you learn at school that helped in your career?

I'm studying psychology right now so that's really interesting to me. I really enjoy the learning element. Obviously, sometimes I apply it to my job and think about myself and others as professional footballers, but I chose it to focus more on the general side of life.

I’ve always had an interest in psychology which has probably come from my family. My mum was always really interested and my sister is actually a psychologist. I learned a lot from them, and then once you get into it yourself, you read more. Now that I’ve started studying the subject, it’s fascinating how you can help people to feel better.

What will your footballing philosophy be if you go into management?

If I look at my own game, I love when I can play with freedom. I get the keys to unlock that freedom from the coaching staff, because they can help me identify pockets of space to play in or run into, depending on our opponents. I think that those details are really important for players to know. As a 10 or a 9, you do press a lot, so you want it to be purposeful. What's the opponent's weakness, and how can you use your strength to use that against them? That’s how I like to be coached.

It must be a hard balance as a coach because you always want to train the individual as well as help them work within the team. We're privileged to have different coaches at Arsenal who focus on different areas and see you both as a team player and an individual.

We all have different qualities and I think at the end of the day, when we utilise those strengths and when we’re put in the best roles, we perform at our best. Like how Stina runs behind or Caitlin drives inside, or Mariona has the ball at her feet. We have individual strengths so it’s a question of how can they be brought together to make collective strength.

Do you enjoy the analysis side of the game? (And why/why not?)

I definitely enjoy the analysis part of football. I'm not sure yet if I would go into coaching when I stop playing, even though I think I would struggle to not be in a football environment. I've reflected on it and when I’ve played a lot of professional football, I’d love to share my experience and guidance to new players coming up.

I can’t see myself as a head coach, but maybe an individual coach to help players develop within a team. At Arsenal, we have Renee, who's great with us. Together, we go into the finer details of how you can really develop as a player. I find that part of coaching quite interesting.

Who in the current squad would make the best manager in future and why?

I'd go for Steph Catley. She's calm, she's clever, and I think she'd find good solutions to put a team together in a good way. Steph already has the leadership experience, having been the captain for Australia's national team and she plays a big role here at Arsenal, too. So I think she would be a good coach.

What can football learn from other sports?

That's a hard question because I don't really know how other sports operate in terms of coaching. I haven't been at a high level in any other sport.

What do you wish you had known earlier in your career?

To enjoy it even more, to take every chance you have when you're on the pitch and to not take football too seriously. There’s a balance, of course, but when something gets too serious, you take away the joy from it, and that is the most important thing to me. That would have been a good thing to have known when I was younger.