Interview

‘Lia can control the game and the tempo’

Lia Walti

Lia Walti left us wanting more after a stunning debut performance against Juventus.

The Switzerland midfielder joined us from Turbine Potsdam this summer and delivered a player-of-the-match performance on her debut on Sunday, which came as no surprise to Joe Montemurro.

 

“Lia is a player that I’ve had my eye on for many, many years,” he told Arsenal.com. “It’s a pleasure to have her here as a person and what a bonus it is to have a player of that magnitude playing at Arsenal.

 

“She controls the game, controls the tempo and has no problems if she needs to slow things down or speed things up. She’s a great person. It’s a great opportunity for her to play at a high level and I’m just excited for all of them because they’re going to the World Cup next year.

 

“Systems are for the newspaper and media,” Montemurro added. “We just try to find passing lines and as many options as possible for the player on the ball. As long as the player on the ball has got three of four options to go forward, then we’re going to beat teams because we’re going to have the ball.

 

“Our build up play was great. We’ve worked a lot on the ability to control the tempo and decide when we want to go forward and when we want to find spaces. We were able to control the tempo and Lia especially in the middle does that. Dominique Bloodworth was also fantastic. We’ve worked a lot on that phase of play and I think we saw it against Juventus.”

See Full List

Fixtures & Results

UEFA Champions League
Ticket Info