Maanum relishes competition for places

Frida Maanum believes that squad depth and competition for places can only be a positive as our demanding fixture list continues to roll on.

Maanum, whose two consecutive starts against Lyon and Liverpool were her first of the season, has swiftly staked her claim in the starting XI with dominant performances and a pair of goals to her name. Whilst the Norwegian midfielder appeared in all but one of our league matches last season, her last start in an Arsenal shirt came in the Champions League with our quarter-final clash away to Wolfsburg in March.

"When you're not playing, you always want to play and when you get the chance, you want to take it!" Maanum said. "I just tried to do my best and I felt good in both the Lyon and the Liverpool game."

"I think it's really positive that we have a competitive squad. That's really, really strengthened our team."

Minutes at club level inevitably impact every player's international hopes. Norway's newly-appointed head coach Hege Riise has spoken to Maanum about securing more playing time ahead of the World Cup. Their national side is desperate for tangible improvement following a disappointing Euro 2022 campaign, which included an 8-0 thrashing from England's Lionesses, and crashing out in the group stage after being marked as one of the pre-tournament favourites. 

"[Riise] had that conversation with me. We have a few players in the national team not playing that much at the moment, which is always hard. We spoke a little bit about it, but I'm just trying to do my best every day in training and we get the results from there."

With a relentless playing schedule that requires our Gunners to play at least two games a week, fitness preservation and injury prevention have become more vital than ever. 

Negotiating team selection with a squad bursting with talent is never an easy task, and Maanum appreciates the nuances involved: "When you're younger, you always want to play. But it's always important to understand you have to rest as well. Not only for your fitness but also for your health, because it's really intense to play every third or fourth day. So I think it's really important we have the depth in the squad that we have. That's a strength we have."

"It's obviously hard to play games every third or fourth day, but I think I have the fitness to do it. It's up to Jonas if he wants to play me or not, but I feel like I'm fit to play," she added.

When asked if she's loving her football at the moment, Maanum replied, "Yeah, I am. I'm really happy to be here at Arsenal and also to get game time, which I've waited a long time for."

For the time being, our midfielder has her sights set on the next Champions League test against Zurich: "Every game now is important and we know what we did in Lyon. Then we have to build from there and it's a completely different game tomorrow against Zurich and yeah, we just have to go out there and play our game. We know what we're meeting tomorrow."