Interview

‘She’s always willing to keep her standards high’

Viki

Following a standout 2019/20 campaign, Joe Montemurro is delighted that Viktoria Schnaderbeck is staying with the club.

Our head coach snapped her up from Bayern Munich back in the summer of 2018, and now he’s only expecting bigger and better things as she enters the prime years of her career.

Here’s what Montemurro had to say:

on Schnaderbeck signing a new contract…

I’m really delighted to have Viki stay with us. She’s obviously a player of great pedigree and really coming good towards the season that’s just been completed. We’re really looking forward to her being an important player for us going forward in big games.

on her qualities that match his philosophy…

Attitude and professionalism are two great words that are synonymous to the type of player she is. She’s a really experienced professional who is always willing to work for the team and go that extra mile to help someone out, so she really personifies what we’re trying to achieve and she’s also an amazing character. She’s an amazing person and she’s always willing to test her standards and keep those standards high, so we’re ecstatic to retain her at Arsenal.

on her best position…

I think she’s definitely best in the central defence area where she’s good at constructing and building play, but she’s also very, very good in the phases of non-possession when we need to organise and set up for transition moments that could be a problem when the other team has the ball. One on one she’s very good and in set plays she’s very effective too, and with the ball she’s very intelligent in picking the moments of when we can go forward or when we need to prepare to go forward. She suits our style to a tee and we’re really looking forward to seeing the best of her.

on what discussions looked like and whether the best of Schnaderbeck is still to come…

It hasn’t been the standard ‘come in and let’s have a chat in the office’ and all the normal processes, so obviously everything has been done online and we’ve hosted all our discussions and negotiations there. Viki was one we targeted knowing that she was running out of contract, but we really wanted to give her the opportunity to take the next step and obviously she was hampered with injuries in year one and we didn’t get to see the best of her, but now from a conditioning perspective going forward we think we’re going to see the best of Viki and we’re really looking forward to it.