Lisa Baum

to say the least um no i mean in all seriousness like as expected uh crystal palace came in the heavy underdog and they came in and played defensively and um i mean arsenal ended the match with 30 shots and they couldn't find a goal and it wasn't for lack of trying and you know, it's this thing of like, I think a lot of people see, okay, so a lot of shots in the statistics, why didn't they score? They must've had a bad, like they must, there must've been something wrong instead of like, this was just one of those matches where Crystal Palace literally had everything go right for them on these.

Like, I don't, out of the 30 shots, there's literally two moments where I felt like were genuinely wasteful, moments uh one of them was alessia russo coming on the break lisa bound fed her a great pass set her free i believe this was either end of the first half or start of the second half uh but it was like a great opportunity alessia russo gets behind them on a great pass and she sends it 10 feet wide and it was like you have to hit the target like you have you of all people have to be better there um And the second one I would say is shortly after coming off of the bench, Olivia Smith had a free kick in what was a really good position, like a really nice spot.

And she sent it 20 feet high.

And so it was like, those two moments were really the only moments where I was like, okay, you guys wasted opportunities.

So you can see how it's not even the games against, you know, the other teams in the big three that can be the ones that decide where the lead goes and obviously with Manchester City winning two from two that puts Arsenal and Chelsea to be fair at a disadvantage already what I feel about going into this weekend is looking back at last season's games against Manchester United and I know they're a very different side this year those are both 0-0 games as well so it's slightly foreboding and I hope it doesn't go the same way and I was watching the game from home on the weekend and What struck me was it felt so similar to watching the Arsenal men's team, not of last year, but a couple of seasons ago where teams sat back and they just had no real intensity or idea of how to get a goal and break them down.

The one kind of spark was Lisa Baum on that right-hand side.

And what has been interesting about her is is she's a left footer on the right-hand side.

And I know watchers of the men's game have seen that for years now.

I know that there's the bit of mixed reviews off that.

I think if you're gonna make her that player, or you're gonna make Lisa Baum that player, she needs to get four or five starts in a row.

Like, y- we can't be expecting this team to be able to work with new fullbacks and playing young players in that position and, and changing it a lot because Chloe Kelly and Olivia Smith are, are very different footballers, and the way they play football is very different.

And last week, our biggest issue in that, like, narrow victory was the gelling issue.

Arsenal play out from the back and they do it really quickly.

Mariana finds Onabuehi again like as almost like a left central midfielder.

She goes really quickly to Lisa Baum.

Think the only time Lisa Baum turned up on the left basically in this game.

Georgia Stanway and Kyra began in midfield.

Mariana Caldentey played ahead of them and Lisa Baum and Chloe Kelly supported Alessia Russo in attack.

Lotta gave Arsenal another natural center back alongside Leah and added height against Palace's set pieces, what few of them they were.

With Kyra Cooney-Cross sharing the responsibility of collecting the ball from defense, Georgia Stanway had more freedom to carry it forward and run towards the penalty area.

Lisa Baum moved to the right after starting on the left at Brighton while Chloe Kelly took up her usual position on the left side.

Chloe could hold the width and deliver crosses while Lisa was more likely to move inside and combine with the midfielders.

Mariana drifted between them coming deep to help Kyra and Georgia before appearing around Alessia Russo whenever Arsenal got into an attacking situation.

So a pass might reach its target, but the person receiving the ball barely had time to turn before another defender was straight onto them.