Should Blackstenius start, instead of Russo, for Arsenal Women v Liverpool?

Does Blackstenius’ hat-trick deserve a start against Liverpool? Jonas Eidevall and his Arsenal Women squad walked away 6-0 winners against Reading midweek, after a completely dominant display. Eidevall rotated a lot of the squad and gave a few girls some extra minutes because it was the Continental Cup, but after such a dominant display, should […] The post Should Blackstenius start, instead of Russo, for Arsenal Women v Liverpool? appeared first on Just Arsenal News.

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Should Blackstenius start, instead of Russo, for Arsenal Women v Liverpool?

Does Blackstenius’ hat-trick deserve a start against Liverpool?

Jonas Eidevall and his Arsenal Women squad walked away 6-0 winners against Reading midweek, after a completely dominant display. Eidevall rotated a lot of the squad and gave a few girls some extra minutes because it was the Continental Cup, but after such a dominant display, should Eidevall be thinking about giving some of these girls a few more starts? Especially players like Stina Blackstenius who managed to bag a hat-trick on the night.

This season Eidevall has made it clear that his number one choice is Alessia Russo to lead the line and I’m not saying that Russo hasn’t been good, because she has, but Blackstenius is producing great numbers and when she’s on the pitch, seems to always be able to find the back of the net.

It does leave us Gooners questioning why she doesn’t get more starts, because she’s clearly good enough and has been scoring goals. If Russo had cost us a bucketload I’d understand feeling the need to play her in every game, but Russo came to us for free, and yes her wages will be good, but does that really warrant playing her over Blackstenius every week?

Maybe Russo is doing more in training and stuff we don’t get to see but from where I’m sitting, Blackstenius should be starting more games than she is, and is making a bigger impact on the pitch than Russo has been, certainly when it comes to scoring goals..

Russo has scored 5 goals and 2 assists (all competitions) and Blackstenius has scored 11 goals (all competitions) and for me, the numbers speak for themselves. We look a much better team with Blackstenius starting and I know a lot of Arsenal Women fans will say “but she’s only starting cup games with weaker sides than the WSL” and I get your point, but I don’t think it matters who the opponent is, she always puts in 100%.

Russo does a lot more off the ball than on the ball and, because she was Manchester United’s best scorer, I think we as Arsenal Women fans all expected her to be finding the back of the net regularly, but we haven’t really seen that yet. Russo is good at linking up plays and is good at turning her back to the goal to create chances for her teammates but is that enough when you’ve got a centre forward scoring almost every game she plays?

In my opinion, I think Blackstenius should be starting our next game against Liverpool. I think it would be rather harsh of Eidevall not to start her after bagging a hat-trick vs Reading. For me, it sort of sets the wrong standards if he does drop Blackstenius for Russo. It makes it seem like it doesn’t matter how well you do, he will stick with his favourites and I’m hoping that’s not the case. So, yes for me, I’d start Blackstenius on Sunday, against Liverpool.

What’s your thoughts Gooners?

Daisy Mae

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