Jonas Eidevall has admitted that the injury to Vivianne Miedema increases the need for Arsenal to be active in the January transfer window, emphasising the importance of having a strong squad to tackle the high fixture demands in the second half of the season.
Miedema suffered a rupture to her ACL during the Gunners’ defeat to Lyon in the Champions League on Thursday evening. The Netherlands international is the second Arsenal forward in the space of a month to sustain such an injury, after Beth Mead was also sidelined with an ACL rupture in November.
Having added three key players in the January window of 2022, Eidevall is hopeful of being similarly active this time around.
“Does Viv’s injury alter [transfer plans]? A little bit it does,” the Arsenal manager said. “It makes the need for us to be more active in the January transfer window, of course it does. I hope we can be active – it’s about finding the right players.
“But we have to take into consideration that I think we play seventeen games here before Christmas, and if we succeed in all competitions that we do, I think we can end up playing 26 matches from January to May, so of course we need to have a squad that can handle 26 matches in a pretty limited amount of time, so it’s a pretty important transfer window for us.”
Eidevall admitted ahead of the new season that he was after one further player in the summer transfer window, and long-term injuries to both Miedema and Mead have increased the necessity for the Gunners to bring in more bodies.
With injuries forcing Arsenal’s hand somewhat in this window, the Gunners boss admitted it was important to strike a balance between securing a short-term solution to an injury problem, while adding someone who can bring long-term value to the club.
“I think when you’re looking at things in a shorter term, sometimes you have to see what’s also available and the timing of that,” Eidevall added. “Sometimes I have to adapt my ideas as well but of course whenever we can have long term targets and we feel that someone can contribute for many seasons for Arsenal, of course that’s a priority.
“But the most important thing is that we have a really competitive squad here in January so we can go and compete in all competitions that we take part.”
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