Jonas Eidevall has given his opinion on Northern Ireland manager Kenny Shiels suggestion that women are "more emotional" than men, meaning they are more likely to concede goals in quick succession.
The 65-year-old stated after his side's 5-0 defeat to England in a World Cup qualifier, in which Lauren Hemp scored eight minutes after Ella Toone netted the Lionesses' second and Georgia Stanway managed a brace within the space ten minutes, that part of the reason they had conceded so close together was the emotional state of his players.
"In the women's game, you'll have noticed if you go through the patterns, when a team concedes a goal they concede a second one within a very short period of time," Shiels said. "Right through the whole spectrum of the women's game, because girls and women are more emotional than men, so they take a goal going in not very well."
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The Northern Ireland boss has since apologised for his comments, but still attracted criticism from former Arsenal goalkeeper Siobhan Chamberlain who said: "I think we all know that the five minutes after you concede a goal -- not just in women's football, (also) in men's football -- you're more likely to concede a goal. To just generalise that to women is a slightly bizarre comment."
Gunners legend Ian Wright also took to Twitter to condemn the comments. "Kenny Shiels talking foolishness," the former striker wrote. "Talking about emotional women! Didn't that man see how many times I was crying on the PITCH!"
Now Arsenal Women's boss Eidevall has given his opinion on the controversial comments. "I don’t think it’s true," the Swede said in his press conference building up to this Sunday's FA Cup final with Chelsea.
"From what I’ve learned working in both men’s and women’s football is that there are different people you work with. The different reactions between people and how they react to things are much more individual than gender-specific. I think that’s a much better starting point to look at, the individuals instead of whether they are men or women. I can get pretty emotional also!"
Away from Shiels controversial comments, the game represented the first outing for Leah Williamson since she was named England captain. Eidevall revealed that he was delighted that the Gunners defender had been given the role and backed her to make a success of it. "Very, very happy for Leah," he told football.london. "Proud of her. Wish her the best of luck with that role. I think she’s going to be great at it."
You can follow Arsenal Women's FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea Women on Sunday right here on football.london.
