Every word of Renée’s pre-Paris FC press conference

Renée Slegers was back in front of the media for her pre-Paris FC press conference at the Sobha Realty Training Centre on Tuesday.

Our head coach shared the latest team news, looked ahead to our return to UEFA Women's Champions League action and more.

Here's everything she had to say on the following subjects...

on the latest team news: Chloe Kelly is not available. You saw Elisa de Almeida in the background. She's coming back, which is really positive, but no ready for tomorrow yet, and Steph Catley won't travel.

on Kelly’s injury: She's had some issues with her hamstring and no injury. Nothing we could see from an injury perspective, but been managing something, and at the moment, not available to play.

on if that’s why she’s not in the England squad: I think Sarina’s had a press conference this morning and that's between England and the player of course. That's their decisions. I don't know exactly what's being communicated in that moment, but of course that's Sarina’s decision.

on what we take from Sunday’s game against Chelsea: Top game I think on Sunday. Two really strong teams against each other. I think we did a lot of really good things up until their goal. I think we have a more difficult phase at the start of the second half and then towards the end of the game we look to force it. But it is more open towards the end. We can take a lot of positives in the performance from that first 30-40 minutes that we definitely want to continue to build on because I think we dominate in many ways, we put pressure on in many ways and we are close. We all know that. The football that we can play, the aggression that we can have on the pitch out of possession. It's about that final goal.

on getting the balance right between trying different combinations and letting players find their own rhythm: Like I've said before, it's not like it was 20 years ago. These players spent a lot of time together. We spend six days a week together on the pitch and off the pitch as well, so connections are built.

on if it’s a different pressure: Yes, absolutely. It's always looking at the right balance. We always look at what do we see in our environment and what do we see is the best decision on match day when it comes to starters, finishers and everything else. How we want to execute the game. I think that's the decision made based on the information that we possess in the moment.

on if it’s a confidence issue: I don't think I've said it's not confidence. I think confidence is a word that's used a lot. I think it's something that fluctuates. But of course, football is very much a mental game as well. I definitely think the same when the first one comes [we will continue to score]. We know the qualities that we possess and how good this team is. At the moment, it's difficult, of course, but we all believe and I'm really proud of the group as well, how they've been these last couple of weeks. They're so grounded, looking forward, looking for solutions, very high belief, very high support. We know that it will come and we know how good we are when we're unleashed.

on Catley’s injury: She’s managing some back issues, tried, but wasn’t in a good enough condition to perform to her maximum potential.

on what is giving us belief that things are going to click: I see what we’re doing every single day, I see what the players are doing, the quality that they have, the investment that they show, the closeness of where we are, it’s very close. I think just the daily things, the daily conversations with the players, the training sessions, the meetings, everything, they’ve been amazing. Of course we all saw it differently at the start of the season, but like I just said, the way they’ve managed it and everyone here has been really positive, so that’s what’s given me a lot of energy and belief.

on showing signs of resilience against Manchester United and HB Koge: That’s something we really want to build on that we spoke to the players about, this is something we’re going to take into the season with us because we’re going to need this resilience in moments, and I think if you go back to our Champions League journey, the year we won it and now being back in that competition tomorrow again, we so much look forward to it, but that was a big part of why we were successful, it was the resilience and I know that the team has it. So that’s something we really take as a positive and like Georgia said, it will click and when it clicks we’re going to be so good.

on if we’ve not recovered the ball as quickly this season: That's a very specific question, thank you. We want to be able to do different things based on where we see the opportunity against different opponents and I think you've seen that from us, that in different games we've been different in the way we press and how aggressive and how high we are and that's a big part of how we plan for games and where we see the opportunity, what we need to stop and where the opportunities are. It's five games in and I think we've done different things and that's something we pride ourselves on and the players have been amazing as well in the problem-solving, execution of different game plans and looking for the solutions too. Well done, picking that up.

on if we’re trying to get more attacking transitions: Yes, we know that we face mid and low blocks a lot and we have done that specifically in pre-season and we've seen that that's been the start of the season for us as well to see how we can unlock those moments but also use moments when there's more space on the pitch.

on how much our pre-season match with Paris FC helps our short turnaround between games now: It's a short turnaround, we had a really sharp session on the pitch today which was really positive and I think having played them, of course, from a workload perspective and preparation perspective, it's that game you look at but the opposition will do that as well. So I think that's equal in that sense but we know what we're facing tomorrow, we clearly know what we want to try to do against them tomorrow and also what they can expect and what they'll do against us.

on if we’re expecting this to be a different game to our friendly at Meadow Park: I think it's of course, that was a pre-season game, both teams are trying out different things, there's a lot of changes in the game. So yeah, I think the game will be different tomorrow, it will be highly competitive so I don't think it will look similar and of course we've watched that game against Barcelona as well where they scored the first goal and they threatened with that directness which they're really strong at so that's something we'll have to manage really well tomorrow.

on why Borbe started on Sunday: We have two top goalkeepers, well actually three with Isabella [Damm] as a very big talent as well, doing really well in training with Daph still out, but Misa and Neki are very different profiles, like I said top goalkeepers, different profiles. So we are in a position now, like we can do with outfielders too, to say what qualities do we need in this game and who's the best fit. So that's what we've been doing so far and I think they both perform really, really well for us in the games they've played.

on if Kelly was available for selection for England: Yes, so she played, I think England announced her squad today, she played on Sunday, she played 30-plus minutes for us, so at that point she was fit and available.

on if she was still available when the squad was announced: Yeah, like I said there has been conversations yesterday, there's strong alignment between where we're at, between me, Chloe, the medical team, so we've had conversations yesterday and then coming to today, Serena's decision to not select Chloe for England for this game.

on if we can help Kelly get back to her best: Yeah, that was an amazing second half of the season and it was fantastic to see what happened with Chloe coming back to Arsenal and how she connected with the fans, with the club. So a very special moment and then on top of that winning the Champions League. Of course it's number one, starting point for a player is always to be fit and available, that's where it starts and then if you look at the squad that we have right now, it's also about competing for playing minutes and she's doing that. But like I said, at the moment, not fully fit and hopefully she gets back to her best soon.