Marc Skinner on Man Utd Women improvements: Finding ways to win, growth moments against Arsenal and Reading and defensive solidity | Football News

Sitting down with Marc Skinner five months ago ahead of the 2022/23 Women’s Super League season, the Manchester United manager had a clear plan for how he wanted his team to improve.

“I took all of last year to assess where we’re at, and so I’ve made seven changes this year, bought seven players in and the whole idea is that I want to have different ways to win,” he exclusively told Sky Sports in August.

“Maybe we fell short on that last year, and there’s an amazing statistic that if you had ended the game in the 60th minute, we’d have won the league.

“The last third of the game, we have to be better and I had to make different changes at different times. We’ve recognised that and that’s why this squad needed injection and it brings a lot of competition.

“So the squad is in a good space, the players are hungry and I want this team to be the most hungry team in the league.”

Skinner is certainly a man of his word. Man Utd are in the mix for the WSL title this time around, going head-to-head with the two biggest women’s teams in the country – Arsenal and Chelsea – and are currently second in the table.

Seeing out games, as well as finding ways to secure three points in matches they dominated was the key for Man Utd. Having had the highest number of different scorers in the WSL this season (14), Skinner is pleased to have found those solutions.

“I’m very impressed with the ways we have found to win games,” he said ahead of Man Utd’s trip to Tottenham on Sunday, live on Sky Sports.

“There are many ways we can score goals, so it’s harder to defend one certain way. You’ve got to be on your game to defend against us. We can go one vs one in wide channels, we can cross early, we can cross late, we can cut back. We can drive one vs one in the box, we can score from set pieces. We have players with the individual ability to score from the edge of the area, inside the area, headers, volleys – we’ve got a whole variety of ways of scoring.

“I’ve been really impressed because that’s what we tried to recruit so I feel we are in there. The last two games haven’t been as fluid as we usually want to be, but we’ve created 70-odd chances in the last three games. As the statistics form, they will put us in good stead to win many more games.

“We are happy that we are scoring beyond the shot level we’re making at the minute, but we’ve still got to creating more chances. We have the players who can score and score big and we have to keep putting that into practice.

“One thing I am very pleased with is the fact we are limiting opponents to the least quality chances and I think we’re the best in the league at doing that. That shows a real collective as a group.

“So not only are we creating chances and converting maybe more than we are producing at the minute, but we are actually at the other end with opponents finding it hard to break us down.”

Perhaps one of Man Utd’s defining moments of the season so far was a 3-2 win against Arsenal at the Emirates in November. It followed a bruising 3-1 defeat to Chelsea in their previous WSL game, with Skinner’s team showing their mettle to win after going behind.

He describes it as a “big growth moment”, also pointing to results against Reading and Sunderland to demonstrate just how United are solving the problems they face in matches.

Discussing the Arsenal result, Skinner reflected: “I think it was a sign of the psychology of the players that they were not going to give up from going behind and we started to play better football at that point.

“The game before, against Chelsea, we were disappointed that we waited until we were 2-0 down to wake up and you don’t get that chance in big games like that. After Katie McCabe headed in Arsenal’s second, I saw the players come together and they were like ‘no, we’re not accepting this’. That was a huge growth for us.

“I saw it against Reading where we are 0-0 against a team that are deep blocking for their lives and we find a way, that was another moment. Against Sunderland in the FA Cup, we were dominant and they scored from a header from nothing and then we play again, so I’ve seen three really big growth moments from us.

“But I’m so impressed with how we are now driving teams to defending deeper against us. We are dominating so many different ways in the game and we’ve got to a point where a team like Everton, who I think are a really good team with good players and a good manager, they’re celebrating a draw against us. That’s a big signpost of how far we’ve travelled.

“Now, we’ve got lots more to do – we’re nowhere near finished and nowhere near done. We have to keep putting those results against Arsenal into practice when we play the big games, but also in every game because we’ve already seen at the weekend when we drop points, Arsenal drop points and they’re almost the same as us where they create so many chances.

“It’s a tough league and even Emma [Hayes, Chelsea manager] said it after her game, there’s much more to come yet. There’s much more to see before we think anything is decided this year.”

How consistency and the collective have improved Man Utd’s defence

While goals have not often been Man Utd’s problem – they have scored the second-highest number of goals this season – there were questions marks over their defence last term. It comes as no surprise given their struggles in seeing out games, with their back line often changed for due to injury and other factors.

However, there has been a positive shift in the current campaign. United are one clean sheet away from matching their tally from the previous two seasons (10), and have conceded the joint-fewest goals in the WSL so far (6).

They have made the fewest changes (8) and used the fewest number of players (20) in the WSL this season too, with Skinner now settled on a back four of Ona Batlle, Maya Le Tissier, Millie Turner and Hannah Blundell with Euro 2022 winner Mary Earps in goal. The stopper has recently been shortlisted for the FIFA Best Women’s Goalkeeper award.

Skinner has named the same five players in the last six league outings, with the backline last changed for the defeat to Chelsea.

“If you ask any coach around the world, it’s about the consistent message a player gives you,” Skinner said. “Last year, the amount of variance in our backline based on injury, based on the illness that Millie had, it affected the continuity of the defence and the messages they give to each other.

“We all talk about tactics and techniques and there’s chemistry in football. If you work together for a long time, you know exactly how each other work. For me, that consistency breeds it in our performances and that’s exactly what’s happened.

“If you watch where we press, I think we are highest in the league for early regains, so the amount of passes an opponent has before we put pressure on or regain because we work as a team. We are a collective, we always will be, we are Manchester United and we are united as a team.

“That’s why our defence has everybody in front of them to help, but when they do get to our defence, we have key decisions makers, we have clean decisions. We have worked on positioning within the box from the opponents opportunities.

“And then after that, we have Mary, who I just unbelievable. And even Sophie Baggaley [Man Utd’s No 2 goalkeeper], who when she comes in, the growth that she has had, you’ve not really able to see because Mary has been excellent as well. Put all of those together and it gives you the statistics we see in front of us.”

Much too has been made of Le Tissier’s rise as a starting Man Utd centre-back and England international at the age of just 20. She has been named in Sarina Wiegman’s last two Lionesses squads and will be hoping to secure her spot at this summer’s World Cup.

Discussing his defender, Skinner said: “Maya has this unshakable attitude to football. She was an ever-present for Brighton, which is really unheard of for a young player to play that consistent amount of minutes.

“She already has a platform of knowing who she is and that’s why she can deliver the quality. We still expect more from her and she’s going to continue to grow. You’re going from a Brighton model where they don’t have as much possession as us to a team that does have a lot of possession and is probably shutting down more counter-attacks – it shows she’s adding more qualities to her game.

“She has the tools with the ball and without the ball to be an excellent, top defender. You can imagine if she’s performing as well in this season, just the growth she has. It’s exciting not only for Man Utd fans, but England fans going forward.”

‘We must negate Tottenham’s threats’

Skinner and Man Utd will be hoping all of these aspects are implemented when they head to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday live on Sky Sports, playing the opening weekend fixture that was rearranged after the death of The Queen in September.

However, despite it being Skinner’s first trip to the impressive arena in north London, he remains focused on the task in hand against a team who are looking to end a to a six-match losing streak in the WSL. They have not won since beating Brighton 8-0 in October.

“The occasions are just another game for us,” Skinner said. “I’m led to believe the stadium is beautiful so it’ll be great to experience that – but it won’t be great to experience that if we don’t perform at it. We get to a point as professional players that the grandeur of the event around it gives us nothing if we don’t perform.

“So we will go in ready to perform against a team that, while they haven’t got the results they would probably want, the investment is there and what Rehanne is trying to do is clear.

“So we’ve got work to do and I want a performance like we’ve put in for the last six or seven games – that’s what we need against Tottenham. They are very good and we need to negate what they have, but put in effort to try and win this game.

“I look at the Chelsea game [Spurs were beaten 3-2 in their last WSL game] and they scored two against the champions – and that’s no mean feat. I look at Drew Spence’s ability to beat players one vs one and her ability to attack, Bethany [England] is a proven goalscorer in this league, Mana [Iwabuchi] and her ability to link play. [Celin] Bizet is a really good attack-minded player, and I’ve worked with Shelina [Zadorsky] and Amy [Turner] at Orlando, so their ability to shut out and be a tight defence is also there too.

“They have many difficult players to play against, but we believe in ourselves and if you don’t, you’ll win nothing anyway going forward. We will put a game plan together, formulate it and try to exact it as best we can against a really good opponent in their home stadium.

“What is for sure is the Man United fans in the away end will create a massive noise and gee us up to give the extra bit to win the game.”

‘A revolution coming with female coaches’

Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall recently lamented the lack of female coaches in football, particularly in the Premier League, calling them an “under-tapped resource”.

Tottenham’s Rehanne Skinner is one of just four female managers or head coaches in the WSL, but Man Utd boss Skinner is hoping to lead the way towards what he describes as a “revolution” of women’s coaches.

“I’ve tried to [use female coaches] wherever I’ve been,” he said

“Leanne Hall, who has just left Arsenal, was my assistant at Birmingham. Tanya Oxtoby, who is now at Chelsea, and Gemma [Davies] who is now at England and was Aston Villa manager, they were with me at Birmingham. At Man Utd, Charlotte Healy has come up from our kids section and done a wonderful job nurturing the youth there and is coming up to work with us as assistant coach.

“It’s imperative, it’s part of my job. My partner [Laura Bassett] is an ex-senior England international so I know my role in the game is to help support that, to even give them a to take our jobs in the future.

“From my perspective, I’ve worked to be in the role I’m at. The people I work with and I’m attracted to working with, female or male, work for what they do. I see so much talent in the women’s game coaching wise. The best coach in the league for years has been Emma Hayes, right? It’s just a sign of the times and the things are changing.

“I’m happy to be a part of that because I think soon enough, we’ll have a revolution.”

While the revolution for female coaches may take some time to bring to fruition, Skinner has and continues to radically change Man Utd as they aim for their first WSL title.