Manchester United Women manager Marc Skinner has been talking to the press before the Red Devils’ massive clash with Chelsea in the Women’s Super League on Wednesday night.
With just three league matches remaining, United are four points clear of Manchester City and a win would guarantee a top three finish this season.
It is also a dress rehearsal for the FA Cup final next month against the Blues.
The official Manchester United website carried comments from the press conference and Skinner revealed he is aware of the challenge of United’s end to the season.
“It would be lovely (to secure a top three place on Wednesday) but I don’t think football works like that. In reality we have to prepare that these are three games that we have to try and win. It doesn’t matter, regardless of the result against Chelsea. Of course we want to try and win the game but even if we don’t we have to try and beat Manchester City and we have to try and beat Arsenal.”
“We have to go full throttle in all the games. We know it’s tough, we know it’s a real challenging end to the season but that’s why we’re here.”
Commenting on the game earlier in the season, which United lost 1-0 in London he said, “we know what we did last time, we know what worked, but we also know what we have to do differently to try and get a positive result.”
He praised his side’s ability to defend but claimed that his team were a little bit passive on the ball and this is something they will look to improve on this time around.
“We can’t just defend this game and hope for a win, we’ve got to try and beat them by attacking them.”
The 42 year old also claimed he would use FC Barcelona’s 8-2 aggregate win over Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final as a template.
“Barcelona players are probably the best in the world at what they do, but they’ve attacked and created many chances. I think you have to do that against Chelsea.
“You have to be good, you have to have a little bit of luck on the day, but I think for us we have to get the balance between attack and defence and that’s the key learning going into this game.”
Whilst he did praise Chelsea’s “abundance of talent”, he claimed his United side could beat anyone on their day and that is what they intend to do on Wednesday.
The manager also took time to praise his goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce, who signed a new deal last week to keep her at the club.
He paid her the highest compliment by stating, “I believe, with her in goal, we’ll win things.”
The manager expressed his delight that she had signed a new deal and lauded her further by claiming, “you have key players as a manager and, for me, Phallon is a key player. She’s a fantastic goalkeeper but also a fantastic person. I need to stress that every time we talk because I want to build a team of solid, fantastic players, but also fantastic people.”
Finally Skinner touched on the importance of developing players at the club as they can’t go out and spend a million on one footballer like some other clubs.
“We have to be prepared to work with players, make them better, grow with them.”
Featured image Ben Roberts Photo via Getty Images
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
