Skinner: We need to be more attacking

Skinner: We need to be more attacking

Marc Skinner says his side need to “attack more” in Manchester United Women’s game against Leicester City at the King Power Stadium on Sunday.

The Reds remain unbeaten in the Barclays Women’s Super League – one of three teams alongside Manchester City and Chelsea – but two draws in a row have left the team wanting more from themselves.

This weekend we take on a Foxes side who have lost their last two league matches but have been strong in defence, so far this season.

Skinner spoke to the press ahead of the weekend’s clash about performances, what we want to improve and also gave updates on the injury front.

WE HAVE TO FOCUS ON PERFORMANCE

“I think the reality is that we all know, at Manchester United, we’re judged by results and performances. It’s a nice measuring stick, of course. We’ve said this and I’ll say it again – fans are entitled to their opinion. That’s why they pay the money. It’s the beauty of our fantastic, huge club. The reality is we’ve agreed as a team that probably the performances in the last two games haven’t been quite where we want them to be but, defensively, they have. We need to be more attacking, so it’s something we’re focusing on as a team.

“I think we need to improve that and that’s something we’re going to be working hard to do. There’s always noise – good, bad, indifferent. You have to focus on performance and that’s what we’re going to get back to doing. We’re still unbeaten. We’ve taken the draws, which is obviously not what we want, but we’re still unbeaten and we need to make sure we have a good performance against Leicester and that’s our focus.”

OUR ATTACKING STATS HAVE DIPPED

“I think what’s happening is we’ve seen the league change literally before our eyes. You can see a big shift in  investment throughout the summer but, actually, we’re seeing the league get closer. I think, statistically, it’s getting closer. I’m not really surprised because every team’s getting better. We can still control some of that, so we’re really honest with each other as staff and players and we want to be more attacking. I think our attacking stats have dipped.

“We’ve structured ourselves a little bit differently. We have to get back to who we are. We have to evolve and we’re trying different things, but we have to get back to who we are and we have to attack. Defensively, we’ve been fantastic. We’ve got five clean sheets in seven games, so we know that’s a good part but the league is getting better and we’re seeing that week on week. We have to now get back to winning ways and that’s something we’re going to have a real focus on.”

WE’VE GOT TO BE BRAVE

“[Leicester City] don’t concede many. Every game has been really tight. You’ve got to stop their counters because they’re very effective at those. We’ve got to be brave with the ball. We’ve got to be braver because that’s who we are. So we’ve got/ to attack. We’ve got to invade because I think there will be limited spaces, you’ve got to go quick and we’ve got to be good with the ball. If we do that, then, you know, we cause every team problems. We know that. It just naturally happens when you have different players coming in and out. You just have to take a while to click.”

THE SPINE IS DIFFERENT

“From my perspective, when we talk about a new team, you have key positions on the field which control the focus point. Phallon [Tullis-Joyce] is now the number one goalkeeper, who I think has been fantastic. You’ve got Gabby [George] coming back. You’ve got Jayde Riviere is now playing in the games we wanted to play. We’ve got Dom [Janssen] in central midfield, we’ve got Terry [Elisabeth Terland]. So your spine is totally different and that’s where the adaptations are. We’re seeing fantastic things from that. We’re seeing really great defensive actions from that, but it just takes a little bit of time to do that.

“There’s no excuses. Let me be clear on that. There’s no excuses to say it’s a new team isn’t an excuse. It’s a reality of having adaptations that you’ve got to fix on the fly. With pre-season, we’ve probably have had about 12 games together. So if you look at it, it’s not a whole new team, but it’s got new aspects. So that’s where you’re finding the adaptation. But what I’ve been really impressed with, we’ve still got the same togetherness, but we need to attack better. That’s tthe thing as a whole collective. That’s not my forwards, that’s the whole team have to attack better and we’ve agreed that as a staff and as a playing staff. So from my perspective, it’s not necessarily about it being a whole new team, but it has adaptations and you have to be wary of those.”

INJURY NEWS

“Lisa [Naalsund] is going to be out of this game, she will probably miss the next two and we will see where  she’s at after the international period. She has a small issue with her foot so she’ll probably miss the next three games and, hopefully, be back after the international break. Then Leah [Galton] has been training on the field. If it’s not Leicester, we’re hopeful for Everton, but the next couple of days will tell us that. Anna Sandberg will be back in the squad.”

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