United Women without three players for Liverpool test

United Women without three players for Liverpool test

Marc Skinner joked that it would take him “10 minutes to get a word in” during Friday morning’s meeting ahead of Sunday’s Women’s Super League game against Liverpool.

Ahead of the fixture, Skinner spoke to the press about the positive team environment, reflected on the season so far and gave an update on our injured players, including Ella Toone.

PLAYERS BUZZING TO BE BACK TOGETHER“It’s greatly important to us [to see our players playing well in the international break]. In a three-game week you always get a dip off at the end of the week, naturally, because it’s the last game of that block. So I think trying to balance the minutes, trying to balance the right blend in the team in each game, because all three games are different… I think that’s hugely important. When they play well on international duty, they should bring that buoyancy back into the club. 

“I know what I’ll get this morning: I will walk into the meeting room ready for our team meeting, and it will take me 10 minutes to quieten them because they literally will love coming back into the environment and love speaking together. It always happens and that’s something that tells you a lot about them. We need to take that energy into Liverpool.”

WHAT WE NEED TO IMPROVE“We want to create more. I think when we came off the back of the Villa game, we went into the Leicester game and obviously then we increased that shot ratio. It’s something we’ve got to do – that we won’t hide from. We want to improve that. It’s not about being defensive about that. It’s about actually going: ‘What does it look like with the personnel that we’ve got?’ We’re still finding little connections and [learning about] where we keep the ball versus when we invade.

“We can always be braver in every game. Whether you get 20 shots, you can then try and get 25. We want to be more attacking, of course we do, and that’s something we’ll continue to look at. I’m sure we are getting back to where we want to be. I think it’s a balance between all-out attack and then having to balance the defending. So I think we’re learning. We’re going to make sure that we improve that. It’s something we looked at over the last two weeks, and we’ll continue to put it into our performances.”

WE HAVE TO GET OUR STANDARDS QUICKLY“Liverpool are slightly different than they were last season. They’ve always been good, defensively strong, solid defenders of the box. What they’ve added in is counter-attack speed quality. Watching Olivia Smith and watching Leanne Kiernan work together, they’ve been very good. I expect a tough opponent as it always is with Liverpool, with Matt Beard’s teams always. We have to get to our standards quickly. It’s after an international week so I think both managers get their players for two days.”

WE’RE PROUD OF INTERNATIONAL EXPLOITS“[Wales qualifying for the European Championship] is a bittersweet one for us, because we’ve got elation and then we’ve got obviously Aoife [Mannion] who will feel terrible. It was probably the most balanced game in both legs that you’re probably going to get in a qualifier. So I think you saw the celebrations afterwards.

TOONE OUT UNTIL NEW YEAR

“I think Jayde [Riviere] was [taken off against Canada] more as a precaution. She’s been assessed this morning. Elisabeth [Terland] is available for the squad. She’s passed fitness this week, so she’s been training. We have Ella [Toone], Lisa [Naalsund] and Aoife [Mannion] who will miss this game. I’d say Ella and Lisa will miss until the new year, whereas Aoife could be available for one of the games this week. Everybody else should be fit. We’re just waiting for them all to still come back in.”

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