Manchester United boss Skinner calls for more aggression ahead of League Cup tie

Manchester United head coach Marc Skinner says that his side must be more aggressive with the ball when they face Arsenal in the semi-finals of the Subway Women’s League Cup this evening. The Red Devils travel to Borehamwood to face The Gunners in the last-four. The two sides previously met at the Emirates Stadium in the Barclays Women’s Super League 11 days’ ago, that game having ended goalless. When speaking to the media in the pre-match press conference, Manchester United boss Skinner highlighted the need for attacking improvements this time around. “When we went down to 10 players, it became increasingly difficult but up until that point, we needed to be more aggressive with the ball,” Skinner said. “Thats what I expect from this game; I want us to show our qualities with the ball, we have unbelievable footballers but that doesnt just come from the front, it comes from the back and with the confidence to build and be aggressive. “The game will look slightly different because the pitches are totally different. The Emirates is obviously a huge arena, huge pitch whereas Borehamwood is smaller and tighter, so it does give a different feel to the game. “We have to do things slightly different but I want us to keep the same defensive mentality and I want to see more collectively in attack.” Five different players got their names on the scoresheet as Manchester United defeated Burnley 5-0 in the Adobe Women’s FA Cup fourth round on Sunday. There is increased competition for places, especially in attack, but Skinner says that his job isn’t about keeping his players happy. He said “My job isnt to keep players happy, its to give them opportunity. Happiness should never just be about whether they play or not, it should be about the right opportunity to be able to play. Players come in and out of form but the whole reason why we have gone aggressive in the market in the forward line is because I need variants. “In recent years, weve always had invasion and be able to build and go and invade. We lost that a little bit and so, I wanted to get that back. The whole reason we went aggressive was to be different and have variants. “Its not about me keeping them happy, its about me working with them to keep their happiness around the game. I want them to work hard and Ive seen in training that the finishing has gone up two or three notches because theres natural competition.” Manchester United’s Subway Women’s League Cup tie at Arsenal kicks-off at 7pm. About The Author Daniel Pentland I am the editor and owner of the WSL Full-Time brand which I launched in 2018. I am an accredited journalist with the FWA, SJA and AIPS. I have reported from various levels of men’s and women’s elite football since 2016.