Man United head coach Marc Skinner urges his side to remain focussed on the challenge of Tottenham, following a tough loss midweek in the Champions League.
It’s a welcome return to league action for Manchester United this weekend as they welcome Tottenham Hotspur to the Progress With Unity stadium. The Red Devils are in the midst of some winter blues, losing heavily in the Champions League – 5-2 to Wolfsburg and 3-0 to OL Lyonnes – and surprisingly in the Women’s Super League (WSL) to both Aston Villa and Manchester City.
Before they head into the winter break, Marc Skinner’s side are in need of some positivity – and, as the head coach admits, reinforcements – but are up against a Spurs side that are one of the league’s most in form teams. The Halfway Line were in attendance as Skinner discussed the job new Spurs coach Martin Ho has been doing, and what United need to do to “get to our standards and our levels”.
Man United must be ‘focussed’ to face Tottenham
The Tottenham heading to Manchester seem a far cry from the team who lost seven of their last ten games in the league last year. They have won six of their opening ten games this season, including a statement 1-0 win over Brighton and a hard-fought 0-0 draw with Arsenal. Asked for his thoughts on Sunday’s opponents, Skinner was complimentary. Skinner said he hopes his team are ready and focused but remains confident of his team’s quality.
“Tottenham are in a good run of form, so we need to make sure we are ready,” Skinner said. “We know that the challenges that we’re going to face but we need to be focused.”
The London side started the season under new management: Robert Vilahamn was let go earlier in the summer, with Martin Ho – a familiar face in the WSL – taking the reins. Skinner noted the difference between Vilahamn’s Spurs and Ho’s being to do with “the way they press”.
“The energy that they will commit to it,” Skinner assessed. “I think we’ve got to focus on that and try and stop that as much as we can. I think it’s press aggressiveness and being able to to impact that and try and play through it as much as we can.”
He expanded on the differences to include the defence. Spurs conceded five goals against Arsenal back in February, whilst holding them to a clean sheet last month.
“I think where you’re shown the real impact is, they are more defensively solid. I think under Robert, they were really attacking really aggressively, but now with Martin he’s solidified that [the defence] while still playing good football. I think I expected that knowing Martin the way I do – I expected them to have that balance.”
Skinner explains heavy rotation in Man United’s midweek Lyon battle
Following the 3-0 loss against Lyonnes, some criticised Skinner for ‘over-rotating’ his team, leaving big names such as Ella Toone, Dominique Janssen, Julia Zigiotti Olme and Elisabeth Terland on the bench. Many said this may have been to prioritise the weekend’s WSL game against Spurs. Asked for his thoughts on this criticism, Skinner chuckled.
“When I don’t rotate people question ‘why I didn’t rotate?’, when I do rotate they question, ‘why did I rotate?’ What you have to do in these moments is – I see the players day in day out every training session. Every day, I see who’s physically at it, who’s mentally at it?”
“It’s not about prioritising any particular game,” the head coach justified. “You know, we were playing Lyonnes, but what I do need to do is, for example, in the front areas, we have a limited selection. So you have to make sure that you have different types of game plans. So there was no way that we were just saving ourselves for Tottenham.”
Despite this criticism, most fans likely share the sentiment that Skinner has little real choice when it comes to rotation due to a general lack of depth in United’s squad. For example, up front, Terland has had to start almost every game – and there is only 37-year-old Rachel Williams to back her up, or Melvine Malard playing out of position.
In every media conference, Skinner asserts that United need reinforcements, and this one was no exception.
“We are already hopefully close to a couple of players, which I think could be exciting. We need to we need to be creative within the parameters, but what I’d say is we need to add to the group,” he said, laughing as he added that “I think I’ve said this all through, I think everybody said it, haven’t they?”
“There’s a plan, there’s a focus, hopefully we’re close to a couple. And if we can bring more in that, that would be nice.”
Skinner says Man United need to be ‘confident with the ball’
Pressed for further information on what he means by “reaching our standards and levels”, Skinner shared that he hopes to see his team be “aggressive with the ball.” He added that there was a “20-minute period in the second half against Lyonnes where we passed through them. We took them on, we faced them all.”
“We were confident with the ball – [but] you can’t keep that up for 90 minutes but I want to see that against Spurs, where we take the ball, either attacking or defensively, and do it with confident actions.”
“If we get back to who we are and understand who we are in every moment, we can really hurt everyone we play against. So that’s what I want to see, I want to see us take Spurs on on Sunday and not be passive in any moment and try to be really aggressive with them without the ball. If we can do that, I think most teams can’t deal with us.”
