Marc Skinner has said that he ‘apologised’ to Simi Awujo after subbing the Canadian off after only eleven minutes stating that ‘it wasn’t personal’.
That substitution came after Jayde Riviere had been sent off reducing the visitors to 10 players away to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Manchester United held onto a point valiantly in the face of an Arsenal onslaught in the last 40 minutes.
After the match Skinner spoke to the media and The Halfway Line was present to hear from the Manchester United head coach.
Skinner lauds United’s ‘heart and desire’ in draw at the Emirates
Despite playing for over 40 minutes with ten players, Manchester United held on for a point when perhaps, as the stats suggest, they were lucky to come away with a result. Skinner talked through his initial thoughts on how he felt the encounter had gone,
“So if I revisit the game, I felt we started well” Skinner mused.
“I felt then we let Arsenal get momentum, and they took momentum with the second part of the first half. I don’t think we started well enough.
“We just made the changes to get more aggressive with the ball. Hence the reason we brought Simi [Awujo] and Leah [Galton] in, and then we make a mistake by giving the referee a decision to make, which I don’t disagree with.
“So we put ourselves in a hole but look, we have our structural situations, we know how to defend the box, we work on that but it’s also heart and desire, and it’s the will to cover each other, be together.
“So I can promise you, now we don’t do much work on going down to 10 players, because it doesn’t happen often, but we do work on that togetherness in defensive structure, and I think that was the key difference was keeping the clean sheet intact.”
Skinner admits United missed ‘lifeblood’ Ella Toone
Marc Skinner was asked as to the reasons that United were unable to kick on and look a threat going forward after an early chance that was well saved by Anneke Borbe. Helen Jerome of The New Women’s Sport Magazine suggested to Skinner that this might be due to lacking a star turn, like Ella Toone,
“I felt, if we would have been at 11 players for a little bit longer, you’d have seen a bit more rhythm back our way” Skinner replied.
“So of course, we missed Tooney [Ella Toone]. Of course, she’s one of the lifebloods of our team. But I don’t think it was that. I just felt that we’re just about to make changes to gain momentum and then put ourselves on the back foot a little bit.
“So [it is] something we have to learn from. You know, we can’t be doing that, especially in big games, so we’ll have to assess it. But I’m so proud of the way the team reacted from that situation.”
Skinner won’t throw Riviere ‘under the bus’ for red card
Jayde Riviere had a difficult afternoon facing the Arsenal wide players, first Olivia Smith gave her a torrid time before Caitlin Foord brought her afternoon to a premature end. When asked what Marc Skinner thought of the challenge which gave Riviere the second yellow, he replied,
“No, look, I’m with you, it’s not the smartest” said Skinner.
“It’s not, but I’m not going to throw her under the bus. She’s made a decision. It wasn’t the right decision. She’ll learn from it. We’ll learn from it.
“I’ve not seen it yet. I know Jayde, she’ll be devastated. So from our perspective, I’m really happy the way the team responded. But look, she’ll learn. We’ll have words. We’ll learn from it, but yeah, it’s a moment of growth for her, for sure.”
Being ‘transparent’ important in dealing with Awujo substitution
After only being on the pitch for 11 minutes, coming off the bench to effect the play, Simi Awujo was substituted to make way for Hannah Lundkvist. That was following the red card given to Riviere as Skinner looked to solidify his defence. Marc Skinner was asked by Tom Garry of The Guardian, to explain how difficult a conversation with Awujo that will be,
“Yeah, really difficult Tom [Garry], really difficult. So there was the break in the game where Phallon [Tullis-Joyce] did go down and we speak to Simi [Awujo] and say: look, we might be making this decision, we are looking at a couple of options, and then in the huddle at the end, I’ve said to Simi, I apologize, we had to make a tactical decision.
“We put Simi on to be more aggressive in the attacking play, and moving Ziggy [Julia Zigiotti Olme] right, we needed to get Hannah [Lundkvist] on to get the balance of the wide forward, that’s where they were attacking, and then putting Ziggy back into midfield with a more defensive mindset.
“So that was the decision, and that’s from start to finish of the decision. When she came off. I apologized to her personally because it’s not nice and I don’t want to do that to a player, but I also want her to understand that it wasn’t personal. It was just a moment and something that hopefully I don’t have to do again.”
Skinner further explained when asked by The Halfway Line how best to manage the personnel side of that decision,
“I think being transparent, right?” Skinner remarked.
“I didn’t make the decision lightly. I’ve got to make it quickly but I didn’t make it lightly. I said to her before she goes, I want Simi to succeed at Manchester United, look, she’s so talented, but she’s got to grasp it. And I want in this second part of the year to grasp it, especially with Tooney [Ella Toone] out for a little bit.
“So I want to make sure that we, we give her that, and today she, she’s going to learn from because there’s nothing she could have done, because that’s it. It was just a tactical defensive, offensive situation. But I will address it again, and I’ll lay out to her and just be vulnerable, because I think it’s part of modern day leadership.”
Skinner looking forward to Lundkvist’s ‘quality’
The Halfway Line asked Marc Skinner how he felt his new signings had got on with both introduced off the bench in the second half,
“Obviously, [for] Lea [Schüller] it was tough, because she comes on and we go down to 10. She’s got a chase but she shows her work ethic” Skinner said.
“And Hannah, I think within two minutes, she’d done a Maradona turn! So, I mean, it shows the quality that she has.
“She’s a different type of player to Jade [Riviere]. We can build with different structures. She can move into midfield. She’s played there with Sweden. She can be aggressive in the high phase. I’m really looking forward to the quality.
“But more importantly, she came in unfazed into a game where the situation wasn’t ideal, and that shows a lot about the quality of her as a person as well.”
