Manchester United boss Marc Skinner was full of praise for his team after they opened their Barclays Women’s Super League campaign with a 3-0 win over West Ham.
Several summer signings made their debut at Old Trafford as the Red Devils ran out comfortable winners, with goals from Geyse, Leah Galton, and Grace Clinton sealing the deal.
Skinner told reporters it was “the perfect start.”
What did Marc Skinner say?
Embed from Getty Images“I thought was a very good performance. The first few games, I think we saw last night, there’s little things teams are going to work out and it takes probably four or five games to do that. So to come here and be as dominant as we were – we conceded some chances which of course you’re going to in this league – but I felt we were pretty dominant and probably could have had a couple more. Overall I’m really happy.”
The match saw debuts for several of the summer’s new signings including Dominique Janssen, Elisabeth Terland, Simi Awujo, and Celine Bizet. Anna Sandberg missed out due to what Skinner described as a “niggle” in training, but said he expects her to return in time for next weekend’s contest with Everton.
On Terland’s debut, Skinner said: “She’s going to be an incredible footballer for our club, I have no doubt about that. I think goals will absolutely come for her.
“I felt her pressing was excellent today, she really led the line and she had a couple of chances I’m sure we’ll assess in the week and she’ll want to have done better on, but I asked her just to enjoy herself today.”
Winger Geyse opened the scoring – after a mixed season last year, fans will hope she continues that goalscoring form throughout the campaign.
Skinner remarked: “Geyse hasn’t got to prove anyone anything.
“She came in with four or five days left of our preseason last year didn’t speak English. this year she’s learned about the people, she’s learned about the language, she’s now in a space where I see her smiling. And if we have a Geyse that is smiling, we’re going to have a Geyse that is deadly.”
Embed from Getty ImagesIt was also a first WSL start in red for Grace Clinton, who spent last season on loan at Tottenham Hotspur and made a perfect start today with a goal at the Stretford End. Skinner said: “She looked excellent, I was really pleased. With Grace coming home it gives us ability to unlock pockets with Tooney, obviously with Hini (Miyazawa) as well with those qualities she has. I think what it does is it opens up the way we can play.
“She played like a senior pro today – I felt she wasn’t in awe of the situation, she wasn’t in awe of the stadium.”
Old Trafford was emptier than had been hoped, with fans seated only in the Sir Alex Ferguson stand. For the opening weekend of the season, some felt the attnedance was disappointing – however, Skinner remained positive.
“The reality is we play in front of any Manchester United fan that is here. We’re a young club that’s growing, we want to grow to eventually being able to sell this stadium ot. but I hope that everybody that came and enjoyed it today will come back because they’ve seen a dominant performance, a dominant win. Three points, clean sheet – it’s the perfect start.
“For us in the future we hope to have that many fans, that we’re that exciting to come and watch, that we could sell out an Old Trafford – whatever that looks like in future.”
Proceedings started with a touching tribute to Ella Toone’s father, who recently passed away just days before his 60th birthday. Fans applauded for Nick Toone, who Skinner called “somebody that will go down in history for this club.”
“From my perspective it was the least we could do. I thought (Toone) was brave beyond belief today.”
On aspects of the performance that could improve, Skinner said: “I think depth of our line was a little bit too deep at times, in terms of there was a bit of a stretch between units – that I’d expect, nothing that is too major.
Embed from Getty Images“I would imagine that Everton are a totally different style of team to West Ham so it’s just about unlocking what they give us with the fantastic tools and skill sets of the players that we have.”
After saying in his pre-match press conference that he wanted to improve the team’s play in transition, Skinner reflected: “I felt at times we were open, I felt we got our pressing angles wrong at times and it allowed the team to switch play on us but I also felt that at times we got that really right.
“I felt that today we had a nice balance of – even if we make a positional error, we can recover. And that is the game, because transition is the most uncontrollable part of the game. And with the players we have now, I feel that we can control that a lot better.”
Follow reaction to all this weekend’s WSL fixtures here on FromTheSpot.
