Marc Skinner says that every game is a ‘must win’ game for Manchester United ahead of their trip to struggling Everton this afternoon.
The Red Devils go into the match having won just one of their last four matches while there is the incentive of closing the gap on third place after Tottenham Hotspur played out a 1-1 draw with Arsenal in the North London derby yesterday.
When speaking in his pre-match press conference, Skinner said that the importance of the Everton fixture is at the same level as any other with Manchester United wanting to win every single game.
“Of course it is a ‘must win’ game but we try to make them all ‘must win’ games, we never go into a game not thinking that we are trying to win,” Skinner said.
“It is of course against a very good team who are also in transition, they’ve lost their manager, a new one has come in so they’ll try and find their identity and they’ll want to beat us. Almost everybody wants to beat Manchester United regardless of the position in the league or the last performance so we have to prepare for that anyway. ‘Must win’ is our mentality, for that ‘must win’ performance, we must have a ‘must win’ attitude and all of the different things that bring a result.
“We cannot expect to go and play a team like Everton and expect to win, that would just be the wrong place for us to be. We are going to work our styles into the ground with the qualities that we have to show everybody why we should win the game, that’s what’s important for me. Let’s put a ‘must win’ performance in to show everybody exactly where this group is heading.”
Skinner is yet to meet new Everton boss Jean-Luc Vasseur but he has no doubt that the Frenchman will make a positive impact in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League, although it may take him time to implement his ideas on Merseyside.
Skinner said “I don’t know much about him, I’ve watched some of the Lyon games to get a feel and a flavour. I hope he is a great character and I am sure that he will add a lot to the league.
“He will try to make Everton dynamic, they will try to be with the football as much as they possibly can. Looking at their shape, they have a lot of rotational aspects in it so once they get that right, they will be a real difficult challenge. I don’t know how much he will have been able to impact his team in the short term because it’s obviously going to be difficult and it’s following Willie’s (Kirk) ideologies.
“He has come from a winning team and I’m pretty sure that a lot of managers would like to have coached that Lyon team at that time. He is going to be a good addition to the league and I am pretty sure that he will make that team a very good team with the base that Everton are looking to build. I welcome it, it’s another addition to make our league stronger.”
The Barclays FA Women’s Super League fixture between Everton and Manchester United is scheduled to kick-off at 12.30pm. Standing only tickets remain and can be purchased by clicking here.
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