Manchester United head coach Marc Skinner says that his side will be given plenty of space in the final third by West Ham United but they must earn the right to explore those areas.
The Red Devils face The Hammers at The Leigh Sports Village this afternoon in what is their last home game of the season. The visitors are known for their unique playing style but Manchester United boss Skinner has highlighted where that game plan could benefit his side.
When speaking to FAWSL Full-Time ahead of the match, Skinner said that West Ham United will offer his side attacking spaces, although they must earn the right to progress into those spaces.
“West Ham United have a unique way of playing which can also be a bit off the cuff as well, they work more to their principles than their structure,” Skinner said. “They can attack with two central players, they can have a 10 than roams, they can have 10s that join the back-line quickly, their wing-backs are high and wide all of the time so they have structure but they have some movement in that structure.
“They are a harder team to pick up and your players have to take responsibility. If they do that, West Ham will leave lots of spaces, I have no doubt about that, lots of attacking spaces for us to get into but we’ve got to earn the right to get into those.”
Following last weekend’s goalless draw at Aston Villa, Manchester United’s European qualification hopes are now hanging by a thread. Skinner said that it is a case of where his side can improve going forward rather than where they have fallen short.
He said “I would definitely class it as where we need to improve rather than falling short,” Skinner said. “Our team give everything and I am really happy with where they are at. We would like to have put to bed more games, we learnt early in the season that we have to put games to bed when we are on top. We have experience of that now and we can say ‘look what happened when you drew a game at the start of the season, it can affect what happens at the end of the season’. It seems really strange to say it because we all know that but to remind you in the moment makes you concentrate extra hard.
“The way that the players have acquitted themselves this year has been excellent. Even in all of the draws, we have mostly been in control of those games, that’s the part that is positive but then we have to put those games to bed. The key chances that we had in those games, we should have won them.”
Manchester United’s Barclays FA Women’s Super League fixture against West Ham United kicks-off at 12pm.