Manchester United head coach Marc Skinner is hoping to see his side rise to the challenge of facing what he has labelled ‘the best team in this country’ in Chelsea this weekend.
The Red Devils travel to Kingsmeadow needing to win if they are to have any chance of claiming a third-place finish in this season’s Barclays FA Women’s Super League and with it European qualification. Manchester United also need neighbours Manchester City to lose at Reading.
When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Manchester United boss Skinner said that regardless of what happens on the final day of the season, he wants to see his side rise to the challenge of taking on what he believes is the best team in England.
“I think that with the resilience that they have shown, Chelsea have been the best team in the country over this last year,” Skinner said. “There’s no doubt that Chelsea go into this game as favourites, they are at home and they need to win to lift the title let’s be very clear about that.
“For us, not only do we have nothing to lose and everything to gain, it is a wonderful opportunity for us to go and show how energetic we can be at the end of the season. What a wonderful way to end the season, we are really looking forward to the game and having the opportunity to put in a very good account of ourselves against the best team in this country.”
If Manchester United win and Manchester City draw, third place will be decided on goal difference. The Cityzens are currently nine goals better off than The Red Devils. When commenting on Manchester City’s recent purple patch in-front of goal which has resulted in them taking advantage in the goal difference statistics, Skinner said that he is happy with his own side’s attacking play this season.
He said “Up until two games ago, we had scored more goals. The reality is that Manchester City have invested heavily in their forward line for years and years, this club hasn’t been around for years and years.
“I’m very happy with the chances that we have created. If you look at the games, I actually feel that we have created goalscoring chances in the bigger games where we should have won the game. I’ve been happy with our performances and especially if you look at the amount of goalscoring chances that we have created. We haven’t always taken them but that’s part of the growth and learning of these players.
“I’ve been very, very happy with my forward line. I still want more and we are still looking to invest in the forward area, of course we are. The thing that Manchester City have had in the second half of the season is depth in their attacking line, what we’ve had is players giving their absolute all in every single game and very young players who are going to continue to learn. We need to look for experienced players but also players who can give us a different physical trait, a different dribbling trait, we need different tools for different teams because we have faced lots and lots of deep blocks and we need to unlock teams a little bit better. We will look for variants rather than numbers of players coming in.”
Manchester United’s final Barclays FA Women’s Super League match of the season at Chelsea kicks-off at 12pm on Sunday afternoon.