Manchester United head coach Marc Skinner says that an Old Trafford derby victory would be an important marker in the growth of the team.
The Red Devils host neighbours Manchester City in the first-ever Barclays Women’s Super League derby to be staged at ‘The Theatre of Dreams’ this afternoon.
More than 45,000 fans are expected at Old Trafford and Manchester United boss Skinner believes that it is hugely important that his side send the supporters home happy.
“It’s huge [to win],” Skinner said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “I will never move away from saying that every game we enter, we want to win. We train to win, we play to win. We also know that a smash and grab won’t work. If you defend for 90 minutes, I don’t think that’s going to work. You have to attack Manchester City and make them defend – they will make us defend because of the quality they have.
“It’s a marker to win a derby at Old Trafford. To do that, we’ve got to perform.”
The pressure will be on Manchester United to impress the huge home crowd, however, Skinner says that dealing with pressure is nothing new for his players.
He said “There’s pressure on Manchester City, there’s pressure on Manchester United.
“We put pressure on ourselves to win every game, whether it’s an excellent team like Manchester City or a team that’s maybe not in great form.
“There’s a pressure cauldron for everyone and who’s going to deal with it better on the day will create better chances to win the game and that’s what we want us to do.”
Opponents Manchester City arrive at Old Trafford having suffered back-to-back league defeats but Skinner is not reading much into The Cityzens’ recent form.
“I’m not reading anything into those two defeats,” Skinner said. “Any other day, they could have beaten Arsenal and any other day, they should have beaten Brighton. I know Gareth [Taylor] will be looking at that performance, saying ‘we’ve dropped points but should be winning those games’.
The Manchester derby kicks-off at 4.30pm this afternoon. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.
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