West Ham United manager Rehanne Skinner says that her side’s performances have improved game-on-game this season.
The Hammers are second-bottom of the Barclays Women’s Super League table but their ranking doesn’t tell the full story of their season so far. West Ham United have ran some of the top teams close while many of their defeats have been by the odd goal.
Manager Skinner was only appointed by the club in the summer and she has had to be patient to develop her young squad. Despite the challenges in her first year at The Chigwell Construction Stadium, Skinner believes that performances are improving game-on-game and that the recent influx of experienced players will benefit the club’s youngsters.
“I feel like our performances have been pretty good throughout but we’ve improved game-on-game,” Skinner said when speaking to WSL Full-Time. “Even before [the Leicester game], I thought we were really unlucky not to get something out of the Everton game.
“What we are getting are more complete performances. Certainly, the metrics that we use to assess our playing style and the way that we are evolving have gone up with every game that we’ve played. In every game, we’ve improved. Even in games where we’ve not got a result, we can see the way that we are trying to play is coming off and we can see individual player improvements as well through the metrics.
“All of those things when they come together give us an opportunity to get a result which we did at the weekend. The more that we can link that together, the better. The Chelsea game, Tottenham and this one [against Arsenal], it’s just showing that we are capable doing that. We have senior internationals across the board that are helping to carry through the right decisions, at the right time and helping younger players in the team to evolve as well. It has tipped the balance the other way now which is a massive positive and why we targeted who we did.”
West Ham United are yet to cause a big upset this season but they have another opportunity this weekend when Arsenal are the visitors to East London. Skinner believes that her side can get a result if they perform to their best levels.
She said “We want to get as many points out of every game that we can. With all of these teams, it has already been proven that teams can take points off anyone in this league. You just have to turn up and be your best on the day and give it everything that you’ve got.
“The players’ mindset is the way that we are working together as a collective. The way that they are bonding as a group shows that every game, we are capable of an upset and at some point, that will come. If it’s this weekend, we will take that but we just need to keep working on what we are trying to achieve. Every game has points available to us and we have to really believe that we can get them. That’ll be our approach this weekend.”
West Ham United’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Arsenal kicks-off at 12.30pm on Sunday afternoon.