Manchester United boss Skinner impressed by Konchesky’s West Ham United | OneFootball

Manchester United boss Marc Skinner says that he has been impressed with the qualities of this afternoon’s opponents West Ham United.

The Red Devils travel to The Chigwell Construction Stadium to take on a West Ham United side who are now under the management of former men’s team player Paul Konchesky.

Konchesky’s reign as Hammers boss got off to a positive start last weekend as the East Londoners defeated Everton 1-0 and Manchester United boss Skinner was full of praise for his side’s latest opponents when speaking to FAWSL Full-Time.

“Paul (Konchesky) was there last year with Olli (Harder) so we got to speak to him,” Skinner said. “They picked up a great win (against Everton), they were ruthless. They attacked really well down the sides, were a little bit direct at times but that’s not a negative because they were good at it.

“Dagný (Brynjarsdóttir) is really good in the air with her heading ability for the speed behind that, their forward line looked dangerous and their back-line….Cissoko is very good in one v one areas and Lucy (Parker) builds up a little bit better with the ball and has great ability. I think they’re good.

“We will have to be on our metal against them because we have to play a very tough team on their home ground. We will have to be really good to win the game.”

Manchester United have drawn five of their last nine matches away from the Leigh Sports Village. Skinner wants to see his side turn awayday draws into three points this season and he feels that The Red Devils are better equipped to do that.

He said “It was the single points from draws which let us down last year. There’s always a good and bad draw – if you dominate and draw the game, it feels like a bad result or if you grab a draw at the end it feels like a good point.

“What was nice against Reading last week was that when we got into the second half and they shut the shop, we were able to introduce equally as good talent coming off the bench and we could do it early enough to give them a good run at the game. What that allows us to do is attack the game in different ways. We have a couple of models that we can use against West Ham and we can adapt but you’ve got to take advantage of what the opponent gives you on the day.

“I feel that we are in a better space this year to score goals. We blew Reading away in 35 minutes last week, I’m not expecting that every week of course but we have to be relevant throughout the whole of the game and that’s going to be our key aspect. We are in a better place for that.”

Manchester United’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at West Ham United kicks-off at 3pm.