Skinner keen to focus only on Manchester United as battle for Europe goes on | OneFootball

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WSL Full-Time

·15 January 2022

Skinner keen to focus only on Manchester United as battle for Europe goes on

Article image:Skinner keen to focus only on Manchester United as battle for Europe goes on

Manchester United head coach Marc Skinner says that his side will continue to only focus on themselves after they leapfrogged Tottenham Hotspur into a European qualification place in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League table.

The Red Devils defeated Birmingham City 5-0 at the Leigh Sports Village this afternoon to jump up to third and the pressure is now on Spurs to defeat West Ham United tomorrow and reclaim that position back.

When speaking to FAWSL Full-Time after the match in Leigh, Manchester United boss Skinner said that the focus remains only on his side and that he is taking no notice of the other clubs around them.


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“I don’t focus on other teams, we have to win what we can win,” Skinner said. “When you look outside, you lose your momentum, you lose your eyes so I am focusing on what we can do.

“Tottenham, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City and Reading are all great teams and I could look at all of them but I would lose focus on Manchester United.

“We need to focus on what we need to do against Arsenal and against Tottenham. It will be a great game next weekend I’m sure, Tottenham will want to come here and grab points as we will so it’ll be down to what happens on the day. If we can perform like that, we will give them the best test that we can.”

During the first half, the likes of Leah Galton, Alessia Russo and Ella Toone were all putting balls or themselves in dangerous areas within the Birmingham City box. Skinner expressed his delight at Manchester United’s work in the final third, particularly behind the visitors’ back-line.

He said “I am (delighted). The key thing is getting behind Birmingham quickly and then delivering quickly. Louise Quinn is a colossus in there, she can really defend any aerial ball excellently so we had to avoid that then there’s Gemma (Lawley) who was a kid at Birmingham when I was there and also Harriet (Scott). They are wonderful players who are very good at defending that zone so you have to do it early and we recognised that.

“We wanted to exploit them with our rotation out wide, open the space up which is only there for a fraction of time. The balls had to be there and we have got that quality.

“The team think I’m moaning at them but I’m going to keep doing that because it is my job to make sure that they are at their highest standards every time we step onto the field. Manchester United expect that, our fans expect that and we did that today because of our quality.”

Manchester United return to action on Wednesday evening when they travel to Arsenal in the quarter-finals of the FA Women’s Continental League Cup.

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