Manchester United must go ‘full throttle’ in final games says Skinner | OneFootball

Manchester United head coach Marc Skinner says that his side have got to go full throttle during the end of season run-in.

The Red Devils end the Barclays Women’s Super League campaign with difficult fixtures against Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal.

When speaking to the media ahead of this evening’s fixture against Chelsea in Leigh, Manchester United boss Skinner said that his side have to give everything and chase three wins out of three.

“We have to prepare with the mindset that these are three games that we can win,” Skinner said. “If we win all three games, we can potentially finish second and obviously, depending on what Chelsea do [we could win the title]. We’ve just got to go full throttle in all of the games.

“We know it’s a challenging end to the season but that’s why we are here.”

Chelsea exited the UEFA Women’s Champions League at the weekend following an 8-2 aggregate defeat to FC Barcelona in the semi-finals. Skinner is expecting a reaction from The Blues but wants his own side to concentrate on themselves.

He said “Just listening to Sonia’s [Bompastor] comments afterwards, they will want a reaction from the game. I’m sure that they’re not happy with the scoreline over both legs.

“For us, we just have to prepare to face Chelsea. We know what we did last time, what worked, but we also know what we have to do differently to get a positive result.

“They’re professional players, some of the best players in the world and I’m sure they’ll be hurting. We’ve got to manage that hurt but aim to do the same to them. It’s a massive challenge but it’s something we are really looking forward to.”

A Guro Reiten penalty kick separated the two sides in the reverse fixture in November and Skinner wants to see better balance between attack and defence from his side this evening.

He said “They were still getting used to Sonia’s playing style [when we played them].

“They have lots of rotation in midfield, so you’ve got to be prepared for those runners; they can sit two deep and rotate one out. There’s lots of rotation in midfield that we have to be aware of. Of course, they have the invasive threat and also have the distribution from deep, so they have a lot of threats that you have to be prepared for.

“We defended fantastically well in the [first] game. Maybe we were more passive when we were trying to take the opponent on with the ball. I think we’ve changed since that game, it was early for us.

“I want to make sure we have balance between attack and defence, that’s going to be key. We can’t just defend this game and hope for a win, we have to beat them by attacking them.”

Manchester United’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Chelsea kicks-off at 8.15pm this evening. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.