West Ham United boss Skinner pleased with performances going into next block | OneFootball

West Ham United manager Rehanne Skinner says that she is largely pleased with her side’s performances in the first five games.

The Hammers took just two points from their opening five Barclays Women’s Super League fixtures, however, they have played four of last season’s top-five.

Reflecting on the start to the season, Skinner said that she is largely happy with her side’s performances, particularly given the on and off-field challenges that they have faced.

“For us, what has gone well is things like limiting the opposition’s chances to less than we did in all of last season,” Skinner said when speaking in a West Ham United press conference. “In every game that we have played, that’s been lower.

“Collectively, given how many players we had in late, that’s been a challenge; there’s an adjustment for a lot of players coming from abroad. Also, we’ve had a tough start with three trips to the North West and playing against four out of the top-five from last year. It has been a real challenge but there have been lots of learning opportunities.

“Overall, I think our performances have been really good. We would probably have liked to have created a bit more but collectively, we’ve discussed that. You don’t get a lot of chances against [Manchester] United, [Manchester] City and Arsenal, plus Liverpool are always difficult to break down. When you look at the context, we’ve given a good account of ourselves in moments. We are disappointed with the Everton result but in the other games, we’ve done really well.”

West Ham United face some more favourable fixtures in the coming weeks and Skinner says that her side will be targeting points.

She said “In the next couple of games, we have teams that are in and around us, so we will have to try and do a really good job in those games. We need to focus on Tottenham, get everybody on track and get it right.

“The players that we signed in the summer, everyone has adjusted and everyone is fit. That has taken a bit of time to get everyone to be ready to play and then having that squad depth. It makes a difference; you have to start with a strong squad and finish with a strong squad and that has taken time.

“These games are definitely opportunities for points, we want to get points out of them. It’s important that we do that and deliver this weekend.”

West Ham United travel to Tottenham Hotspur for their latest fixture on Sunday. Last season’s games produced 11 goals and were great entertainment for the neutral. With both sides still fine-tuning their football at both ends of the pitch, Skinner believes that the latest meeting will be a good watch.

She said “I think there will be goals in the game for sure. For us, defensively, it’s an area where we have become much more solid, we’ve improved and progressed on last year. It’s something that we’ve done a lot of work on. We will make life as difficult as we can for them I’m sure.

“Going the other way, we’ve done a lot of work on that as well in more detail now that we have all of the players available. We’ve got the creativity and quality to score goals. Training has been a delight and I hope we bring that into the game on Sunday.”

West Ham United’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Tottenham Hotspur kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday afternoon.