Manchester United boss Skinner frustrated with ‘rubbish’ goals conceded in defeat to Chelsea | OneFootball

Manchester United head coach Marc Skinner expressed his frustration with the goals conceded by his side in their 6-0 defeat to Chelsea at Old Trafford this afternoon.

The Red Devils were continuously out-muscled by their opponents in the first half of the game with Chelsea forward Mayra Ramírez terrorising their back-line. The South West Londoners netted four first half goals on their way to recording a huge 6-0 victory which resulted in them being crowned Barclays Women’s Super League champions for a fifth successive year.

When speaking in the post-match press conference, Manchester United boss Skinner expressed his frustration with the goals conceded, highlighting the team’s need to improve in physical duels.

“They’re rubbish [goals to concede],” Skinner admitted. “From our perspective, we allowed too many duels to go, it was immature. I felt that we made too many mistakes and really didn’t make Chelsea work hard enough for those goals.

“The first one [for example], we don’t track the runner [Guro] Reiten then we don’t track [Mayra] Ramírez in the box. That’s two mistakes then we get done physically. I have to fix that going forward, I have to make sure that we aren’t physically outdone in games like this.

“It was nothing to do with the players’ attitude, they didn’t want to lose the game. Chelsea had everything to fight for, they were right on the edge and that was too much for us in the physical stakes in this game. It’s something I have to fix as we look forward to the summer and beyond.”

Skinner went on to discuss his side’s physical issues further. The Manchester United boss highlighted the fact that it isn’t the first time that The Red Devils have fallen to a physical team and this is an area that he is determined to address in the summer.

He said “We can’t lose a game on physicality. We lost against Liverpool on physicality and this game today was lost on physicality. We cannot allow that, you’ve got to have a base level in order to produce a tactical plan and we have to be better at that.

“The players are honest. They’ll know what they’ve done today and what wasn’t good enough. At half-time, it wasn’t good enough but they knew it wasn’t anything tactically. We are a Manchester United team that have to attack, so if we have to put 11 players on Ramírez, they’ll just find space somewhere else.

“We have to take accountability for those physical duels and that’s going to be absolutely paramount when I’m planning for next year.”

Manchester United have suffered painful defeats to both Chelsea and neighbours Manchester City at Old Trafford this season. Skinner says that it is the tough moments where he learns the most about his team.

He said “We’ve underperformed a number of times this season, whether we have been at Leigh or Old Trafford.

“It has been a disappointing performance in both of those games [against Chelsea and Manchester City] but that’s something you have to grow from. Sometimes, you have to take those; in your lowest moments, you learn the most and get the most clarity. I’ve been in low moments before and I’ll be in low moments again. That’s when I learn most about our team and I believe I know what I need to do.”

Manchester United have ended the Barclays Women’s Super League season in fifth position in the league table after collecting 35 points from their 22 games.