Manchester United Women head coach Marc Skinner has stated that his side must be “ruthless”
ahead of our trip to London City Lionesses in the WSL.
The game, scheduled for a 12:00 BST kick-off on Sunday 14 September, is sandwiched between our two-legged UEFA Champions League qualifier against Brann, which the Reds narrowly lost the first game of earlier this week.
Despite the result, the Reds put in a solid performance, and on account of that, Skinner doesn't believe it will take much to pick his players back up ahead of this weekend's assignment.
“They knew they'd played okay,”
the head coach said of the midweek outing. “I think it's harder [to pick the players back up] when they don't perform.
“But I think because we knew that we'd performed well, and that we just weren't clinical, we know what we've got to do in this task, and it kind of sharpens your mind and sharpens your focus.”
That momentum will be easier to carry through as Skinner reports that no fresh injuries were picked up on the European trip, with the added bonus that three Reds could be closing in on a return.
“I'm expecting, when I go back over, to see Gabby [George] and Frido [Rolfo] being available, with potentially Rach [Williams] being available as well,” the head coach reported.
“So, that would be three added into the group, hopefully, with no new fresh knocks.”
Our meeting with Jocelyn Precheur's side will take place at the Copperjax Community Stadium in Bromley, which Skinner predicts will bring a lively atmosphere for United to compete against.
The WSL newcomers will also be keen to avenge their 4-1 opening-day loss, to put their first points on the board of the new season.
The Reds boss said: “I think they've sold out their allocation of their tickets, which tends to be the case when we come to town.
”I felt there that there was a lot of aggression from them, I felt they were right in the game at times, so I don't think this will be an easy game at all.“
Despite having only been promoted this season, the United boss is not taking the task ahead lightly.
“I think it will be a difficult game,”
Skinner admitted. “I said it to our players after the [Brann] game, and I'll say it again this morning, it's about mental resilience in this game.
”We have the quality to unlock them, and they have the quality to unlock us, so I think we have to utilise their crowd, utilise everything against us, and then try and be clinical where possible.
“We have have to be clinical. We have to be ruthless.”