Manchester United Women’s head coach Marc Skinner explains that he and his staff have the primary objective of preparing the squad for success in the new year, during the mid-season break.
Instead, he has the goal of continuing to build on our recent momentum despite the hiatus, with work behind the scenes to help get the team ready to carry on from where they’ve left off, in 2023.
Speaking after United’s 4-0 win over Sheffield United on Sunday, the boss detailed the plan for his side heading into the Christmas period.
“We’re not going to rest. The players will have a little bit of time off but we’re not resting,”Marc told MUTV's Ben Ibson.
“We’ve got a window coming up, [we’ll] see if we can do any work in that window.
“But also, just making sure we manoeuvre the team where we can look for successes next year. We know how difficult this league is, and obviously the FA Cup coming up, and we want to go far in that.
“We’ve got a lot to do over this break but we’re not going to rest because we want to be successful here.”
Skinner’s side occupy a top-three spot in the league, having lost just once in the competition this term, and will hope to build on that when the campaign resumes in just under a month, against Liverpool.
The boss reflected on a positive 2022 finale in his post-match interview, before looking ahead to what can be achieved in the new year.
“It’s a good way to end the year,“ he said. ”The girls have worked extremely hard in this first part of the year but as soon as we go into the next part of the year, we want to be aiming for successes.
“So, I wanted them to finish strongly and that’s exactly what they’ve done today.
“There’s always something on the game for this team, so I’ve asked them to show their qualities, show their capabilities, but also put a good performance on.
“We were dominant with the ball and made the opponent have very little in the game and that for us is a good sign of where we’re heading and what we want to achieve in 2023.”
Tickets for United Women’s upcoming games in 2023, including the home fixture against Liverpool on 15 January, are available to purchase here.