Skinner: Reds relishing Champions League challenge
Manchester United Women head coach Marc Skinner says his side are relishing the challenge of playing in the Champions League for the first time in 2023/24.
The Reds made history this season, by qualifying for Europe’s elite club cup competition, after finishing a record-high second in the Women’s Super League.
Skinner’s team are now set to enter the competition in the second round via the league path, and we’ll find out our opponents when the draw takes place on 15 September.
The tie, a two-legged contest, will then take place across back-to-back weeks in October, and although that’s still some time away, that didn't stop Marc looking ahead to the prospect of competing with some of the best teams on the continent, during his appearance on a new episode of the UTD Podcast, which was first released on Wednesday.
Marc Skinner - "We've arrived"
podcastThis week, Sam Homewood is joined by first-time co-hosts, MUTV's Ben Ibson and ex-Manchester United Women goalkeeper Siobhan Chamberlain. The trio were at Carrington to sit down with the Women's first-team head coach Marc Skinner to reflect on a truly historic season. The team finished second in the WSL, narrowly missing out on the title, reached the FA Cup final and secured Champions League football next season for the first time ever! Skinner’s side also had the most clean sheets in the league, the fewest goals conceded, the highest possession average at 62 per cent, lots of last-minute winning goals and record attendances. What a season! In this episode, Marc tells us about his upbringing and talks about his football coaching journey, which has taken him from Birmingham to Orlando, Florida, and now Manchester. At Birmingham City, he was a goalkeeping coach and actually worked with Siobhan for a short while. We find out what Marc learned from his time in the United States and why he thinks women's football is so successful Stateside. Of course, we talk about his time with Manchester United so far. In particular, this season (2022/23), and what he feels the team can go on to achieve next term. It's a great time for our women's team right now and this episode is sure to get all United fans excited about the future.
“We’re going to the second round where we can play some extremely experienced teams. What a challenge,” Marc said, in the chat with co-hosts Siobhan Chamberlain, Sam Homewood and Ben Ibson.
“So, it’s a challenge, it’s something we’re looking forward to.
“We’re going to give it absolutely everything, because I’d love our fans away on tour, on a European tour, [that] would be wonderful."
That would add six extra matches to our schedule for next season, and with the added workload, Marc explained the natural impact it would have on his squad.
“I have to, by the nature of the competition, should we make Champions League group stage, rotate more. Absolutely,” he added.
“[That's] Something that was thrown at me this year, but again, when you come back to those statistics and how we’ve performed, I’ve [got] a lot of answers for those critics.
“But the reality is there’s going to be a lot more game time for players next year and to navigate some of the tough games, where it’s a midweek game away and then going into a tough challenge on a weekend, we’ve got to navigate that.”
The Champions League: What a challenge!
Marc Skinner opens up on the different challenges United Women will face in Europe next season…
“They’re all things we should be excited about.
“All things that we love, relish and just respect because we’re all not here for a long time, right?
“So, we have to make sure we make our moments matter while we’re here, and that’s for me, making history for this club is a really proud individual achievement for us.
“We want to be insatiable. We want to be driven, we want to be fully here to embrace everything that is thrown at us, and I think that’s going to be our attitude going into the new year.”
You can now listen to - and watch - Marc Skinner's full UTD Podcast exclusively on ManUtd.com and in the United App.