Skinner demands ‘top performance’ v Sheffield United
Manchester United Women head coach Marc Skinner expects nothing but the best from his side against Sheffield United, despite the Reds not being able to progress in the Continental Tyres League Cup.
United host the South Yorkshire side at Leigh Sports Village on Sunday (kick-off 12:00 GMT) knowing that victory would still leave them one point off Group A leaders Aston Villa, and unable to advance to the next round.
However, with this being the Reds’ last fixture of 2022, Marc maintains that his standards will not drop, and he wants to end the year on a high.
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“It’s been a tough year for a lot of people, but we will not stop asking for the performance,” he said in an interview with MUTV’s Zarah Connolly.
“The performance this weekend has to be top because it will be a real sign of us being able to manage every game and not just a Manchester City derby.
“For us, we have to keep working and I want to see a real top performance this weekend, regardless of the team we put out.”
Skinner’s comments elude to the fact that his side will see a lot of rotation this Sunday, as has been the case in the Conti Cup earlier in the season.
The United Women head coach added to this, explaining that some young Reds may see some gametime at LSV too.
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“No disrespect to the opponent, in this competition we have rotated to allow players the opportunity for them to show their qualities,” he said. “We’ve got everybody to select from, which is also positive.
“We’ll look at who and what we’ll go with for the final selection, but it might be an opportunity to bring some of the kids into the group that have been doing very well this year.
“It will be a good opportunity for us to bring them potentially within this squad, [and] rest a few players potentially ahead of the busy period after Christmas.”
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With the year drawing to a close and United Women having performed superbly in the early part of the season, Skinner was quick to praise his side, while also looking ahead to further improvement in 2023.
“There’s still things we want to fix,” he said. “We’re nowhere near where our end product will be, but there’s some really good signs this year of our progression.
“It’s just growing parts for us. I think there’s been excellent signs with us defending; how many clean sheets we’ve kept and limiting opponents.”