Skinner: We need to be on the same page
Marc Skinner admits he was ‘frustrated’ after Manchester United Women's home defeat to Liverpool on Sunday.
United started strongly with an early Ella Toone goal but were later punished for not converting further chances and making two defensive errors as Matt Beard's side won the game 2-1.
The Reds’ boss didn’t hold back in his thoughts when speaking to the press after the game at Leigh Sports Village.
The Reds’ boss didn’t hold back in his thoughts when speaking to the press after the game at Leigh Sports Village.
United Women 1 Liverpool 2
ArticleRead our match summary from the Reds' latest WSL outing at Leigh Sports Village.
FUNDAMENTALS OF FOOTBALL
“We lost on the fundamentals of football. They headed better than us, they kicked it better than us. The two goals were ridiculously bad from our standard. It’s about desire. I look at Gemma Bonner – and I hope she is well – their defending in the box was all about desire. We lost too many first contacts easily. That bleeds into the performance. I don’t think we were as aggressive with the football. It was a bad day for us. We can usually rely on the stats and I don’t think we can today. Liverpool outperformed us on every level and I don’t think we deserved anything out of the game. What will hurt, what we need to be better at is you can’t lose games with the goals we conceded, you just can't. This is the top level, you can’t concede goals like that.”
LIVERPOOL’S GOALS
“I think we can be good enough to win the title but you have to be near perfect. That is something that we have to address. You can’t be almost-near perfect every game. We have to be more aggressive in the market and I think we have to have that help and support in order to be in a consistent challenge. I think we will have some way to go. Both goals were poor so we lost the game on two really poor goals. We could have cleared it, we had to be more aggressive. I just felt there were a couple of moments where they took their moments and we didn’t. Even in the end we have had chances where we could have won the game but we didn’t and they won. It’s frustrating. I am frustrated with that performance. We didn’t deserve to take anything from the game.”
“We lost on the fundamentals of football. They headed better than us, they kicked it better than us. The two goals were ridiculously bad from our standard. It’s about desire. I look at Gemma Bonner – and I hope she is well – their defending in the box was all about desire. We lost too many first contacts easily. That bleeds into the performance. I don’t think we were as aggressive with the football. It was a bad day for us. We can usually rely on the stats and I don’t think we can today. Liverpool outperformed us on every level and I don’t think we deserved anything out of the game. What will hurt, what we need to be better at is you can’t lose games with the goals we conceded, you just can't. This is the top level, you can’t concede goals like that.”
LIVERPOOL’S GOALS
“I think we can be good enough to win the title but you have to be near perfect. That is something that we have to address. You can’t be almost-near perfect every game. We have to be more aggressive in the market and I think we have to have that help and support in order to be in a consistent challenge. I think we will have some way to go. Both goals were poor so we lost the game on two really poor goals. We could have cleared it, we had to be more aggressive. I just felt there were a couple of moments where they took their moments and we didn’t. Even in the end we have had chances where we could have won the game but we didn’t and they won. It’s frustrating. I am frustrated with that performance. We didn’t deserve to take anything from the game.”
WE NEED TO BE MORE CONSISTENT
“This year we are having to adapt, we are having to evolve. There have been stumbles this season. We take two steps forwards and then take two steps backwards. It’s about the consistent reinforcement of messages. What we haven’t had is a lot of experiences together. We have had to introduce new players into the situation and you can see that on the field. We are not always on the same page and we have to make sure that we are all on the same page on a more consistent basis.”
MOVING FORWARD AFTER THE BREAK
“We just have go and try to win every game, it’s all we can do. At the end of the season we will see where we are. What I think is clear is that we need to continue to invest to develop the squad. I think we need to get to a point where we have more players in positions. We took a lot of injuries this year and it’s affected the depth of the squad. We have struggled particularly in the three-game weeks. We need to look to keep pushing boundaries and to keep developing this team and keep adding quality to this team, otherwise we won’t be in a position to challenge. We have to try to win as many games as possible but we are going to have to be near perfect.”
“This year we are having to adapt, we are having to evolve. There have been stumbles this season. We take two steps forwards and then take two steps backwards. It’s about the consistent reinforcement of messages. What we haven’t had is a lot of experiences together. We have had to introduce new players into the situation and you can see that on the field. We are not always on the same page and we have to make sure that we are all on the same page on a more consistent basis.”
MOVING FORWARD AFTER THE BREAK
“We just have go and try to win every game, it’s all we can do. At the end of the season we will see where we are. What I think is clear is that we need to continue to invest to develop the squad. I think we need to get to a point where we have more players in positions. We took a lot of injuries this year and it’s affected the depth of the squad. We have struggled particularly in the three-game weeks. We need to look to keep pushing boundaries and to keep developing this team and keep adding quality to this team, otherwise we won’t be in a position to challenge. We have to try to win as many games as possible but we are going to have to be near perfect.”
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