Video: “We weren’t ourselves”: Olid blasts meek Man United performance vs London City | OneFootball

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Manchester United Women started the season with a disheartening 2-1 defeat to London City Lionesses.

New manager Eva Olid would have been hoping for much more from her team but was left disappointed.

Olid’s thoughts

Speaking to the club media, she explained, “I think none of us are happy with the first half. We weren’t ourselves. Nothing that we’ve been working on was happening in the first half.”

She continued, “at half-time, I said to them, ‘Listen, this is not us. We need to have confidence, believe, show that when we win the ball, that’s who we are.’ I think there was a change in the second half, but at the end of the day, that’s us for 90 minutes. It’s not enough to play well for 40 minutes.”

Olid praised London City’s early press but claimed that her players did not provide enough support to one another to evade it. She claimed that her side intended to receive the ball in behind and run into pockets of space, but for whatever reason, her team could not achieve this, especially in the first half.

The Spanish boss did offer hope for the future by adding, “I knew it would be like this, but I totally believe that if we play with confidence, we can compete against everyone. I think if we’d played for 90 minutes like we did in the second half, it would have been a different story.”

When asked about the challenge of facing Chelsea next week, she said that her side had much to work on in training but also explained, “I’m looking forward to it. We want to play against the best.”

Maya Le Tissier

United’s captain also gave her thoughts after the match and echoed her manager’s sentiments.

She asserted, “in the first half we weren’t good enough. We weren’t confident enough to get on the ball, and we didn’t have enough movement.”

The defender claimed United could not live with London’s pressing and even though they fought back with a late goal, they ran out of time to recover. Le Tissier focused on the positives in spite of the defeat, and Awujo scoring her first league goal was certainly one.

She said, “it’s really nice for Sim as well to get a goal. She’s such a good player, and obviously coming off the bench, she made a huge difference too. It’s really nice for her, and it shows that we never give up. We’re always pushing to get goals.”

The captain also admitted it would take some time to get used to a different manager, but that they are ultimately professionals and need to adapt as quickly as possible.

Commenting on the impact of the new signings in the squad, she explained, “I think our new recruits have made a big difference within the team, both on and off the pitch. Hopefully that continues as well. I’m very happy for them to play for United, and hopefully they can feel how special it is.”

Finally, she asserted that the team were excited to return to their home stadium next week and face the big challenge of Chelsea.