West Ham United manager Rehanne Skinner hails ‘fearless’ Leila Wandeler | OneFootball

Leila Wandeler in action for Switzerland

West Ham United manager Rehanne Skinner hailed the courage and creativity of new signing Leila Wandeler, who made a second-half cameo against Arsenal in a friendly at Meadow Park, Borehamwood.

“Leila’s a creative, young, very talented player, and she’s fearless,” Skinner told the club’s official website after the 2-0 defeat. “That’s something you saw at the Euros with Switzerland – every time she came on the pitch she affected the game really, really well.

“She’s a really good young player and we want to make sure that we keep getting those little spells out of what she’s done today. Taking on three players at once against Arsenal is bold. Fans are going to love to see that, and it’s only going to grow with her confidence within the team and how we play as we move forward.”

The 19-year-old Switzerland international signed for West Ham from Lyon last week.

Wandeler reflected: “I had to just go and be creative one versus one. I tried to bring that to the team. I enjoyed it. I told myself, ‘Just go forward’. Also Rehanne told me, ‘Go, don’t think’.”

Skinner: ‘We’re progressing really positively’

West Ham have another friendly – this one against Brighton and Hove Albion – before they start their Women’s Super League campaign against Tottenham Hotspur, and Skinner is working to keep everyone focused on the next challenge rather than looking too far ahead.

“Gametime is just huge in pre-season because it gives you all those opportunities to develop those relationships, to problem-solve on the pitch. So this last week is going to help us to finish off those little bits.

“I think when we come round to the game against Tottenham, which is obviously huge, it’s a London derby, so that’s massive for us. Everybody’s already looking forward to that. I obviously keep reining them back into the next pre-season game that’s in front of us!

“We want to make sure that we keep chipping away at the things that are going to make us more ready for that first game of the season.”

And she is pleased with what she has seen from her squad thus far.

“This [match against Arsenal] is our sixth pre-season game and I think we’ve been progressing really positively as a team overall. We’ve had some really positive outcomes, performances and today was obviously going to be another step up against the Champions League winners. That’s what we want at this stage to help us to prepare for the start of the season.

“There’s little bits to look at with the goals, but right here, right now, the number of players that have played over pre-season, the minutes that they’ve had, the preparation, everyone’s in a really, really good space.”