Marc Skinner on the key ingredient for Manchester United this season | OneFootball

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Manchester United’s English head coach Marc Skinner stands for the national anthem during the English Women’s FA Cup final football match between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley Stadium, in north west London, on May 12, 2024. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP) / NOT FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING USE / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Marc Skinner hailed his Manchester United side’s team spirit in midweek after they beat Arsenal to reach the Subway Women’s League Cup final.

And ahead of their weekend match against Aston Villa, he told SheKicks.net a little bit more about how that spirit has been created – and why it’s so important.

“The thing I’ll always be proudest of at Manchester United is the team spirit we’ve created,” he acknowledged on Friday morning. “Somebody asked me, ‘How do you do that?’ There’s all elements of luck. You’ve got to get human beings to work together for the common cause, the common goal.

“The reality is when your foundations are built in trying to include the human in the decision-making process and try and make them part of it, I’ve always found if you have shares in the company or you have stock in the company, this time being the team for the players, I always find that you care more about it, because there’s something to win and lose within it.

“It’s funny, the three girls that have just come in [Hanna Lundkvist, Lea Schuller and Ellen Wangerheim], when we were recruiting them, I said, ‘You’ll never be in an environment like ours.’

“Two or three weeks in, you’ve already seen how comfortable they are with the players. And I’ve asked, checked in on them all the time, and there’s constant comments around ‘I don’t feel like the new person anymore’, and we’re two weeks in. So I think that’s credit to everybody involved.

“In all honesty, just the way I’ve been brought up and the way our club is, there’s no space for big-time players that don’t want to include everybody else in their journey. So I think that is the key ingredient.” 

Marc Skinner: Manchester United need to be fully focused

Skinner confirmed that there were no new injuries after the midweek game, with Fridolina Rolfo and Gabby George both nearing fitness and Ella Toone and Leah Galton expected to be out for a little longer.

And he underlined the message he would be giving to his players in training – to not get carried away by the prospect of the Subway Women’s League Cup Final.

“Getting to another final in a different competition is huge for us. But what I must say is, and I’m going to stress this to the team this morning when we meet, is  there’s no after the Lord Mayor’s show. We have to be fully focused on the next task.”