Marc Skinner: Manchester United have the quality to unlock London City Lionesses | OneFootball

Marc Skinner. Photo: Jayde Chamberlain/SPP.

It’s another big week coming up for Manchester United and head coach Marc Skinner.

First up on Sunday, the Red Devils travel to the south-east to face Women’s Super League newcomers London City Lionesses.

The Michele Kang-backed side have had plenty of money to spend in the recent transfer window, and Skinner couldn’t help but make a comparison in his pre-match press conference.

“There’s a respect there, of course there is. I think they sold out their allocation for their tickets, which tends to be the case when we come to town,” he said in his press conference on Saturday morning.

“The reality is they’ve got a lot of good signings, they’re doing a lot of business, I think they spent more in this window than I’ve spent in my entire career, by some considerable amount, so that’s a sign of their ambition.”

Watching them against Arsenal, he picked out some elements that have helped him prepared his squad for the challenge:

“I felt that there was a lot of aggression from them, they were right in the game at times, so I don’t think this will be an easy game at all. I think it will be a difficult game, but one you might have to stick in, you might have to be consistent with it.

“It’s about mental resilience, this game, for sure. We have the quality to unlock them, and they have the quality to unlock us, so I think we have to utilise the crowd, utilise everything against it, and then try and be clinical where possible.”

He added that he is hoping that Gabby George and Fridolina Rolfo will both be fit for inclusion in Sunday’s squad, and possibly Rachel Williams as well.

Marc Skinner: We were the better team against Brann

The match comes three days after United’s first-leg defeat to Brann in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Women’s Champions League, with the second leg coming this week – but Skinner remained bullish about the result.

“If you watch the game, we were by far the better team – by far. We needed to be ruthless, and we weren’t ruthless enough in the game, we created chances. Barring the free kick, I don’t think we’ve had anything to defend that well in the box – a couple of scrambled set pieces.

“Brann did a really good job of filling the stadium, which I think gave the players their legs and their energy that they needed to perform like that.”

As for Thursday’s return match at Leigh Sports Village, where United know they need a win, Skinner said: “We’ll be trying to attack all game.”