Marc Skinner pinpoints key factor in Man United Women’s win | OneFootball

Manchester United Women continued their strong start to the year with a third consecutive win.

United Women overcame a tough Aston Villa side with a 4-1 win, scoring three rapid second-half goals.

Speaking to Sky Sports (via the club’s website) after the game, manager Marc Skinner was understandably happy with his side’s response.

Half-time adjustments

He was not overly impressed with his team’s first 45 minutes, though, claiming, “I didn’t think we won the first half. We were in a lull.”

He continued, “we had words with ourselves at half-time as a collective and we decided that we needed to do a lot better in the second half. When you leave Villa in the game, they can be dangerous, but we controlled the second half much better and could have been six [goals] in the end.”

Elaborating further on what changed in the second-half performance, he stated, “We spoke about the simplicity of moving from one side to the other side, rather than getting trapped in little pockets, and then that stretched [Villa] out and we’re able to use their spaces. We did that effectively second half.”

He also added that the team took too long on the ball and did not use the wide spaces enough to attack the Villa goal.

Skinner finished his answer by stating, “the reset point is half-time where you go, ‘right, this is clarity’. And that was a difference. We used [the ball] just a little bit higher up, switched the play and then invaded a little bit with brains rather than just legs. We just controlled the spaces a lot better and moved it all over the field.”

Lisa Naalsund

Despite goals from Julia Olme, Elisabeth Terland, Jess Park and Hanna Lundkvist, Skinner had praise for another United star.

He claimed, “I’ve got to say, Lisa Naalsund came on and made a massive difference as well. She opened up spaces for Jess to drift in, she was really, really pivotal in what I thought was a dominant second half.”

Praise for new arrivals

The head coach was also delighted with the impact new signings Lundkvist, Lea Schuller and Ellen Wangerheim have had on his side.

Commenting on the Swede Lundkvist’s first goal for the club, he said, “Hanna’s, she’s class. She’s very classy. With the ball, without the ball, she knows what she’s doing, very quiet, but knows her role and gets on with it. The goal is a great finish from that angle.”

He also claimed to be very happy with Schuller and Wangerheim, but said they need more time as they are effectively in pre-season, having not played in a while.

United will next be in action on Sunday when they host arch rivals Liverpool at the Progress with Unity Stadium.

Lisa Naalsund's stats vs Aston Villa

Source: Sofascore

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