Manchester United did not have long to savour the euphoria from their first away derby win. They knew Manchester City would want to exact revenge in the League Cup quarter-final on Wednesday and so would have to at least match or better their performance from Sunday’s Women’s Super League (WSL) game at the Etihad Stadium. If not, that buoyant derby feeling would be zapped.
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The managers of any of the groups have had to balance the festival at a knockout festival that attracts little attention while placing their next WSL games this weekend. Marc Skinner has started the United team, making six adjustments for “freshness,” he said. Despite the body of the workers’ body, the game plan the same as Sunday: press the city.
While United stifled City at the Etihad and gave them the game, on Wednesday at Leigh Sports Village, where the mood was flat, the hosts kept their distance from City, a facet noted through visiting coach Gareth Taylor. This allowed the City players to breathe.
Skinner chose the attacker Rachel Williams, 37, to lead the press, but was missing team spirit in the midfield and in the front line. The differences between players, such as Williams and Grace Clinton in the tenth position, have become too great. United also lost its design and the City has played more directly than usual, which forced United to expand in a larger area, leaving the isolated midfielder Hinata Miyazawa.
United executed the adjustment plan, as well as 4 days earlier, and defended poorly, resuming the run in the top of Laura Coombs for the first adjustment and allowing Lily Murphy to cut inside and in the house for the second. This purpose allowed the city to lead 2-1 in the time more than the first half and that’s how it remained.
Skinner said at half-time that some of his players were suffering from “tight hamstring problems”, so he replaced Millie Turner, who had equalised for United in the minute, with Dominique Janssen as a precaution and Celin Bizet replacing Melvine Malard. the hour mark for the same reason.
United were more aggressive in what was a chaotic second half. “It wasn’t a game for the purists,” said Taylor. What is damning is that United were losing to a City side who have been decimated by injuries and who did not have the luxury to rotate their back line.
“We needed to freshen up,” Skinner said, regarding Williams’ replacement by Elisabeth Terland after an hour. “Rach is the tallest player in the league. ” If your most productive feature is having an effect on the player, that begs the question of why you started it in the first place. But Skinner said he has no regrets about not starting Terland or Ella Toone, who only returned from injury.
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“We can’t lose those players so early before starting a busy end to the season,” he said.
Although Skinner said he wanted to win the quarter-final and argued his side should have had a penalty in the 81st minute when, in his words, “Terland touches the ball first and then gets wiped out” by goalkeeper Khiara Keating, it is evident the league standing and possibility of playing in Europe is more important. United are third in the WSL and the top three qualify for the Champions League.
This qualifying price ticket can open a lot of doors in terms of advertising earnings and call on a new skill for the club for the 2025-26 season.
“Precedence is to check to enter the Champions League,” he said. “We check to plan ahead. “
United have established a solid foundation in the first half of the season but although the manager said after the winter break he was happy with the number of WSL clean sheets (seven) and the way his team have defended, those standards have slipped in the past two games. In 135 minutes against City, United have conceded more goals (four) than in their past 10 league games (three).
Despite United’s league position, the underlying numbers show their struggles this campaign. United sit at the back of the table for ownership and sit mid-table for average shots stored consistently with 90 minutes, as well as dominance in the third attack (see box tilt below). The latter metric, which measures a team’s consistency with century ownership in a game, counting touches or passes made in the attacking third, is one of the goals Skinner has set for his team, in addition to maintaining their urgent intensity.
United are out of the cup and the euphoria of a victory in the short -term derby. But Sunday’s 3 problems, which have raised United on the city to the places of the Champions League, can have a more durable impact. However, just the case if United can take merit at the time of this campaign, starting with Brighton
(Top photo: Skinner with Janssen at full time. Molly Darlington-The FA/The FA Getty Images)