To be fair, I'm only an occasional watcher of the women's team, but this has been a particularly terrible game quality wise.
WSL 23/24 | United v City at OT - Sun 19 Nov at 4:30pm
- Thread starter jojojo
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Zelem didn't really look a worthy captain tbh, is she usually better than that?
We were very poor in possession in midfield and at the back. I like the right back though, she looks a very decent player to me.
We were very poor in possession in midfield and at the back. I like the right back though, she looks a very decent player to me.
Cheating cnuts
Holding 3 at home to City. It’s tradition
The midfield was overrun today which is quite a familiar sight. The new signing Naalsund I am not really sure what we saw in her. Zelem is too slow, but she is usually a bit better than today. City is a quality team, they outplayed Arsenal only to lose on a goaltending error a week ago. Its a different level opponent. With Toone also being complete off form, it seems we need a new midfield.
A shame the game died with Tissier and Earps gifting Shaw the 1-3 goal though, that was a proper clown show.
I don’t watch much women’s football, but at the WWC there was some really good, skilful footballing quality on display.
This match was nothing like that.
It was awful.
Some of Utd’s players looked like the goofy kid who has never kicked a ball before.
A deserved loss.
.
This match was nothing like that.
It was awful.
Some of Utd’s players looked like the goofy kid who has never kicked a ball before.
A deserved loss.
.
Oh yeah City looked a capable team, particularly defensively, but I was just surprised at how bad we were at moving the ball around. We'd win it back and then give it away again as soon as City pressed. And it wasn't just one player, there were lots of them at it.
Yes, completely agree. I did not see a completely abysmal display like this coming. City just looked dominant from start to finish pretty much. Not sure if our lasses were nervous playing in front of the big crowd or if Skinners new formation failed big time. But it was definitely a inexcusable bad showing in many ways. What sad is many newcomers wont come back to see a game like this, there was little emotion seen from our team as well. Not enough urgency or desperation in the 2nd half.
Skinner has some serious thinking to do.
Having been out and about in Manchester today, I expect the weather hasn't helped the quality of the football today.
That is true, but City managed to play alot better, although they could just sit back and kill all attacks after grabbing the lead. Skinner has to have this team ready to play in the weather we train in.
We should get rid of Skinner.
Look into who surpassed his namesake at Royal Rumble 1992. The best rumble featuring a whole
host of stars. Ric Flair is no doubt employed by city, so I hope to shit Sid Vicious is available. If there's one guy who can achieve the best with a demoralised women's football team, well, it sure as shite is not Skinner.
Look into who surpassed his namesake at Royal Rumble 1992. The best rumble featuring a whole
host of stars. Ric Flair is no doubt employed by city, so I hope to shit Sid Vicious is available. If there's one guy who can achieve the best with a demoralised women's football team, well, it sure as shite is not Skinner.
We looked unstoppable at times last season. This team just ain't clicking at the moment.
Three goals for City were abysmal defending wise.
Especially 2 and 3. Just awful
Especially 2 and 3. Just awful
Our new recruitment team should be thinking about giving him his P45 but doubt it
Diabolically bad game.
There was no energy in the performance. So off it and technically/ tactically poor.
Skinner needs to hold his hand up for his selections alone. Jayde Riviere must be well peed off.
Disappointing as we had the 4.30 sky slot and 44000 in attendance.
Skinner needs to hold his hand up for his selections alone. Jayde Riviere must be well peed off.
Disappointing as we had the 4.30 sky slot and 44000 in attendance.
Yep for many casual fans who tuned in, perhaps off the back of the Lioness' performances, it was not a great advert.
The sport doesn't have the depth yet. When you get the best in the country together they can put out starting lines ups with a more consistent quality level but even there you see obvious weak links when they have to dip into the sub bench. At club level there is a large variation between the better players and the weakest in a team. Stands out physically with many more players who just don't have the sharpness in their movement and body control to make the plays they need to make.
It was worse but not drastically different than other games against the better sides, we usually look technically and tactically inferior but Skinner has this weird way of doing loads of odd shit in big games that doesn't work but then the forward player he brings off the bench contributes a goal and everything gets forgotten. City were a bit more ruthless than that today and the subs didn't make the impact they often do but more importantly the team needs to be better at imposing themselves on these games and also needs to find a way to progress the ball effectively now that Batlle, who was our best player by miles, isn't there to do that every time.
They set the tone in the first few minutes - warned us what they were going to do and then did it. They deserved their first goal, we deserved to give away the two that followed. They warned us they were going to press and that they had the players to do it - we acted like we had all the time in the world.
Some of the problems are familiar to regular watchers of the women's team. Zelem does get caught on the ball. Earps had lost some of the concentration and anticipation that made her exceptional for a while. Toone looks low on confidence. The new players look good in patches but haven't yet gelled as a team. And so on...
I'm still not convinced that Skinner can help us step up in these big games. He doesn't adapt tactically quickly enough and more frustratingly - he doesn't seem to want to.
Not a great day for it in the Manchester rain, but there were two teams out there and City were better than us and that's more annoying than losing.
Some of the problems are familiar to regular watchers of the women's team. Zelem does get caught on the ball. Earps had lost some of the concentration and anticipation that made her exceptional for a while. Toone looks low on confidence. The new players look good in patches but haven't yet gelled as a team. And so on...
I'm still not convinced that Skinner can help us step up in these big games. He doesn't adapt tactically quickly enough and more frustratingly - he doesn't seem to want to.
Not a great day for it in the Manchester rain, but there were two teams out there and City were better than us and that's more annoying than losing.
Yeah I suspect same old when we go to Chelsea in late January,get more effort against them for sides lower down the league
A disappointing day out overall. That was a dire performance and City thoroughly deserved the win.
Blundell was voted Players' Player of the Year last season - as left back. Riviere has been so good this year as right back. So why, oh why start Galton at left back? It makes no sense.
Naalsund in midfield is another odd one. Both Ladd and Miyazawa are much more competitive and energetic. Zelem had a shocker.
Skinner has a lot to answer for.
Blundell was voted Players' Player of the Year last season - as left back. Riviere has been so good this year as right back. So why, oh why start Galton at left back? It makes no sense.
Naalsund in midfield is another odd one. Both Ladd and Miyazawa are much more competitive and energetic. Zelem had a shocker.
Skinner has a lot to answer for.
Well, after calming down I dont blame Earps for the 1-3 goal, its almost 100% on Tissier for being nonchalant. Of course Earps could have dribbled Shaw, or flicked the ball to either side, but not certain those options would have ended well either.
But Skinner needs to change the plan if City is committed to playing an extremely high press at the start, just decide to hoof the ball if you cant handle the press, that disrupts United game plan, but also makes sure City wont get anything out of wasting energy pressing. They wont have energy to press that hard all game long.
And indeed the formation change was very odd, kind of like PSG at home when everything collapsed and had to be changed.
Naalsund is a player I dont really understand why we bought, just seems a mediocre in most ways, the midfield is always a weak point, not enough speed, grit, strength, shooting threat or anything else for that matter either.
And on top of that the late subs at 75+ minutes in a game where most of the players left on the pitch had been terrible all game long, if thats no reason to sub, then what is?
Most sad is that the record crowd not only had to witness a loss, but a pathetic, clueless and almost lazy performance that made it a very boring game.
Citys defense certainly seems elite, they stifled Arsenal except that giveaway by Citys GK.
The positives:
Garcias running mojo when she came on, that woke me up and injected some hope into the game even though I knew we could have played 2 hours more without scoring
Last thought: We have had alot of trouble with City even though City has had multiple red cards against us the last seasons, I would say the results have flattered us a bit in many games, so maybe it was time for some count back on that.
Nevertheless, now we need to grab points against Chelsea and beat City and Arsenal while not dropping almost any other points to challenge for 2nd or 3rd place.
Maybe Skinner will be forced to make the domestic cup the priority soon? :-(
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Goal three was Earps bricking it and clearing it straight to City, wasn’t it? A keeper should have been able to clear it without gifting them a goal.
It was a total mess. The effort to play it out from the back was just so so bad.
Keeper rushed the wrong and poorly weighted pass to defender who's poor first touch and even worse attempt at a back pass causes the mess. It's playground stuff. Keeper is 75% at fault. Brainless.
That's the thing though. It's seldom one player's fault in that situation, but when you constantly invite Bunny Shaw to press your goalkeeper what else is going to happen. Someone will underhit a pass, someone won't react in time to recover.
PSG threatened to do the same to us in the first half at Leigh - only their poor form in front of goal stopped them racing away with it. In that match we improved in the second half - no such luck against City.
I was surprised at how bad Toone looked, so many attacks in the first half collapsed with her.
Also, despite her talent it's becoming clearer why a club like Barcelona were happy to let Geyse go, the end product is just so wasteful 9 times out of 10! Not sure if she can be coached to be more consistent or she will just always be both exciting and frustrating, in an unequal sense of being more often frustrating than exciting!
Malard looked good though, was surprised and disappointed when she was the one subbed quite early.
Also, despite her talent it's becoming clearer why a club like Barcelona were happy to let Geyse go, the end product is just so wasteful 9 times out of 10! Not sure if she can be coached to be more consistent or she will just always be both exciting and frustrating, in an unequal sense of being more often frustrating than exciting!
Malard looked good though, was surprised and disappointed when she was the one subbed quite early.
It reminded me a lot of the first half against PSG at Leigh. Unless Rivière wasn't fully fit there's no explanation for her not starting at fullback - she's played well in the last couple of games, she's as close to a Batlle replacement as we were ever likely to get. We effectively lost Rivière's strengths and Galton's in that move.
I still don't know how good Naalsund is/isn't - I see flashes of something good, particularly in progressing the ball, I'm still trying to keep an open mind. I don't see Zelem/Naalsund as a balanced pairing with Toone in midfield. It was a very aggressive lineup - Malard, Geyse, Parris + Galton, Toone - but we didn't look like the attacking team in that match, the ball scarcely seldom found them.
Yes some weird decisions from Skinner - had Galton ever played fullback before?
We are thin on defensive options but never expected to see our top scorer last season at left back (although I suppose Rachel Daly also manages this bizarre dual role).
I remember talking about the various options we had for starting midfield, Naalsund was not even in contention as far as I was concerned and the first goal was mostly on her - good play by Kelly TBF.
I've just about dried out. I was in the Stretford End and despite the performance the atmosphere was lively. I felt sorry for those around the ground who had seats close to the pitch.
I posted earlier about my thoughts on the team selection. Very odd indeed. They just didn't perform, or were not allowed to. Full credit to City and their tactics.
I don't blame Earps too much - there was nothing she could really do about the first two goals, made two good saves, but will be remembered for the farcical third goal.
Zelem, as I said, had a poor game. Toone was largely anonymous and wasteful. Parris was not in the game at all. Malard and Geyse tried to make things happen but the City defence and midfield were always on top.
Skinner's substitutions were once again too late. Garcia was a bright light in an otherwise depressing performance. What a shame that this will have been many people's first match experience.
For the first time ever Skinner has a decent squad with several options and I just think he's trying to be a bit too clever with selections
we were coming off the back of 2 big wins (against much weaker opponents admittedly) but I didn't see the need for such huge changes to defence and midfield from last weekend
Getting the balance between a settled team and keeping the whole squad fresh and happy is the most difficult challenge for Skinner
To summarize the feeling on social media.
1. Skinner needs to be fired ASAP
2. Earps heart is not at United
3. Toone is unhappy
1. Skinner needs to be fired ASAP
2. Earps heart is not at United
3. Toone is unhappy
Addition: Why has nobody mentioned the 30 second rule that should have kept Shaw off the field for 30 seconds before rejoining and thus the 1-3 goal not happening? They let that cheat in within 5 seconds of her being instantly healed!
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That irked me. As did the disallowed goal. If it was for offside, it clearly wasn't. If it was for the ball out of play, it should have been a corner.
That said, we deserved nothing from the game.
It's easy to support this team because they are mirror images of the men's team. "wasteful 9 time out of 10" and "exciting and frustating" are very familiar terms.
Ye seeing a lot of 'Skinner Out' but don't know if it's the majority view, social media often skews things
Although she had a part in 3rd goal, she made 2 great saves so don't think it's true - she might want out but she's a top professional.
Toone I don't know the issue - perhaps too much focus on off field promotion, vlogs etc nowadays.
I don't view social media at all so don't know anything about that. My own personal view is that he has probably taken us as far as he can.
Earps - no problem at all with her form, professionalism and commitment.
Toone is an interesting one. She has been off form for a good while and I would not be surprised if that coincides with Russo deciding to leave
Skinner obviously did well last year but this now brings higher expectations - despite the odd good result, I think his big game record is not great.
Still this is only the first loss this season but has been a couple of draws where we expected wins so now cant afford many other slip ups if we want to finish Top 3 again.
Yeah the draws at Leicester and Brighton