WSL 25/26 | United v Villa - 12:00 Sat 8 Nov

jojojo

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United's unbeaten run continued at the weekend and so did our run of "don't drop points to teams you're supposed to beat." Villa are the next of our supposed to beat teams.

However, as we saw saw at the weekend. Fatigue and luck can play a part and so can "it was just one of those days" - when it comes to scoring goals (in either direction). We did at least give players like Ella who had tough international breaks an early finish.

This time we play with one eye on a Wednesday night CL match against PSG at OT followed by an away City the Saturday after. It's the start of abig week.

Match is live on Sky Sports+

And yes, it does clash with the men's team playing Spurs but at least the half hour difference in kickoff will give TV watchers (including me) a chance to see some of both.
 
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It's the start of an enormous 10 days or so that could, not to get to hyperbolic, determine our season.

Villa at Leigh, PSG at Old Trafford, City at the Etihad and finally Wolfsburg in Germany. I'll be at three of those four (family commitments prevent an Etihad visit, but yay for a first ever European away trip for me! Ich bin ein Man Uniteder or something like that!)

PSG and Wolfsburg will give us a proper indication of where we are in the European standings. Villa an obvious must win, and if we want Champions League footy again next year we absolutely must be beating City at the Etihad again.

I am quietly confident of three wins from four, but I couldn't necessarily tell you which three that might be! One of them for sure though, is Villa on Saturday.
 
jojojo said:
And yes, it does clash with the men's team playing Spurs but at least the half hour difference in kickoff will give TV watchers (including me) a chance to see some of both.
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Since I don't follow the men, the problem for me is that the WSL match between Arsenal and Chelsea is at exactly the same time.
 
Lobster11 said:
Since I don't follow the men, the problem for me is that the WSL match between Arsenal and Chelsea is at exactly the same time.
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Can they both lose?? A draw would be amazing, but only if we take advantage!

I'll be at Leigh, feels like such a long time, I can't wait!
 
Time for Skinner to show he understands rotation and squad management - keeping players fresh for the next 4 matches is the biggest challenge especially with our thin squad
 
ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg said:
I would have thought that co-ordination/ deconfliction with the men’s game would be a consideration for scheduling.
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We've had worse clashes but yes, you'd think given the desire to grow the game they'd have a scheduling incentive to avoid them. Same for the broadcasters really.

It's particularly bad for matchgoing fans - we've even had weekends when both teams were playing at home and they either clashed directly or left people with no time to get between the stadia.

It feels like a throwback to the old, amateur days of women's football when there were often distinct women's team fans and men's team fans. There's a lot more overlap now including, at United, a fair number with season tickets for both teams. I'm not in that category now but it really annoyed me when I had to pick which match to go to.

I'd blame TV but it was happening before WSL sold the rights to every match to Sky, so my instincts are to blame incompetence and/or indifference.

And yes, like @Lobster11 if I could choose I'd like to have seen the Arsenal/Chelsea match as well. But I'll already have two screens in play and I don't have enough eyes to handle a third :lol:
 


No Bizet yet. Zigiotti, Malard and Sandberg start on the bench - Naalsund, Rolfo and George start today.
 
We’ve been in promising situations but every single cross has been bloody awful so far. Straight to a defender every time.
 
Villa get a shot on target after a speedy break but Phallon is in the right place. I think that's the first shot on target for either team.
 
Annoying that. They've been putting pressure on, but that's bad news. 1-0 to Villa
 
Rolfö could not be bothered to pressure the goalscorer on the corner, she is looking up at the the threat and then proceeds to instead of taking away the shooters space to move aside not doing anything at all and then Le Tissier leaves her post, if she just stays at her place at the left post, they cant score that goal. Its a repeat of the corner goal conceded at Everton away except no goaltender interference.
 
Villa thoroughly deserve to be ahead, we’ve been awful. Another half of football where we’ve dominated position but the other team could have played without a keeper.
 
Can't explain that half at all. We seem leggy even though we have had a full week to prepare. Playing strange long balls or through balls rather than trying to build properly
 
We've definitely looked flat, but I'd like to know what Villa is doing defensively that is causing us so much trouble. They have completely neutralized Park, and it seems to me that Toone's "shocking" half is largely the result of defenders constantly appearing where she doesn't expect them to be. Maybe someone with better knowledge of X's and O's can explain this for me?
 
Good last ditch defending by Villa there.

We're making it look like hard work at the moment. I'm not sure what we're looking at in terms of why but the midfield dynamic is definitely different without Zigiotti. It's not that Naalsund is playing badly - she just isn't giving us much going forward and she's not got the defensive instincts of Zigiotti.
 
jojojo said:
Good last ditch defending by Villa there.

We're making it look like hard work at the moment. I'm not sure what we're looking at in terms of why but the midfield dynamic is definitely different without Zigiotti. It's not that Naalsund is playing badly - she just isn't giving us much going forward and she's not got the defensive instincts of Zigiotti.
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Agreed -- this has served as a stark reminder of just how key Zigiotti has become to our midfield.
 
It seems like our only option in the final third is to cross it into the box. No patterns of play, no chains of passes, no creativity whatsoever.
 
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