West Ham United manager Rehanne Skinner says that this afternoon’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Aston Villa will be tough and that her side must be prepared for the hosts’ attacking threats.
The Hammers face The Villans at Villa Park in what is their final game of the calendar year.
Both teams are known for their goalscoring exploits and West Ham United manager Skinner says that her side must be defensively organised in the Midlands.
“You have to make sure that you’re defensively really organised,” Skinner said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “We know what they’ve got going forward and they’re capable of scoring goals. They maybe haven’t scored as many as they are capable of but they’re capable.
“It’s about being organised and making sure that we stick to the game plan but still have that creativity. The confidence that we have had in terms of going forward is going to be important.
“It’ll be a really tough game but we want to come out of it on the right side so that we can go into the break with what we feel is a more positive position.”
Aston Villa go into the match under the interim management of Shaun Goater following former boss Robert de Pauw’s departure on Wednesday. Skinner said that her side’s preparation for the game has not changed following the events in midweek.
She said “You never know what that person is going to do in a short space of time. The things that you can control are the things that you do and prepare for.
“We don’t change; there’s no point worrying about something you can’t control. We focus on what we already know about them; the team in terms of their personnel has been pretty much consistent. We know what we are coming up against, we know the likely starters and finishers, we know what that looks like. Ultimately, it’s about what we do and how we play within that system to make sure we minimise their options. It’s about focusing on us.”
When asked for her thoughts on De Pauw’s departure, Skinner said that her only focus is on West Ham United.
She said “It’s nothing to do with me. It’s one of those things that happens unfortunately. It depends on the structure, plans and the expectations behind the scenes. Ultimately, we just focus on what we are doing.
“It has happened to us already where we have played a team whose manager has gone a couple of days before the game. We are in the same position as we were with Arsenal.”
West Ham United’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Aston Villa kicks-off at 2pm.
