Marc Skinner verdict as Manchester United lose to City

Manchester City beat Manchester United 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium to extend their lead at the top of the Women’s Super League table.

First-half goals from Rebecca Knaak, Bunny Shaw and Lauren Hemp did the damage – with United not registering a shot on target.

But United head coach Marc Skinner had a surprising verdict after the match when asked about his team’s title hopes compared to City, who are now four points clear.

“We’ll see at the end of the season,” he told BBC Sport. “I still think you can catch them.

“I don’t see anything exceptional with them. They’re very good in the front line and can punish anyone but I think you can catch them. I think we’ve got to make up a gap.

“What we need to do is use the winter window to recruit the people we need to help to support this team.”

“We deserved it”

But he also admitted his side deserved the loss.

“We deserved it. We gave City those goals. It’s a set piece where we didn’t get first contact or second contact, that’s on us. Then we don’t defend a run into the box. Then we play out from the back when we should probably kick it.

“It wasn’t like they dominated us, that’s the scary thing. I felt this is a City team where you can get at them and I’m disappointed we didn’t do that today.”

He added that he wanted to see more attack from his side.

“I want a Manchester United team to be an invasive team, I want us to threaten the opponent all the time and I don’t think we did that in the first half. We get into decent positions but we need to be better. I’m more disappointed in the way we reacted than thinking Manchester City ran away with it.”

Marc Skinner: We didn’t create enough

In his post-match press conference he said it was a “strange feeling” to have lost the game 3-0 but not feel like the opponents were much better – although he did admit they were “deadly in the front line”.

“I felt we’re playing a different Man City team this year, they’re a lot more direct,” he said.

“We’ll be disappointed not only with the loss, but we didn’t create enough today.”

He went on: “I felt the players gave as much as they could, it’s just in moments they switched off.”