‘I think they’ve punished us’ – Manchester United boss Skinner reacts to derby defeat

Three first half goals decided the game with all three points going the way of the in-form Cityzens.

When speaking to the media after the match, Manchester United boss Skinner expressed disappointment with the way in which his side defended Manchester City’s direct threats in and around the box.

“I felt that we were done on a set-piece where we allowed two contacts which is unlike us and we didn’t defend a cross very well, so that sums the game up,” Skinner said. “I felt we were playing a different Man City team this year where they’re a lot more direct and this should have suited us. We probably let ourselves down in that [respect] today.

“I think we’ll be disappointed, not only with the loss, but we didn’t create enough today, even though we were in good spaces on the field. I think they’ve punished us with that.”

It was a quick turnaround for Manchester United with the game coming less than 72 hours after their 2-1 win against Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Women’s Champions League on Wednesday night. Skinner highlighted the challenge brought by the quick turnaround and says that the club must be active in the winter transfer window.

He said “I think the four-day [turnaround], the little gap gives you a little bit more recovery time [than the three-day turnaround]. After the PSG game, the girls got back later, they had the day off and we had to walk through training because not everybody’s able to even run, so you can’t even do it a tempo. It’s just these little factors that we’re getting used to being in the Champions League. 
I’m not going to moan about that though, I want to stress that. We’ve got to take that challenge on and that’s why I think in the winter window, we need to supply some support for the players.”

Going on to discuss the short turnaround further, Skinner was adamant that he won’t use being in the UEFA Women’s Champions League as an excuse.

He said “We won’t use it as an excuse. I think we had an advantage on City last year when they were doing the same, so it’s nothing against City in that term. For us, we need it to be impacted in the winter window, to be clear, because it needs to support these players that have given absolutely everything.

“I felt the players gave as much as they could. It was just in moments, we switched off and that can be tiredness, that can be fatigue. I understand those, but our standards as a team, as a club, is that we can’t accept that and we have to try and fix it again towards them.”

Manchester United are back in action on Wednesday evening when they travel to Germany to face VfL Wolfsburg in the UEFA Women’s Champions League’s league phase.