Manchester United travel to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday to open what promises to be a landmark 2022/23 WSL season in the wake of an unprecedented and triumphant Euro 2022.
United boss Marc Skinner addressed a number of key topics at his pre-match press conference on Thursday afternoon, which fell on the same day as the WSL transfer deadline.
Questions directed at Skinner included teams news for the game, the club’s Champions League ambitions, contract talks, Nikita Parris, Alessia Russo, Millie Turner and more.
“We’re still trying to do work for the winter window and the summer window next year. We’ve had seven in, that’s quite a lot, but that doesn’t mean we’ve stopped working. Hopefully we can do some work in those windows too.
“Kirsty [Hanson] has gone out today for the whole reason that we want Kirsty to continue to progress with constant minutes. She can be a wonderful, wonderful asset, I’ve got nothing but high regards for her. But I need her to play and I want to her to get those consistent minutes.
“I’ve made the front line very competitive this year. We faced so many different challenges last year where we had high lines, quite a lot of blocks…so I need different ways to exploit the opponent when they go into a block. I’ve recruited enough skillsets to be able to unlock different scenarios.
“Going out, no one [except Hanson] is going out [before the deadline].
“Everybody is training barring Adriana [Leon] and Rach [Williams]. Rach has picked up a knock in training where she went full blooded into a tackle and just took a knock on her knee.
“Apart from that, Adriana is on a flight back from Australia. Those are the only players not ready to feature [in training] today. Adriana hopefully comes in [on Friday] and is fresh and can be considered for the squad on the weekend.
“[Williams] hyperextended her knee and just needs a rest period, probably looking at about three or four weeks and then she’ll be ready. There’s no permanent damage, it’s just as Rachel Williams does and the whole [reason] we signed her as well, she went full-blooded into a tackle and just hyperextended her knee. She just needs a little bit of time to heal. We’re not in any rush, it’s going to be a long season.”
“There’s meant to be massive crowd for the game against us. So that will be amazing. I was at some of the final games [at Euro 2022] and to feel the crowds…I think women’s football brings an amazing energy so…
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