The Reds’ hopes of getting into next season’s UEFA Champions League were dented with the WSL stalemate in north London, but finishing in one of the league’s three qualifying positions remains a possibility heading into our final home game of the season, at the weekend.
Skinner says United will need to be better against the Seagulls and picked out his side’s pressing efforts off the ball as an area we can work on, following Sunday’s result.
MANAGING MINUTES
Positively for the Reds, we were able to welcome Anna Sandberg, Ella Toone and Ellen Wangerheim back from their injuries on Sunday afternoon.
The trio were introduced as second-half substitutes and, in his conversation with MUTV, Skinner provided some clarity on the minutes he was able to give those players, as well as Melvine Malard, who made a huge impact when she came on at half-time.
“Just so we’re clear, we got Mel for 45 minutes max, Tooney for half an hour max. It’s all medical direction and that’s right because they’re coming back.
“Anna for half an hour, Ellen for half an hour. Their minutes will build over the next few weeks and they’ll get sharper.”
RIVIERE: WE HAVE EVERYTHING TO PLAY FOR
In the context of the race for Champions League football, disappointment was a natural feeling on Sunday, after we only brought a point home from the capital.
The result means our goal to finish in one of the WSL’s three European spots is no longer in our hands, despite the Reds moving up to third in the table and a point above Arsenal.
The Gunners have three games in hand and, while league leaders Manchester City have enough points to finish inside the top three, second-place Chelsea opened up a four-point gap on us by winning at Everton, meaning we’ll need the Blues to drop points against Leicester on Sunday for them to be within striking distance when we meet on the final day.
Full-back Jayde Riviere is remaining optimistic though, and spoke with determination post-match on Sunday, underlining our intention to do everything we can in the coming weeks to qualify for Europe.
“I would say 0-0 was a fair result, it’s not the result we want obviously,” the Canada international told MUTV.
“We know that these three matches were going to be crucial for us, but I think today, sometimes it just comes down to attitude. And I think that we have everything to play for, we’re a team that wants to win, so we’re gonna finish out the season hard and hope for the best.
“For us, all we can do is control what we can, and we can control the 90 minutes that we have in each of those games [Brighton and Chelsea], and that’s all we’ve got to work towards.”
Tickets for our game against Brighton at the Progress With Unity Stadium are available here.