Rehanne Skinner has stated her West Ham United women’s team are only focused on themselves as they head into the final three games of the Barclays Women’s Super League season.
Following Saturday’s hard-fought point with Manchester United, in which the Irons kept their second clean sheet in the last three matches, they now head to bottom-of-the-table Crystal Palace, who need a victory to keep their survival hopes alive.
Given that after a trip to Palace, the Hammers face second-from-bottom Aston Villa and then third-from-bottom Leicester City in their final games of the season, Skinner was asked about potential complacency in her pre-match press conference at Chadwell Heath on Thursday afternoon.
But the manager has backed her side to end the season on a high, as they look to extend their unbeaten run that currently stands at four matches courtesy of positive results against Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Manchester United.
Confidence is brewing within the team, and that was another topic that Skinner was asked about in her presser. Not only because of their recent run of form, but the women’s team will certainly head into Sunday full of belief due to their result in the reverse fixture, which saw them dispatch visiting Palace 5-2 in December after goals from Viviane Asseyi, Seraina Piubel, Manuela Paví, Anouk Denton and Katrina Gorry.
Skinner also confirmed the departure of Li Mengwen, who was on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion for the season, as she returned to China to represent Jiangsu province in the National Games. The manager expressed her gratitude for all of Mengwen’s hard work during her time at the Club and wishes her all the best for the future.
Apart from the departure of the China international, Skinner confirmed everyone else is available for Sunday’s trip to Crystal Palace.
The whole team is pulling in the same direction
The transfer windows that we've had have been really crucial to us. I think that's then led us to be able to evolve the depth in the squad and the competitiveness of the team.
The type of characteristics that those players have on and off the pitch is massive to be able to build the culture and environment that you want. I think when you start to get everybody in a position where they're pulling in the same direction, it obviously then leads to a whole team sense of purpose.
We've got to that point now where we know what we're about, we know what we're good at, we know what we can deliver. It's meant that everybody can relax into that a little bit and play the way that we know that we can.
And obviously, with the depth in the squad, we're now in a position where we have changes that we can do for tactical reasons, as well as for energy.
We have to deliver the same intensity against the teams that are around us
It's not really about the opposition anymore, it's about the way that we want to play and our standards, and how we want to approach everything and live to our values, and how we want to operate. Every game is about three points and opportunity.
No matter what game, whoever we play, we'll always reflect on the good stuff and the bad stuff, and try and obviously take action on the things that we need to do to be getting better, because where we've got to this year has been really, really positive.
But we're still building every single season on where we want to get to next. The next season will be another challenge, everything’s constant. You're never finished in football. You're always evolving some part of it.
In the last block of games in particular, we showed what we're capable of. We have to deliver that against the teams that are in and around us. And the players are completely on board with that.
Giving feedback has sparked confidence
I think when we look back to the structure of [training] sessions that we've had, there's some elements that we've done repeatedly and given immediate feedback to show what it looks like when we get it right, and what it looks like when we don't.
And equally, when we're defending our goal and set plays, it's about repeated opportunities to practice, and then reinforcing the positives when we get it right, but also getting out of the players how they feel in those moments, because they can feel the difference when they're doing well.
That then breeds confidence in itself, especially when they're feeding that back to each other instantly as well.
The players are willing to learn
I think we had to have a really honest conversation about the types of chances we were creating before Christmas as well, because we weren't being as effective as we could have been in the final third. So I think we've got a group of players together that are willing to learn and want to really focus on the things that matter, that give them the marginal gains.
I think that's then helped when we're creating chances, we're creating better chances.
I'm really proud of the way the players are using the ball effectively when we have it, because that's made a difference to us.
We're standing ourselves in good stead for next season
The way that we're able to compete stands us in good stead for continuing to progress from where we were last year.
We've then got to go and do that again next year. These are all building blocks that will help us to be more successful year on year. So obviously, in the period that we've just had, we've shown a few different sides to ourselves to be able to do what we need to to get opportunities in games, and to get points out of games as well.
I think when we sit and reflect on everything that's gone on this season with the players, it's really positive with all the firsts that they've achieved this year. We obviously want to finish in the highest possible position we can. We've got three games to focus on and we will focus on doing the best we can with those.
As a manager, you're always looking at the things you can do better, so there's a few games that stick out in my mind that we didn't play that well in. I've got three in my mind that I don't think we did particularly well in. But other than that, we’ve been in every game.
That's a huge step forward. That's a massive positive for the team to take into next year.
