Rehanne Skinner says her side can go to Old Trafford on Saturday with no fear and a determination to make the perfect start to their Barclays Women’s Super League (WSL) campaign against hosts Manchester United.
Following her first full season at the West Ham United helm, when the Hammers finished eleventh in the WSL table, Skinner’s squad has undergone a major revamp through the transfer window, and she is relishing this weekend’s mouth-watering curtain-raiser.
It has been another busy summer in east London, with our women’s team making some major moves in a bid to build on last season, while a pre-season trip to Western Australia, for the inaugural Perth International Football Cup was considered a real success, and Matildas great Katrina Gorry was appointed as the women’s new Club captain ahead of the 2024/25 season.
Skinner believes West Ham laid down the foundations of the way she wants to play at the Club last season. Her blueprint for the Hammers is becoming clearer with every passing week, with every new recruit buying into the shared ideology within the squad.
Despite acknowledging the undoubted quality among United’s ranks, Skinner is concentrating on the strengths of her own team and insists there is no reason for her side not to perform on the pitch and have a positive opening day in the North-West.
Speaking to the media little over 24 hours ahead of kick-off, she gave us some early team news, spoke of her excitement for Saturday’s Manchester United fixture, while also commenting on her new signings and her decision to give Gorry the captain’s armband.
You can read the key talking points below…
Playing at Old Trafford is a great way to start the season
At the end of the day, it's a great way to start the season at a fantastic, historical place. I think it's a great opportunity for the players, especially the new ones who haven't played in the league as well, to see what the WSL is about. I think they've come to this league to be playing these kinds of games, so I think it's a great opportunity for us. The team just collectively has a fantastic togetherness as well as a real desire to be better than we were last year. We know there are some bits in and amongst that, that we wanted to try and focus on improving going into this year, and we spoke about that. I think we're at the point now where we're ready to go and kickstart things and get going.
I think they [the players] look forward to these types of games. I think these are the opportunities that we talk about when trying to grow the women’s game, and I think all players want to play in the best stadiums. So I think for us, we just want to go and enjoy being in that kind of setting and give a really good account of ourselves. That's what I've asked the players to do - go and enjoy it, put your best foot forward and make sure that you're giving the best possible account of yourself because it's the first game of the season.
Wherever it is that we're playing, we've got to want to turn up and do our jobs and show what we're about as a team, and that's going to be the most important thing coming out of it.
We've got to have a 'no-fear' attitude this season
I think last year was all about changing things. One of the things I was tasked with was creating an environment where the players can just focus on performing. There's been a lot of work done behind the scenes to try and help that, so we have to go into this season knowing there's no excuses, we've got to want to fight for everything and we need to be more consistent with what we deliver now. We've got to be much more competitive against the teams in and around us. There is a bit more pressure on us as doing well, because we do want to improve on last year, but we also accept that off the back of last year, everybody will be writing us off as the underdogs.
I think for us, the most important thing is that we believe in what we're doing, the process that we've put in place, and the players who we've brought in, and we're trying to move the team forward for the Club. That's the main focus, really. So I think we have to collectively have a bit of a 'no-fear' attitude this year, because I think it's the thing that brings the best out in players anyway, and that’s the area that we've got to focus on. We just want to make sure that we fight and do the things that we're trying to do really, really well, and hold ourselves accountable for the way that we want to play and want to do things.
I think there were times when we weren't physical enough in and around the box last year, and I felt like we conceded some sloppy goals that actually cost us points. So it's been a focus area for us [to eradicate those errors]. We obviously tried to strengthen the backline, and we've had a change of goalkeeper as well. We want to try and make sure that we bring some more solidity to our defending, and that's something that we've not all gotten right in pre-season, but that's kind of why we had some of those tests as well, because we needed to work on that and improve on those things and highlight that with the players and focus on moving that forward. I think [in attack] it is definitely an area that we feel we've got some strengths in, but we also defensively need to make sure that we focus on our job and are much more diligent in and around the box ourselves.
Our pre-season Perth tour was a fantastic opportunity
I think one of the best things about tours, just in general, is the opportunity for players to build connections. When you're in and around the building, you're always doing something, and you don't necessarily get the same sort of downtime. But the group organised a few different social events to get everybody into the group.
So I think the tour in Perth was great for doing something totally different as well, and I think that's all stuff that they've created some memories together. You can't underestimate the need for team bonding in order to be effective when you're under pressure in game situations and stuff, so that's definitely helped us being on that tour.
We've got a couple of players unavailable
Kirsty Smith will be missing, but in terms of the rest of the squad [aside from Jess Ziu], they're available. I think from our side of things, we've got players that came in quite late in the window. So some people aren't quite ready for the full 90 minutes and we are still working on building them up. I think we're still working on building up the tolerance within players like Kristie [Mewis] and Dagný [Brynjarsdóttir], who were out for a chunk of time and are making steps in the right direction. This week Mini [Katrina Gorry] has had a viral infection, but she's improved as the week's gone on, so we just need to think it about and see how that looks with her tomorrow.
Jess had her surgery [on her knee injury suffered in pre-season]. She's doing really well. She came back here at the start of this week, her swelling has gone down a lot and she's got a good range of movement. She's actually in a really good place at this point post-surgery, so we're really pleased that that's obviously been dealt with quickly.
'Mini' really galvanises this group
I think over time now we've managed to evolve the leaders in the group, so it's a much more experienced balance within the team compared to what I first came into and that's been orchestrated intentionally. In terms of Mini, she obviously has had a lot of experience, and she's been fantastic in terms of galvanising the group, her influencing and around the team and how approachable she is. She's just been a real positive asset. We've got other leaders within the group that have a lot of experience in Shelina Zadorsky. Dagný has been the Club captain previously, and she's got great leadership skills that she will be able to utilise in certain ways as well.
There’re so many players that are starting to elevate and will support what Mini is trying to obviously get across within the team. I think she's very clear what West Ham is, and that's what made her want to come here and she's very clear at delivering on that identity as well. She's been really well received from the fans as well because of that, because they've seen what she can contribute.
New signings are settling in well
I've worked with quite a few Japanese players and a couple of Chinese players now as well. I think settling players down is the most important job and settling them into a new country. When it comes to the language piece, it’s easier when you're utilising video clips and tactics boards because they all know football. But the off-the-pitch stuff is absolutely vital, such as where they're living, how they're getting food and all of their bits and bobs. People don't talk about any of that stuff. But if that's not right, it impacts players coming into the building and being able to focus on the football.
The team behind the team works really hard to try and make sure that that happens and that they get settled in a little bit quicker. There's a lot of these players that do not come from cold climates as well, which is also an adjustment coming into this country, but I think for me it's a good test for me to bring those cultures together. I think having people from all those different leagues adds quality to what you're trying to achieve as well.
