Skinner out, Olid in, weeks before kick-off
Manchester United open the Women’s Super League season away at London City Lionesses with a manager who arrived days ago.
Marc Skinner left by mutual consent this summer after more than five years, the longest tenure of any WSL manager at the time. He took United into the Champions League twice and won the 2024 FA Cup. He also worked with a playing budget that the latest published WSL accounts put at little more than a third of Chelsea’s and around half of Arsenal’s.
Eva Olid replaces him. She spent last season turning Hearts from the foot of the SWPL into champions, and she did it with the youngest squad in the division at an average age under 24.
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The numbers Olid inherits
United took fourth place, their first finish that low since 2021-22, and the season carried some odd shapes. They were the only WSL side to win every match in which they scored first, nine from nine. Only Tottenham and London City recovered more points from losing positions.
Goals came from everywhere and from nobody. Fifteen different players scored in the league, a club record and more than any rival managed. Not one of them reached the division’s top 10, with Elisabeth Terland, Jess Park and the now-departed Melvine Malard sharing the club lead on six apiece.
Malard’s move to Chelsea removes the player who led United for involvement in open-play shot-ending sequences, 99 of them. Park sat just behind on 91 and now carries the load. She topped the WSL for completed dribbles (39), possession won in the final third (30) and carries into the attacking third (53).
Youth, and a defender who never stops running
Maya Le Tissier led every player in the league for touches (1,996) and carries (406). Only Arsenal’s Mariona Caldentey attempted more passes in the opposition half.
Behind her, Olid has teenagers to promote. Layla Drury, 17, already holds club records as its youngest professional and youngest goalscorer, and she averaged 11.5 recoveries per 90 across 47 WSL minutes last season, the best rate at the club. Andrea Medina arrives from Atletico Madrid at 22 with 357 carries and a 71.7% aerial duel record from Liga F.
The Opta supercomputer gives United a 39.3% chance of finishing fourth again and 3.8% of winning the title. No European football means Olid gets something Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal will not have: whole weeks on the training pitch.
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