“We have to be better”: Eva Olid pinpoints what she still wants to see her Man United Women side improve at in spite of four straight wins
· Yahoo Sports
Manchester United Women took another huge step forward with a gritty 1-0 victory over Liverpool at the Progress with Unity Stadium.
The Red Devils kept their first clean sheet of the season and showed a defensive solidity that they have so far struggled to achieve this season.
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The win was Eva Olid‘s side’s fourth in a row and things are suddenly looking a lot rosier for the team.
Importance of Phallon Tullis-Joyce
Tullis-Joyce has been fantastic since replacing Mary Earps as the club’s number one keeper in 2024 and has continued this season in a similar vein.
She made some outstanding stops, including a sensational double save to keep Liverpool at bay on Saturday.
Commenting to the club’s official website about the American keeper, Olid said, “I speak a lot with Phallon to try to give her that confidence. And, I say to her, ‘You have to be a leader,’ because the goalkeepers see everything and then you need to step up and be a leader and show a lot of security to the team.”
She admitted that Tullis-Joyce is naturally a quiet person but that she needs to continue to show more on the pitch owing to her importance to the side.
Tactical improvement still needed
In spite of things clearly improving, Olid is still not entirely satisfied with how her side is playing.
She explained, “the identity of this team is a high press. I don’t want to change that because they do it really well.”
Nevertheless, what she wants to improve is “instilling more confidence and calmness in the critical attacking moments: “[Give] the players more confidence in attack and with the ball, and we can score chances from playing nice football that they can enjoy, and the fans and everyone can enjoy. I think we are improving but, still, we have to be better in final-third situations, but I know it’s going to come. The last pass, the last decision, we have to be better, because with all the times we were in final third in the box, we could score more goals, just being more calm.”
She suggested that her side is often too keen to play the killer ball too early and needs to learn more patience, but that this will come with more time and training.
United will next be in action after the international break against Charlton Athletic on Sunday 18th October.