Friday Ramble: Calming Methods
Marc Skinner reflects on how he has changed in six years between FA Cup finals. Plus, I answer your questions...
"I never thought it could get lower than the final," said Marc Skinner, just under a year after guiding Birmingham City to the FA Cup final in 2017.
Having only been in the job a mere few months and leading a plucky Blues side past the likes of Chelsea on the way to a first trip to Wembley, you'd think Skinner was being hard on himself, but it's a reflection of where he was at at the time.
Six months later, Birmingham City had won just one game in the new FA WSL season and Skinner was under pressure, with his team struggling to adapt from their previous defensive methods to a more possession-based style of play.
Goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger and striker Ellen White had been injured, and Skinner found divine intervention in the form of The Greatest Showman over the Christmas period with partner Laura Bassett away playing for Canberra United in Australia.
"I was a teacher and that was difficult but this was the lowest and it got lower towards Christmas," he said at the time. "People at the club were looking at whether it was too much for me. I doubt myself when we win games, I’m never happy. I’m always happy with the players but most critical with myself. That final was a big learning curve.
“We could have banked up but we’d have ended up kicking it long and the pressure would have told at some point. What we couldn’t control was the players couldn’t hear each other, they couldn’t hear me. In the FA WSL that’s not a problem. After the third goal the team tried to get together and Freda [Ayisi] was only 20 yards away and couldn’t even hear ten players shouting her.”
In said final in May 2017, Birmingham City went down 4-1 to a Manchester City side which saw the likes of Lucy Bronze and Carli Lloyd on the scoresheet, while the less experienced City side "froze" as Skinner put it.
Just a week before, the teams had drawn 1-1 in the Spring Series, a sign of intent from Skinner's side, but the big day went markedly wrong.
Skinner changed things up and went to a back three, citing he wanted to get down the wings and get crosses into the box as he believed the weakest part of Man City's team was their centre backs.
At the time, he was his own harshest critic.
"They pressed us ridiculously high and we didn’t have a plan B. We weren’t ready for that. I absolutely admit I could have done things differently, but we have come so far and shown we can beat City. Without that how do you learn? If we’d have won that final going long ball it just reinforces to our players you can be successful that way. We were trying to change the culture.
“There were players who froze that I learned a lot about and it’s served us better now. If we played them now, I probably wouldn’t go three at the back, I think we’ve only played it once since."
One of those players may well line up when Skinner returns to Wembley on Sunday in charge of Manchester United, sitting top of the Women's Super League with two games to go and showing vast improvement during their time under Skinner.
After leaving home to go to Orlando Pride in the NWSL, Skinner took over United in 2021 and like in his other roles, it took some time for players to adapt to his methods.
Now though he has all but guaranteed them a Champions League spot for the first time, as well as a first major final, and speaking ahead of the game, he's in a completely different headspace to the Skinner of five years ago.
"I've learned loads," said Skinner ahead of Sunday's game. "What we got wrong was making it a massive event, more than it should have been. We know it's a big deal but we made it too big. We made mistakes and I think that was naivety. We put quotes on the wall, it became an emotional event than a clear, business-like event. You can celebrate afterwards but the reality is there's enough emotion in the game. I've learned from that. We have to manage stages of the game better than we did. I had a wonderful Birmingham team playing against Manchester City and we got blown away, but in parts we matched them too."
He's also come a long way as a coach himself, and I asked specifically what he's learned about himself over the past six years and how to deal differently with the occasion of his second FA Cup final, six years on from the first.
"If you listen to me, I talk a lot about the mental side of the game," he said. "We talk a lot about mental health in every aspect of life now and you have to have a resilience in a sport where a lot of people like what you do and a lot of people don't like what you do. They don't like the way you do it, they don't like you as a person, that's popularity in life, it's Instagram vs reality.
"For me I think what I've learned is methods to calm myself when I need to be calm, to get my messages across when everyone around me is at times flustered. I've learned to be calmer and learned to try and seek solutions rather than fuel fire. I don't work off emotion as much as I used to. I still think there's time we all have that, but I've learned mostly about internalising my own conversation. We all look at the world outside of us as being infinity, but the world inside us is also infinity and you've got to keep putting blocks in place for your own learning. I still need to get better at it, getting routines before a game and strategise before a game to best utilise my resource. Facing challenges and trying to get on with them."
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Answering your Questions
My Name Goes Here - Assuming we finish 4th that will probably be enough to cost Taylor his job, but is there any point in getting rid if we just replacement him with another unqualified U18s manager?
It will be interesting to see what happens. City seem to have put a long-term strategy in place with Nils Nielsen coming in and he spoke to the media on Thursday and mentioned Gareth a lot, so maybe the plan is to stick with. Players will have a say in that, but I think with a Head of Football now who knows the game on the continent, I wouldn’t guarantee City would promote from within as they have in the past if they choose to make a change.
Adam Bateman - Do you think this summer could see a lot of changes at a lot of clubs, both players and managers? Especially ones that we might just only associate with one club...Viv at Arsenal is out of contract this summer, not sure why her situation hasn't got anywhere near the same coverage as say Russo's, could a sort of swap deal be on the cards there? Maanum I think is out of contract as well isn't she?? Kirby at Chelsea...Plus whomever misses out on 3rd place in the WSL, could we see a manager get sacked for whomever finishes 4th?
A lot of variables in there, but I’d say privately behind the scenes all clubs will have a good idea of what’s happening. For what it’s worth, I don’t believe Miedema is out of contract this summer. But any players out of contract, clubs will now have a good idea of what the situation will be. Re: managers, similar to above, variables are in place in that nobody knows yet what the top four will be, but of course there will always be change, it’s about how you replace managers/players going forward.
Grumpy Dad - Will the WNL promotion decider go the way of the Southern-based side again this year? These games are notoriously tight affairs and I can see the extra experience in the Watford squad giving them the slight edge over Nottingham Forest. It would obviously give the Northern-based Championship sides an extra financial headache of another long away trip next season, so can imagine you will be hoping for a Forest victory?
It’s an interesting one. Yes, I’m sure the few northern teams would like a northern trip, but it’s also a team that falls into your catchment area when trying to compete for players, so it’s swings and roundabouts.
Watford came out on top in the WNL Cup final and when I watched them vs Oxford United they were very impressive. They’ve got star quality and crucially experience at the top end in Helen Ward and Gemma Davison. I think it will be another really close game but I fancy Watford might just edge it.
What you missed
In Monday’s Dispatch, I looked at the season Rachel Daly is having after hitting the 20-goal mark in just 20 games in the WSL this season, becoming the first English player to reach that tally.
In this week’s big interview, former Germany international Turid Knaak spoke about her career with Duisburg, Wolfsburg, Atletico Madrid and Arsenal, plus more.
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I like what I've heard from Nielsen so far, he strikes me as quite methodical so maybe he'll want a year with Taylor before he makes any decision, if it's even his decision to make.
Another thing that might save Taylor is that a new manager won't get to work with most of the squad until September, and that will create a whole host of problems...