Manchester United Women won three important away points at the Madejski Stadium when they faced Reading Women on Saturday. The game ended 1-3 for the Red Devils who consolidated their third spot in the standings which would qualify them to UEFA Women’s Champions League football next season if they succeed in maintaining their current position until the end of this season. The challenge will be fierce especially from teams like Manchester City and Tottenham who are very close to Manchester United. Therefore, the latter shouldn’t afford to make any drop of points soon even when they’ll face Chelsea. But for now, everything is improving at Manchester United in terms of experience and determination to win and that was clear on the pitch in this match.
On the other side, Reading Women lost three points and lost an opportunity to get closer to West Ham and Manchester City who are just ahead of Reading in the standings. At the same time, the team needs to avoid dropping more points to not let teams like Brighton surpass them since the difference between the two teams is just one point (with a delayed match still not played for Reading). What is more problematic for Reading is that they will be having a very tough schedule in the coming weeks because they will have to face Manchester City, Aston Villa and then Chelsea.
In this tactical analysis article, the analysis will be centred around Manchester United’s attacking and defensive performance while also looking at what did Reading attempt to do in order to resist and try to stop the Red Devils attacks.
Line-ups
Kelly Chambers, Reading’s head coach, preferred to start the game with the 4-3-1-2 formation with Grace Moloney as a goalkeeper, Faye Bryson, Deanna Cooper, Gemma Evans and Lily Woodham in defence, Justine Vanhaevermaet in front of defence, Sanne Troelsgaard Nielsen and Rachel Rowe as central midfielders, Natasha Harding as an advanced playmaker and both Emma Harries and Deanne Rose as strikers.
On the other side, Marc Skinner, Manchester United’s head coach, started the match with the 4-2-3-1 formation relying on Mary Earps as a goalkeeper, Ona Batlle, Diane Caldwell, Maria Thorisdóttir and Hannah Blundell in defence, Jackie Groenen and Katie Zelem as central midfielders, Martha Thomas and Leah Galton on the wings with Alessia Russo being the team’s striker.
Manchester United’s attacking performance
The Red Devils were excellent in terms of finishing and chance creation in this match since they were successful in scoring three goals and in creating eight chances, out of which they had seven shots on target. These numbers show that Manchester United are actually on track from an attacking perspective and that they are succeeding in creating more chances and with more efficiency in the final third. They will need to continue improving their final passes and shooting accuracy in order to obtain more points especially in the direct confrontations with the teams battling for the top three spots, given that Manchester United are yet to make that step forward and start beating those teams regularly.
Manchester United started threatening Reading since the start of the match with a powerful strike from Russo that surprised everyone including Moloney who was thankful that the ball hit the crossbar and went out. It was the first attempt of the match and it was already enough to expose Manchester United’s intentions early on.
