Mark Skinner: Manchester United manager laments ‘steady’ WSL defeat.

Pride comes before a fall, as the saying goes.

Mark Skinner was optimistically praising his Manchester United players for their eye-catching start to the season a few days ago.

“They’re playing better football than we’ve probably ever played,” he declared, impressed by the team’s joy of play and by their free-scoring that took them top of the scoring charts.

United’s 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa and poor performance in the Women’s Super League (WSL) later and the United manager’s tone was inevitably more somber.

“Flat. It was very flat,” Skinner told BBC Radio 5 Live succinctly.

A face like a rainy weekend in the autumn sunshine As the red shirts walked off the pitch at the Leigh Sports Village, Skinner knew this was a missed opportunity for United.

Chelsea’s 1-1 draw with Arsenal means United would have gone top if they had beaten Villa. Instead, they are three points behind the defending champions.

Will it be something Skinner regrets later in the season when the margins between success and failure are sharper? maybe.

United captain Maya Le Tissier insisted: “Thinking about the standings now is a bit crazy. We don’t really look at the other teams, so we don’t care about other results.”

But while Skinner was arguably carried away at their start – based on his public comments at least – he was adamant that there would be no overreaction to this outcome.

It was a lukewarm performance, a poor day, but United have shown in the seven games leading up to this one that they have the ability to be in the mix this season.

“Your offers will be flat. But I don’t want to over-emphasize the situation,” he explained.

“Sometimes these [results] It is happening. I thought Villa’s goal was a scrappy, sloppy goal from a set piece. “It happens and sometimes it works against you.”

Skinner felt that United needed to be “cleaner in our attitude and technique” which he wanted “his players to have as well”, while Le Tissier admitted that they “didn’t do the basics well”.

This was far from the ideal start to what could be a pivotal week in their season for United, of course.

Paris Saint-Germain will visit Old Trafford in the Champions League on Wednesday. Then there is the small matter of the derby against Manchester City on Sunday 16 November.

Skinner added: “As a group, we will move forward and be better against Paris Saint-Germain.”

“We’re going to move forward and we’re really good at rebounding and using that as energy — and that’s what we’ll do on Wednesday.”