Amy Turner has admitted that Manchester United need to be better if they are to flourish in the Women’s Super League.
The Manchester United and England defender played the full 90 minutes as United lost for the fifth time this season.
The 28-year-old defender said: “We’re all extremely disappointed with the result and the performance. It’s not as if we played well and lost because we didn’t.
Embed from Getty Images“It’s frustrating because we’ve trained well all week, we’ve had a really good week and we came into this game feeling quite positive.”
The former Liverpool and Notts County defender was quick to identify areas of improvement. “We didn’t get the basics right and Bristol probably outworked us and got the win.
“Those games happen and it’s about character. I don’t think we showed enough character today. It’s a learning curve,” she reflected.
“We’re not used to being in that position, especially not at home – conceding early on and not really getting into the game really. It’s a lesson and I’m sure it’s one we can come back from.”
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Manchester United have only come from behind to win once this season. That was against Everton before Christmas. The game against Bristol was a different animal.
“We knew what to expect from Bristol, certainly we didn’t underestimate them. We knew they had speed in forward positions,” Turner admitted. “The league is very competitive, everyone is full-time now and anybody can beat anybody on their day.
Embed from Getty Images“I don’t think there are too many positives. In situations like this, we need to be brutally honest with each other.
“The only positive that there is, is that we trained so well all week. We came into this game feeling quite positive and we know that we’ve got a lot more to give, that’s not our standard, we can play 10 times better than we did today.”
Looking ahead to next week
Man United will head to Merseyside to face Liverpool next Sunday. Turner is already thinking about how the Red Devils can bounce back for this fixture.
“We can’t play like that at Liverpool,” she said firmly. “We didn’t keep the back door shut. The team said before the game that we wanted the clean sheet mentality that we had in the first half of the season and we didn’t have that today.”
Embed from Getty ImagesEven with the loss against Bristol, Turner insisted that motivation won’t be a problem, saying: “United vs Liverpool is always a massive game and we won’t need any extra motivation going into that game.
“We know the standard, we played Liverpool here before and it wasn’t an easy game. I have no doubts that we will come out firing next week.”
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