Manchester United coach Marc Skinner was quick to shut down an obvious line of questioning around his match-winner Maya Le Tissier after the club’s Champions League debut.<\/b><\/p>\n
“Your next question is probably ‘should she start for England’,” he said. “I am not here to answer that.”<\/p>\n
Despite becoming one of the most consistent defenders in the Women’s Super League, making a record 71st consecutive appearance in last week’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea, central defensive anchor Le Tissier has had limited exposure at international level.<\/p>\n
Marshalled by Le Tissier, United had the WSL’s second-best defence last season, conceding just 16 goals in 22 games.<\/p>\n
The United captain was rewarded with a place in Sarina Wiegman’s Euro 2025 squad, but did not play a single minute in Switzerland as the Lionesses retained their European title.<\/p>\n
Eight caps since her first call-up in November 2022 is scant reward for a player of her ability. In the WSL this season, Le Tissier tops the rankings for most clearances (34) and most touches (444).<\/p>\n
Wiegman has said she prefers Le Tissier at right-back, despite her playing at centre-back for United.<\/p>\n
But injuries to England captain and centre-back Leah Williamson, plus right-back Lucy Bronze, must give Le Tissier a chance of playing when Weigman’s side take on Brazil and Australia later this month, with the Dutchwoman naming her squad next week.<\/p>\n
Skinner was not keen to get involved in the debate but he was happy to extol the virtues of the 23-year-old, who kept her nerve to convert the first-half penalty that secured victory over Norwegian side Valerenga in Leigh in their league phase opener.<\/p>\n
“She is [at the top of her game] and has been for a long time,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I start her for a reason. She is an incredible footballer and a driven personality. When she gets her opportunity, she will be an incredible England stalwart and someone who will give the country pride.<\/p>\n
“She is a fantastic player. I won’t answer the other question.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester United coach Marc Skinner was quick to shut down an obvious line of questioning around his match-winner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-484964","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115342796911138081","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}