YOUTH: how will Eva Olid manage at Man United?

It’s been a summer full of departures for Manchester United – including the head coach – with a select few joining the club. As a number of teams make a pretty convincing push up the table, it’s hard to figure out how Eva Olid will manage with a very youthful squad… and exactly where United will stack up in the WSL this year.

Jayde Riviere and Fridolina Rolfo were two of the Red Devils’ standouts last year, and we spoke to them ahead of a season where the burden will likely increasingly be on the senior players such as themselves.

The biggest change of course is the manager. Marc Skinner out – through resignation – and Eva Olid in. I’ve already covered what United fans might expect from their new head coach in an earlier article. The short of it is that she has quite a strong tactical vision, a lot of pedigree in developing youth, and she had a number of years to mould her team into the title winners there were by the end of her time at Hearts.

The transfer window has been what all the talk pre-season has focused on, and you can see why. Hannah Blundell made her Everton loan permanent, as fellow defenders Gabby George and Millie Turner joined WSL clubs. Regular starter Lisa Naalsund followed Turner to Birmingham City. Leah Galton left the club, and probably the biggest loss for the Red Devils was striker Melvine Malard, who has linked up with Sonia Bompastor at Chelsea.

INCOMING

Given Skinner had already referred to his squad as too thin last season, seeing the number of exits will no doubt cause concern for United fans. Equally so the lack of new signings. Flexible left back Andrea Medina looked like she could be United’s only fresh blood of the window – along with the excellent acquisition of top goalkeeper Janina Leitzig from Leicester – before they made two other signings in the past week.

Swedish winger Monica Jusu Bah looks to be an exciting name. She’s only played in Sweden before – spending the last two seasons with Häcken as thy won the first ever Europa Cup in 2026. With the ability to play on the wing or as a striker, I’m sure she will be used a lot as the season goes on and there is a certainly a very good player in there.

Rebecca Bernal is another option at the back. The experienced Mexican plays defensive midfield and defence and provides a limited but very needed amount of cover in defence – and she’s done really well in the NWSL. She could be a good asset who will learn a lot from her captain Maya Le Tissier.

The message has very much been that youth is the way for Olid’s new side, and indeed Layla Drury’s inevitable rise will have the same affect as a new signing – after she’s competed at the under-20’s world cup that is. She has looked reliable whenever they turned to her last year, incuding towards the end of the Manchester derby.

Regardless of this, a full strength starting XI for United still looks like one of the best in Europe, let alone the WSL. They still have world class players like Schüller, Park, Toone, Miyazawa, Zigiotti and Tullis Joyce. On the other hand, there isn’t much depth behind that. What we saw out of the Red Devils last year was a steep decline as injuries mounted and the games starting to rack up after January.

No Champions League will help with this, but there are four more league games this season, and it’s not just that the squad has stayed the same, it’s even smaller. It’s certainly a mystery trying to work out exactly where in WSL hierarchy this team will end up, but if pre-season results are anything to go by, it might not be an easy season for Manchester United.

Speaking to two of United’s key performers, Swedish international Fridolina Rolfo and Canadian international Jayde Riviere certainly helps put things in perspective. Here’s our conversations with them, in full…

FRIDOLINA ROLFO

Looking back at last season, it was a very strong start then maybe tailed off a bit. What do you think was the main reason behind that?

Fridolina Rolfo (below, left): I would say the main reason why we started better was because we picked up a lot of injuries in the second half of the season, which wasn’t great for us.

[At the start of the season] we got some new players in, maybe not whatever everyone expected, but then other teams got to know us better and we didn’t perform as well. 

On the Champions League, for this group having to play those midweek games was quite new. Do you think the squad can learn from that and maybe apply it to the challenge of this season? 

Yeah, for sure I agree with you. That’s something that was new for the team, and it was a big challenge. Going from playing, I don’t know how many games one season to playing many more, you need to get used to that.

I hope that we learn something from it that we can bring for the future, because we want to get back to Champions League. That’s the most fun tournament you can play and you want to be there. So hopefully we learnt something, even for this season ahead that is longer.

There’s been a bit of noise about your club. Maybe the commitment, the transfer fees, not bringing in as many players. You’re one of their most high profile signings, I’d say. So what was it about Man United and what you heard from them, to convince you to join such a club? 

There were a few reasons why. Mostly it was because they had a great season the year before I got here. They were in the FA Cup final and they reached the Champions League. So for me, it was like I want to go to the WSL, and then I was like, which team would fit me at the moment?

And United was always one of those teams that I wanted to play for. In the end it was an easy decision, and I’m happy that I took that decision to play for this club, because it’s a great club and we’ve been doing great so far. 

Okay and finally what’s the squad’s goal for the season?

We haven’t discussed yet putting up a goal together, so I think that will be the next step, to discuss where we want to end in the table.

JAYDE RIVIERE

What can you take out of last season as a whole, including the Champions League in terms of learning to try and improve for this year?

Jayde Riviere (above, right): I think for us, we have to go back to the fundamentals and do them superbly. We have a very talented group and we need to be able to maximise everyone’s talent, especially this season.

Everyone has this speculation around not investing into the transfer window and everything like that, but we have a good group of girls here. So, the lessons of last season and the hardships of almost being there and [coming] up short is not an option for us, and it’s not something we want to aim towards.

Yeah, absolutely. And you refer to it in your answer there, the kind of speculation about the club maybe not investing so much. Do these kind of those stories maybe present some motivation for you, as a group, to prove to, look, we have good players, we can compete in the top of the league?

Yeah, I would say it does. You can definitely look at it as wanting to take that as fuel; but I also think that we sign for Man United to play football; we didn’t sign for the extracurriculars that happen outside of the pitch.

That’s not something that we can control, so why am I going to apply energy to it? What I can control is my attitude, how I show up in training and how I push my teammates, that’s ultimately what gets the best out of them so that’s what I’m going to do.

Photos: Helen M Jerome