From Mary Earps' understudy to the WSL's best goalkeeper: USWNT's Phallon Tullis-Joyce is showing that patience can pay off with outstanding Man Utd performances

After spending her first season at United somewhat in the shadows, only playing a trio of sparsely attended League Cup group-stage fixtures and some in-house friendlies, Tullis-Joyce has exploded onto the scene this term. Those fans who watched her play last season knew she was capable of this level of performance, as did those who had seen her in the U.S. and France. But even they will have been seriously impressed by her form as the Red Devils’ No.1.

While some goalkeepers might’ve been frustrated with a lack of opportunities in that first season, with Earps getting the nod in all FA Cup outings as well as playing every minute in the WSL, Tullis-Joyce never showed it. “I definitely respect the decisions of my coaching staff,” she said last summer. “They were also very transparent on my role in the team and how they wanted me to develop. I never felt neglected in that sense and always felt like I was being prepared, which I was very thankful for.”

Looking back now, having put in a season worthy of high praise, Tullis-Joyce credits that time as United’s No.2 for preparing her for this step into the limelight. “I think a lot of it is attributed to just the prior year,” she tells reporters ahead of Sunday’s FA Cup final. “All that was done to prepare me for this moment, to step into this role.

“Quite a bit of it was heavily on the social aspect of things, so building the chemistry with my team-mates, especially the back line. I think that's what we've seen has helped me quite a bit this season. Now you can trust that person in front of you that if something's happening or if you need to get information quickly, you're not going to take it personally, because you know this person has the best interests for you and your team.”

That chemistry has certainly been evident with Maya Le Tissier, the centre-back and captain of this United team who, before one reporter can finish asking their question about Tullis-Joyce’s impact, simply blurts out, with a massive smile: “She’s sick.”

“She’s been incredible,” the England defender adds. “Just playing in front of her, whenever I feel any doubt in any game I just think, ‘I have Phal behind me anyway so they’re probably not going to score’. She’s an amazing person as well. She’s a big leader within this group. She’s obviously experienced and a little bit older as well. An unbelievable goalkeeper.

"We lost Mary in the summer, but Phallon had been training the whole of the previous season so we knew she was going to be ready and she knew what it was going to take. She’s found her feet and put in some unbelievable performances. We owe her a lot of credit.”

Then there is the shot-stopping, which has wowed so many this term. Le Tissier is quick to pick out the strong hand which denied Kerolin in the Manchester derby earlier this month, that the game in which United secured Champions League qualification with a hard-fought 2-2 draw.

As becomes a theme when talking to her, Tullis-Joyce is eager to give credit to others for this. She talks about the work of Ian Willcock, United’s goalkeeper coach, who has helped her to “fine-tune” her skills from a technical point of view, “to help make me make more saves this season”. She also believes her highlight reels is “a major testament” to the entire goalkeeper group and the environment she shares with Safia Middleton-Patel, Kayla Rendell and Willcock.

But being “that big shot-stopper” is something she strives towards, too. “Someone that will be fun to watch because, chances are, if I’m fun to watch, I’m probably having fun as well.”

She’s also having an unbelievable season. Tullis-Joyce played a major role in United finishing with the second-best defensive record in the WSL this season, as they conceded just 16 goals in 22 games and kept 13 clean sheets. That’s only one off Earps’ all-time single-season record in the competition and was enough to earn Tullis-Joyce a share of the Golden Glove.

Look deeper and the numbers get even better. The expected goals statistics states that Tullis-Joyce should’ve conceded almost 23 times in the league this term. That she actually let in just 16 gives her the best positive differential of any goalkeeper in the division.

That’s because of her remarkable shot-stopping, too. Of goalkeepers to play more than two games, Tullis-Joyce had the best save percentage in the WSL, blocking almost 80 percent of efforts that came her way in her first campaign as United’s No.1.

The unsung trait in all of this success has to be Tullis-Joyce’s mentality. After all, she was replacing the player who claimed The Best FIFA Women's Goalkeeper award in both 2022 and 2023, the Golden Glove winner at the last World Cup, the England No.1. The bar was set very high and Tullis-Joyce had to go up and meet it – and she has. That’s because she is a fantastic goalkeeper, of course, but also because she approached the challenge in a healthy way.

“I think for me, that pressure was never related to Mary,” she explains. “I never let myself go that route. I know that I am a different ‘keeper. Every single ‘keeper is a different ‘keeper, so I never really let that affect me. It just wasn't my line of thought, but it was more the pressure of making sure that I kept to the same standard that is expected of a Manchester United goalkeeper. I took that on very seriously and that's, again, taking each moment as a very precious moment. That's really how I handled that.

“I think all professionals here will tell you that it is not smooth sailing. There are absolutely major moments of nerves, major moments of self-doubt, major moments of having to keep that high standard that we set as a team, and definitely there have been some bumps and bruises along the way, but that's just what's gotten us even further, I think. All of the 'mistakes' have just led us to becoming a better, stronger team, and especially me on the field. Personally, there have been some moments that I look back and I cringe still watching the videos of them, but I see the progress that I've made in this season alone and I'm pretty astounded by how much I've grown.”

The same can be said of how Tullis-Joyce has approached the new challenge of being not only a Manchester United player, but also a member of the USWNT. There is no bigger national team in the world than the one that has won four World Cup titles and clinched a fifth Olympic gold just last summer.

“I think a lot of it is that you've just got to do the thing,” she says with a laugh, asked how she has stepped up to the levels needed. “That's what I tell myself every single day and every single game day. As nervous as you are, as stressed as you are and as much pressure as there is, one step in front of the other. One step in front of the other is really just my motto of this season, no matter which way it's gone, no matter the highs that have come and the lows that have come, it's just, again, you have just got to make that next step.”

This season, there is one last step to make, and that is one that will take Tullis-Joyce onto the Wembley pitch for the very first time on Sunday as United face Chelsea in the FA Cup final. Having been an unused substitute as the Red Devils lifted this trophy last May, Tullis-Joyce will hope to play a key role in a successful bid to retain it.

She’s likely to be busy, too. After all, the Blues have just clinched a sixth-successive WSL title and are on for just a second-ever treble, having lifted the League Cup back in March. They are a fantastic team. The two meetings between the two sides have been very tight this term, too, with Chelsea winning 1-0 on both occasions, making Tullis-Joyce’s ability to keep the ball out of the back of the net even more significant. But that is only to put pressure on the 28-year-old that she has proved she can handle.

“It's quite a moment,” she says ahead of that trip to Wembley. “Someone that I keep coming back to is my mom, every single time. She's the one that makes sure that I realise how far I've come and how proud she is of me. I think you could see the emotion that we had after the semi-final against Man City, what it really meant for us, and then even in the emotion that we had after [clinching Champions League football], just how long and gruelling these seasons can be and how much effort you can put in and how it could just slip away in just the snap of a finger if you're not focused too much.”

Fortunately, in Tullis-Joyce, United have an outstanding goalkeeper whose concentration is up there with her biggest strengths. Given how close their contests have been with Chelsea, that could well make a big difference this weekend.