What's going wrong at Man Utd?! Struggling to replace Alessia Russo, Ella Toone's poor form and the problems plaguing last season's Women's Super League title challengers

As well as losing highly-rated assistant manager Martin Ho, who has since guided Norwegian side Brann into the Women’s Champions League group stages, there were 13 first-team departures during the summer, two of which were hugely significant: Ona Batlle and Alessia Russo.

Batlle is the best right-back in the women’s game and her return to Barcelona, the club she came through as a youngster, felt inevitable for some time. She was always going to be extremely difficult to replace as there is no one quite like the Spaniard, who excelled as an inverted full-back during her time in Manchester.

Russo didn’t light the league up in her final season with United, scoring just 10 goals, but her move to Arsenal was an issue because of the way Skinner opted to tackle the task of replacing her. A flurry of new attackers have arrived, none of whom are providing the same kind of focal point as Russo.

Geyse - a tricky, direct and energetic forward who joined from reigning European champions Barcelona this past summer - is now playing the No.9 role on a regular basis. She is a wonderful talent and has shown flashes of her brilliance already. She is also a very different player to Russo.

On her Man Utd debut in October, in a dramatically late win at Aston Villa, Geyse was a constant nuisance for the opposition but she drifted out wide so often that it left no one in the box to put chances away. That has been the case for most of her time in United red, too.

"If the forward goes into the wide channel, then the other one has to come in and we have to flood the box because of the way that we play. That will come, I've no doubt about that," Skinner said after that win on the WSL’s opening weekend.

“Geyse is different to Alessia. Alessia is a pin player and spins and switches. Geyse can hold it and turn you and go. That's a different type of forward. I think when we watch it back, we can be more positionally ruthless and I think that will come.”

It was Rachel Williams who saved the day at Villa Park, the experienced forward coming off the bench to win the game in stoppage time. As a classic No.9, it was she who brought that penalty-box presence United had been lacking – and it wasn’t the only instance of that happening this season. The 35-year-old, the team’s top goal-scorer in the WSL this season, also came to the rescue away at Brighton earlier this month.

It's fantastic when you have players on the bench who can make a difference but Williams’ goals have often shown that United simply lack a starter who can be in the right place at the right time to get on the end of the chances being created - and finish them ruthlessly.

Why is that the case? Well, Geyse has a lot of talent but her final product and decision-making aren't always convincing. She’s also not that orthodox centre-forward that will lurk in the box, waiting to sniff out a goal. Melvine Malard, however, appears to be a little more like that.

The France international joined Man Utd on loan from Lyon this past summer but has largely operated in a wide role despite it feeling like a switch of positions between her and Geyse would be beneficial. When she gets in the box, she is deadly, as her four goals for the club already have shown. Yet, she is often stuck on the wing struggling to make an impact. Even Nikita Parris, who excelled in a central role against Everton, appears to be a better option as a starting No.9 than Geyse, whose talents could be maximised out wide.

Skinner has tinkered a little with that front three this season but has yet to really nail down those killer combinations that can make United a more clinical side. He’s also stressed that the players are still adapting to life in England and learning the language to communicate with their new team-mates.

“There are still barriers,” he said on Sunday, speaking about the glimpses of that relationship between Geyse and Malard. “It’s just the little details. For example, if we're going to play more direct, then we can play underneath, so maybe Geyse is the highest player but then Melvine drops underneath so if Man City see get the first contact, we're in the second space and once we're in that second space, I don't think Man City would live with us. But we end up being in a flat line because they can't quite communicate quickly as the ball is travelling. There are all those little details that they don't yet have the language skill to do.”

But until Geyse and Malard are able to work in tandem in their current roles, can Skinner change things so that their abilities can be fully exploited while the relationship is still growing? After all, those partnerships take time to grow and there just isn’t a lot to spare in the WSL.

There are only 12 teams in the WSL. Each side only plays 22 games in the division. So, when you’re seven points off the top of the table after as many matches, it’s quite a lot of ground to make up if you want to be a factor in the title race.

Skinner has spoken about time, about how these players will gel and they will work together beautifully on the pitch, but nearly a third of the league season is now gone and he is still speaking about it. How long will it take?

Let’s also not forget that Malard is a loan player. You don’t want to be waiting four months for someone on a temporary deal to make an impact. You need to make the most of their presence as soon as possible, especially if Skinner wants Man Utd to compete for the title and to have another go in Europe next season.

The problems don’t just surround the forward areas and how this attack looks without Russo, either. Batlle’s departure has made United weaker at the back both in and out of possession. Errors when playing out from the defence are creeping in more and more frequently, with captain Katie Zelem caught on the ball in her own half in the build-up to City’s second goal on Sunday and Maya Le Tissier playing a short backpass to Mary Earps that proved costly for the third.

There are also questions around the midfield, namely why so much of United’s play seems to completely bypass it, and why the balance does not seem right a lot of the time in the combinations of three that Skinner picks. Rectifying the latter could go a long way to putting a stop to Ella Toone’s poor form in 2023, too.

The word that probably best sums up United so far this season is inconsistent. The team has blown hot and cold in the early stages of this campaign, on occasions turning up and simply being at it from the off, and on others needing someone like Williams to come off the bench and save their skins. Some days, their play out from the back is brilliant. Some days, it is error-strewn. Some days, their end product is ruthless. Some days, it’s wasteful.

“We weren't good enough and they understand that,” Skinner said after the City defeat. “When we're good enough, it's a collective. When we're not good enough, it's a collective. That's not me blaming the players at all. As a collective, we can be better at the planning phases. I can learn even more about my team tonight, that if we're not in good phases of the game, actually, how do we get ourselves back into that?

“They'll pick themselves up. Sometimes you need a punch in the mouth to know where you're at. We'll be better than we are and we'll go again.”

Perhaps that is the silver lining here for United. They’ve not been outstanding so far this season but they had avoided defeat until Sunday, so perhaps the results papered over the cracks a little bit. This result will force the whole collective to ask themselves how they can be better.

It sounds crazy to say it given we are only in November but the big problem is that, given how few games each team has in the WSL, United don’t have a lot of time for the forward line to gel, for the errors at the back to be cut out, for the balance to be found in midfield. Skinner himself doesn’t, either.

People will always speculate about a manager’s job security but the simple reality is that Skinner is out of contract at Man Utd at the end of this season. He has to impress in this campaign if he wants to remain at the club beyond next summer.

He did that last season, so much so that the club triggered the one-year extension option on the two-year contract he signed in July 2021. But he has a number of problems to solve and a lot of ground to make up in the WSL standings if he wants to remain in Manchester.

“In defeat comes opportunity,” Skinner said on Sunday. “What didn't we do well against Manchester City tonight that we need to fix and be better at? And how can we put it right quickly going into the games coming up?”

Man Utd have two more games before the next international window and five fixtures in total before the winter break comes at Christmastime. Those include two Continental Cup group stage matches which could be beneficial for a little bit of experimentation as Skinner looks to find the perfect combination in his midfield and understand how to unlock the potential of his attack. Those will be even more important for any tinkering because United cannot afford to drop points now in the WSL.

On Sunday, they will take on newly-promoted Bristol City in a game that they have to win if they want to challenge for the top honours, especially given the points lost by defeat to Man City and draws with Leicester and Brighton in recent weeks. After that come Tottenham and Liverpool. Both teams have made good starts to the new season but, again, both teams should be beaten by Man Utd if they want to win trophies.

It wasn’t until Man City were reduced to 10 players at Old Trafford on Sunday, when Laia Aleixandri received a second yellow card in the 72nd minute, that Man Utd started to really go for them and, in Skinner’s words, “be aggressive”. “That’s just not us,” he said.

If there is one thing that United need to be now before the winter break, it is aggression. They absolutely need to attack this run of games coming, they need to go full throttle and they need to take no prisoners. If not, if they stutter again, they are going to fall out of this title race completely.

The pressure is on, then. It’s on the whole collective, on all the players and all the staff. The weight of expectation was on these same personnel at Old Trafford on Sunday but they couldn’t deliver. Now, it is time to rectify that and to stand up and be counted. United’s season depends on it.