Bringing Ella Toone 'to life' and sparking Man Utd into an unbeaten start: Why England star Jess Park is thriving after leaving Man City for their city rivals

There were questions about how Park and Toone would fit into this team together, too. After all, Park joined United as a player who was versatile, yes, but largely recognised to be a No.10. That's the position that Toone holds down in the Red Devils' XI, something which made it hard for Skinner to properly get the best out of her and Clinton in the same team, given it was also the best position of the latter.

Skinner tried to make it work, playing both Toone and Clinton in various roles, be it in the box-to-box midfield position, the No.10 and out wide, with there even instances where it was simply a case of one starting and one on the bench. However, it just didn't quite come together. Would it be different with Park?

It certainly has been, as Park's entirely different profile to Clinton has better suited her to playing out wide while Toone operates in the No.10. It's a position Park has played before, both for club and country, but not quite in the way she is right now. Rather than being an out-and-out winger who hugs the touchline and looks to deliver crosses, the 23-year-old is driving inside, creating overloads in midfield and linking up nicely with Toone in a way that suits her.

It's required a real change of mentality for Park, who is playing in a totally different system and style to that she has experienced for the majority of her senior career on the blue side of Manchester. "She's still in that structure mindset," Skinner said recently. "Once she starts realising where the space is, no team will be able to deal with her."

Park is starting to do that, too. Her recent displays for United have been increasingly impressive, with Chelsea so wary of her threat coming in from the right in their Women's Super League meeting last week that, in Skinner's opinion, they changed things up in midfield to counter as much. "They put two controllers in there to make sure that they killed Jess' spaces, I think," he said after the 1-1 draw. "But she still found them."

No player has completed more dribbles in the WSL this term than Park, while Toone is the only United player to have delivered more key passes. "She looks incredible," Skinner noted. "She just adds a different dimension to us."

It's not just Park who is benefitting, either. The link-up that she and Toone have showcased through these first few weeks has been eye-catching, with Skinner even going as far to say that "her and Tooney have brought each other to life a little bit more".

"I know what she is like," Toone said of Park last month, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live. "I've played with her a lot for England." That's certainly showing as they get acquainted as club-mates. The way the pair are linking up both in those central areas but also when Park stays a little wider is helping increase the attacking potency of this United side, while their ability to drift into different spaces adds unpredictability. 

"She is someone you want on the ball," Toone added of Park. "That will be really good for us. We want to keep the ball a lot and play exciting football and she can help us to do that." It's panning out that way thus far, with United unbeaten through five WSL games and off to a winning start in the Champions League, having made their debut in the formal portion of the competition in midweek with a 1-0 victory over Valerenga.

It'll be interesting to see how Park's move across Manchester impacts things at England level as the Lionesses' first camp of the new season approaches. Sarina Wiegman will likely be glad to see the 23-year-old playing so well in a wide role, as she is probably going to be without both Lauren James and Lauren Hemp for games against Brazil and Australia at the end of the month. Park, therefore, gives her another option in a depleted position.

However, when everyone is fit, the Lionesses are blessed with so much talent in those areas and not as much in midfield. Given that, will Wiegman use Park more centrally moving forward, regardless of changes at club level? It's an intriguing element to it all, especially given United's new signing is playing so well and really staking a claim for a starting spot at international level.

At Man Utd, though, Skinner appears to have figured it out thus far when it comes to Park, Toone and how they both not only fit into his team, but thrive in it. It's true that the Red Devils still lack depth and the overall circumstances of Park's arrival didn't help that, but she has given them a wonderful spark in attack that is capable of deciding tight games in this team's first season fighting on four fronts.

"Tooney has probably never had the ball as much in that pocket as she has currently," Skinner said last month, adding last week that his United side are also "much more fluid now than we've ever been". There are a lot of reasons for that, in various areas, and Park is one - a big one, in fact.