Eva Olid has learned more about her new Manchester United side in the past week than in the whole of the previous month since she took over from Marc Skinner. Even with some difficult pre-season results and a summer of transition hinting at teething problems, her methods had been sufficiently implemented on the Carrington training pitches to be confident going into last Friday's curtain raiser at London City Lionesses. Olid knew her first WSL game was going be a challenge against Michelle Kang's star-studded big spenders but the manner of their 2-1 defeat - and a 100th-minute consolation from their only shot on target - was not on the agenda.
"What I saw surprised me a little bit," she tells Sky Sports, ahead of an already crunch showdown with Chelsea on Sunday. "We lost the game by ourselves, we didn't do what we had to do. "In the friendlies we had played, we were making good progression about what we needed.
In our last pre-season match against Man City we could have scored goals, we created chances. Of course, in friendlies if you make a mistake, it's a friendly. "There were still a lot of things to build in terms of style, but we felt ready to compete.
But then we reached that first match and the things we were doing in pre-season, we stopped doing. The pressure of the competition affected us in that first 45 minutes. It was a big learning." Those first-day nerves were picked up on by pundits, who questioned how well Olid's new players were adapting to her methods.
She has already admitted United will need to strengthen in January to add players fit for the style she wants to implement, but she insists those already there can succeed, too. "We work in small spaces a lot in Spain - one, two touch, but here the players are not used to it," she says. "Working this way will help the players feel comfortable under pressure.
"Natalia Arroyo said something similar the other day. I love the physicality here but I think if you have that, plus the technical ability, it will get the best results." There was always likely to be a period of transition following five years under Marc Skinner. Despite his record of overachievement, momentum needs to be rebuilt after a sour ending to his reign, a four-game winless streak at the end of last season.
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