Eva Olid's Ambition for Manchester United: Embrace Attacking Football
Eva Olid wants Manchester United to stop tiptoeing and start attacking.
On the eve of her first Women's Super League match in charge, the new United manager has laid down a simple demand to her squad: be brave.
“My ambition is attacking football,” the Spaniard said ahead of Friday night’s trip to London City Lionesses, her league debut in the dugout. “I focus the gameplans on how we can hurt the teams. All teams have weaknesses we can exploit.”
A bold vision after a summer of doubt
Olid arrives from Hearts, where she built her reputation by dragging the club far beyond expectations. She replaces Marc Skinner, who stepped down in the summer, and walks into a dressing room still adjusting to change and a fanbase that spent the transfer window waiting for big signings that never came.
That quieter market has fuelled doubts about whether United can realistically fight for a top-three finish this season. Olid has heard the noise. She is not flinching.
“It’s normal, no? It’s normal to have people doubting,” she said. “I have felt the support a lot too.
“People that followed me in the last years with Hearts know I made something impossible possible, so I believe in what we are going to do.
“It’s not something you get in weeks but I believe with a little time you get impossible things.”
The message is clear: judge this United not on the rumours they didn’t turn into signings, but on the identity they are trying to build.
Ripping up the script
Olid has not hidden from the scale of the task. Pre-season has been underwhelming, performances uneven, and she is trying to shift a squad onto a different tactical track in a short space of time.
“The style of play is different to what we had last year,” she admitted. “You can imagine it’s not an easy task.”
So she has been pragmatic. The grand plan can wait. For now, it is about making United competitive from the first whistle of the new campaign.
“What I did was put aside the principles of play that I thought was easier to change for the first match so we can compete,” she explained.
Even in that compromise, the core of her philosophy remains non‑negotiable: front-foot football, risk embraced, not avoided.
“The club wanted to play attractive football and be brave. We know that can have risks but the club support me in that. They signed me for that.”
Brave or exposed?
Friday’s opener at London City Lionesses will offer the first real glimpse of what “brave” looks like in red this season. Olid wants her side to attack, to press, to try to dictate – even if that means living dangerously at times.
“This team will play the first match in the league and I want it to be as close as possible to what I want,” she said.
The doubts outside Carrington have not gone away. The questions about squad depth and top-three credentials will not vanish with one performance. But Olid is not trying to quieten the conversation with cautious football.
She is choosing the harder route: change the way United play, then let the table decide whether the gamble was worth it.
