Man United: Marc Skinner demands change after ‘unfair’ cup rule led to Chelsea defeat

Man United boss Marc Skinner has called for a rule change regarding player suspensions in the Conti Cup after his side lost 3-1 to Chelsea in the semi-finals. 

Pernille Harder opened the scoring with a fine strike before Jessie Fleming put the hosts two in front on the half-hour mark. Vilde Bøe Risa pulled one back for United, but Jess Carter then scored Chelsea’s third to send them to their third successive Conti Cup final. 

While United had opportunities during the game, they were without first-team regular Hayley Ladd and star player Ella Toone, who were both serving suspensions for picking up two yellow cards earlier in the competition. 

Skinner, however, pointed out that Chelsea were not forced to play the same number of games in the cup because of competing in Europe, so there was less opportunity for Hayes’ players to pick up similar bans. 

Speaking in his post-match press conference after the semi-final, Skinner emphasised that he had no problems with Chelsea but that the rules were in desperate need of being re-evaluated. 

“My issue is – and I want to stress this in as calm a manner as I possibly can – that the rules need to change from next year.

“We were put at a disadvantage based on the simple fact that we’ve played five games leading to the quarter-finals in this competition.

“And two players accrued two yellow cards at that point and are out of the semis.

“Chelsea entered the competition at the quarter-final stage because they were in the Champions League and can’t accrue the same amount of cards, so we’re at a huge disadvantage.

Something needs to be addressed just to make sure that there’s a fair opportunity for us to progress with most of our players.

When asked what changes he’d make to the current