Two new signings shine as revamped Manchester United plough through Aston Villa in WSL opener

Manchester United started their season with three points at Villa Park on Sunday. Rachel Williams nodded home the winning goal in added time. Her tally added to Lucia Garcia close-range finish to bring United back into the game three minutes after going 1-0 down.

Rachel Daly thundered the ball beyond Mary Earps in the 76th minute, moments after Villa suffered the dismissal of former Red Kirsty Hansen in the latter stage of the game.

Last year United manager Marc Skinner was painstakingly predictable in his starting XI, but after an emphatically busy transfer window, there was speculation of how he would line up his 2.0 squad ahead of the toughest season to date.

The club engaged in a mass clear out in the summer - 10 players entered the doors at Carrington while 23 bid farewell to the Red shirt - big names in Ona Batlle and Alessia Russo among those who exited. As did Kirsty Hansen and Adrianna Leon - moving from United to rivals Aston Villa.

Yet despite the vast new pool of talent that Skinner brought in, the starting line-up granted only two debuts starts Gabby George and Geyse, the other nine players went unchanged, as was the formation: 4-2-3-1.

Credit where credit’s due, there was an air of fluidity to this revamped United side. Smooth transitional one-touch play from the white shirts. Ella Toone, Katie Zelem and Hayley Ladd’s link-up has levelled up from last season.

There seems to be a sixth sense of movement in the middle three, showing a quicker, snappier movement of the ball which was abundant in the first half hour at both ends of the field. It looks like Skinner is using an increasingly compact system, getting Zelem higher and Toone dropping back when out of possession.

It’s what you’d expect from an