Eva Olid's Ambitious Vision for Manchester United
Eva Olid wants Manchester United to walk into the new season with their chests out, not looking over their shoulders.
The new manager has been in the job only a matter of weeks, but her message before her first Women’s Super League game on Friday night at London City Lionesses is blunt and bold: be brave, be attacking, and don’t hide.
The Spaniard arrives from Hearts, where she built her reputation on defying expectations, and she steps into a club still adjusting after Marc Skinner’s departure in the summer. The handover has not been followed by the kind of transfer window many United fans were craving, and doubts over whether this squad can realistically fight for a top-three place have grown louder.
Olid has heard all of it. She is not flinching.
“It’s normal, no? It’s normal to have people doubting,” she said, pointing instead to the backing she has felt and to her track record in Scotland. Those who watched her work at Hearts, she reminded, saw her “make something impossible possible” and she insists that belief has travelled with her to Manchester. Impossible, in her world, is only a matter of time.
She knows time is exactly what she does not have right now. Pre-season has been underwhelming. The opener is here. The spotlight is immediate.
So she has stripped her plan back to its sharpest edge.
“My ambition is attacking football,” she explained. Her gameplans are built around how United can “hurt” opponents, not simply contain them. Every team, she says, has weaknesses. Her job is to expose them.
That means change. Real change. “The style of play is different to what we had last year,” Olid admitted, and with that comes risk. She has deliberately parked some of her more complex principles for now, prioritising what can be shifted quickly so United can compete from the first whistle in London.
“You can imagine it’s not an easy task,” she said. The balance is delicate: evolve fast, but not so fast that the team loses its footing. For the opening night, she wants the performance “as close as possible” to her vision, even if it is only the first draft of what this side might become.
Crucially, she does not feel she is fighting the club to play this way. The brief from above has matched her instincts: attractive football, front-foot football, football with courage. She knows it can go wrong. She knows attacking intent can leave a team exposed. But she also knows why she is here.
“The club wanted to play attractive football and be brave,” she said. “We know that can have risks but the club support me in that. They signed me for that.”
On Friday night, under the lights, we find out how ready United are to live with those risks.
