Eva Olid's Bold Vision for Manchester United in Women's Super League

Eva Olid walks into the Women’s Super League with the volume turned up, not down.

On Friday night, the new Manchester United manager leads her side out for the first time in the league, away to London City Lionesses (19:00 BST), and her message has been stripped back to its core: be brave, think attack, and don’t flinch.

The Spaniard arrives from Hearts, replacing Marc Skinner after his summer departure, and steps into a club that has spent the off-season under a cloud of doubt. A quieter transfer window than many United fans expected has triggered questions over whether this team can realistically fight for a top-three place.

Olid has heard the noise. She is not running from it.

"It's normal, no? It's normal to have people doubting. I have felt the support a lot too," she said, pointing to her work in Scotland as proof that scepticism does not scare her. "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."

That belief underpins everything she is trying to change. Pre-season has been underwhelming, the adaptation period short, but Olid has not compromised on what she wants this United side to become.

"My ambition is attacking football. I focus the gameplans on how we can hurt the teams. All teams have weaknesses we can exploit," she said.

This is not a minor tweak to what went before. Olid is asking United to step into a different identity from last season, one that leans into risk and front-foot play rather than restraint.

"This team will play the first match in the league and I want it to be as close [as possible] to what I want. The style of play is different to what we had last year," she explained.

The turnaround has been rapid. With limited time on the training ground, she has had to prioritise.

"You can imagine it's not an easy task. 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."

The club, she says, is fully behind that vision. They did not hire her to protect a status quo.

"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."

So United head to London with questions swirling around their top-three credentials, a new manager in the dugout and a bolder, riskier style in the works. Olid is not promising instant perfection. She is promising that United will go after the impossible and keep going until it bends.