Marc Skinner is aware of his shortcomings. When asked how he would manage his Manchester United players during their first Women’s FA Cup final, he admitted there could be issues communicating instructions.

Despite the self-deprecation, Skinner has shown himself to be one of the most capable coaches in English football in his rise to becoming Manager of the Women’s Super League title contenders.

Never a professional footballer, Skinner became manager of WSL side Birmingham City in December 2016 aged only 33, having worked at the club in various roles including youth team coach.

And striker Lucy Quinn, who Skinner signed from Yeovil Town in 2017, says he was quick to establish his style of tactics and management on the squad – just as he has with United.

“The way he spoke about the game, the way he wanted the team to play and how possession based it was, he was always an advocate for attractive, attacking football,” the Republic of Ireland international tells BBC Sport.

“He was really hands on, he always had his boots on for the drills. He would be walking through the pitches speaking to individuals as training was going on, he never just stood and observed.

“I enjoyed every side of having him as a manager – the meetings, the analysis, he was very clear with what he wanted from us and the role you had in the team. I was young, it was my first professional contract, but I still felt valued even as a substitute.”

Skinner took Birmingham to his first Women’s FA Cup final in 2017, where a 4-1 defeat to Manchester City also proved key in shaping him as a manager.

“What we got wrong at Birmingham was making it a massive event,” he said before the 2023 final. “We made it too big, put quotes on the wall from players and families, so it became an emotional event rather than being clear and business-like.”

Skinner also established major elements of his backroom structure while at Birmingham – sports scientist Carl Green followed him to Orlando Pride, then to United, as assistant manager.

‘He had a tough time in America’

In the WSL, after a slow start, Skinner established Birmingham as the best of the rest but left after being offered the Orlando job midway through the 2018-19 WSL season.

Orlando was not an unqualified success. Despite a star-studded squad featuring Marta and Alex Morgan, Pride finished bottom of the nine-team NWSL and failed to qualify for the play-offs.

Skinner did not win any of his first nine games in charge and just four of 24 in the whole league campaign.

The 2020 season was then abandoned because of coronavirus, and Skinner departed 11 matches into the 2021 season for the United job with Orlando in fifth place.

“He had a tough time in the NWSL,” says Quinn. “Covid affected the season and the teams, but it is also a very different league and style of football.

“Marc likes a very European style of football – possession football, and it takes time to get players to adapt to how he wants to play.

“But I only heard good things from camp about him as a guy, the players enjoyed working with him on a personal level. I’m sure if he had stayed out in Orlando for a longer time, he would have been a success.”

It was against this mixed background that Skinner was named United manager in July 2021 following the resignation of Casey Stoney, who had been coach since the club was founded in the Championship three years prior.

Shane Higgs, a committee member for the Manchester United Women’s Supporters Club, describes the reaction to his appointment as cautiously welcoming.

“We were optimistic given his prior experience in the WSL and possibly bringing some fresh ideas to the fold, [but] there was an element of nerves too” he tells BBC Sport.

“We weren’t anticipating needing a new manager after two seasons in the WSL, and you couldn’t ignore recency of results during his stint in Orlando either.

“The mood among the fanbase, that I could tell, was mixed. We’d not been in this position before [for the women’s team] so I think some of us didn’t really know what to make of it.”

‘He makes you feel unstoppable’

After an indifferent start – including a 6-1 home loss to Chelsea and four games without a win – Skinner’s United secured a third successive fourth-place WSL finish and were only denied Champions League qualification on the final day.

However, it was this season that things really started to click.

Striker Rachel Williams, who signed for Skinner with both Birmingham in 2017 and United at the start of this campaign, says his passion drew her in, twice.

“You see that come through in everything he believes in and that he wants us to believe we will achieve together,” she told BBC Sport in March.

“There is Marc but also his backroom staff who are on that level with him.

“He stands up there and I believe in what he says and what we’re capable of achieving. When you get a manager that makes you feel like that and that you’re unstoppable, it’s a good place to be in.”

Higgs also feels the fans are now fully behind the manager.

“Last season, it was clear the team were still getting used to new styles and tactics,” he says.

“This season we’ve looked a lot more expressive and confident in our play, and you can see the belief the team has in themselves.

“There’s no denying that there’s been an improvement; you’ve only got to look at our league position and results across the season.”

‘We lived off being underdogs’

Despite featuring several established internationals, Skinner has been keen to cast United in the role of disruptors, challenging the established WSL elite – a tactic Quinn says he also used at Birmingham.

“We lived off being underdogs, we got really good results against the big teams,” she says. “You can see traits of that, even at a big club, they are playing catch-up.

“He talked about United being a group of ‘rebels’, that brought me back.”

Barring a remarkable goal-difference swing, United will finish in the WSL top three and qualify for the Champions League for the first time, having also reached a first major cup final. It is already a historic season.

But Skinner, squeaky voice or not, wants his United players to know he will not let them stop here.

“The softer character in me, the old Marc might have gone ‘yeah, we’ve done brilliant’,” he said.

“No, we’re here to try and win. To try and change the game for Manchester United.”