Jess Park is in space. And those at Leigh Sports Village know. Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Lola Gallardo does not bother moving or feigning to do so. Even the cheer that meets the England winger’s goal — Manchester United’s second of the night in their 2-0 (5-0 on aggregate) quarter-final play-off win against Atletico Madrid in the Women’s Champions League — carries a new undertone: a sound of elation but also of increasingly fond recognition. Of Jess Park being Jess Park.
“We’re getting to the point now where, as soon as it leaves her foot, you know it’s in,” said United head coach Marc Skinner after the match. “As soon as you know she’s in space, you know she’s going to hit the target. It’s beautiful football. The win makes me feel good. But when my team play, flow and vibe, that’s beautiful. She’s genuinely an incredible footballer.”
Not only are Park and Manchester United coolly stepping into spaces and making them their own, but they are doing so with nonchalance. This win — their sixth in a row in all competitions — set up a quarter-final with Bayern Munich next month.
Manchester United players celebrate beating Atletico Madrid (Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images)
At this stage, it is worth remembering the warnings issued earlier in the season. How Park’s deadline-day move from Manchester City to United represented a bizarre sideways step. That United’s lack of European experience and comparative depth to more established teams meant they would struggle to balance their European campaign with domestic responsibilities.
Both of which still have merit. United’s Champions League run, while impressive, has been steeped with learning curves. A five-week spell between November 8 and December 14 exposed the strains European and domestic competition were putting on Skinner’s limited squad. United managed just two wins (against Paris Saint-German in the league phase and West Ham United in the Women’s Super League) from seven matches, suffering domestic defeats against Aston Villa and Manchester City as well as back-to-back losses to Champions League stalwarts Wolfsburg and Lyon.
Against Atletico on Thursday, United could only name four outfield players on their bench (all of whom were used, including 17-year-old Jessica Anderson, who made her debut) due to the absences of Anna Sandberg, Jayde Riviere, Elisabeth Terland, Ella Toone, Leah Galton and Fridolina Rolfo.
“The negatives stay with you,” Skinner said, adding that United’s gritty 2-1 victory against London City Lionesses on Sunday, two days after their first leg against Atletico in Madrid, was a byproduct. “You don’t want to feel the same way you did.”
There have been similar learning curves with Park. Since the start of the season, United have adjusted their system to prioritise her abilities.
At City, Park was deployed deeper and more centrally, with clear instructions to operate as a kind of admin between the midfield and the team’s forwards, tasked with recycling possession and linking play.
At United, she tends to start wide on the right but has been afforded carte blanche to drop deep and carry the ball forward or to cut in centrally and operate behind the forward line. Always, her remit is the same: to create space and exploit it.
United’s most convincing performances this campaign, domestically and in Europe, have coincided with Park being the creative heartbeat in the spaces she creates. Her goal contributions this season are a nod to this: eight goals and six assists in 16 league matches, two goals in the Champions League (Park might have added an assist and a goal had forward Ellen Wangerheim put away a gilt-edged chance from Park’s well-placed cross in the second half, or the woodwork been more favourable to Park’s low-driven effort shortly after).
But Park’s influence is not restricted to raw statistics, nor just her ability to create space. To fixate on a singular attribute is to miss the point. Instead, there is the Park of no-look-possession-recycling, of quarter-backing-cross-pitch-passes, of totally-calm-back-heel-out-of-danger, of still-pressing-even-when-it’s-5-0-on-aggregate.
“You stick her in one space and it can stifle the situation,” said Skinner. “If you keep moving her and keep allowing her to have that freedom, she’ll create anything for anyone.”
United cannot rely entirely on Park’s ingenuity and unpredictability because surely teams will find a way to negate her threat at some point.
But managing to harness Park’s strengths has been one of United’s best achievements this season.
Bayern will represent a sterner test than Atletico. United will need to be more clinical (they registered 18 shots, nine on target but scored just twice on Thursday) and sharper defensively. They will need a fuller bench. In the meantime, they must face Chelsea in the fifth round of the FA Cup, then again in the League Cup final, while still fighting for a top-three finish in the league. And they could do with making sure the away team brings the right colour goalkeeper shirt.
“We know how difficult Bayern are going to be, but also why not?” Skinner said. “There’s an air of maturity about our group that we’ve not been exposed to because we haven’t been at this level of competition, but there have also been many learnings. We are arriving, we believe and that’s a powerful thing in life and sport.”