Lionesses stand-in Abbie McManus planning to prove she has World Cup staying power

EPA

Abbie McManus keeps getting lucky — or, at least, that’s the way she sees it.

At this year’s SheBelieves Cup an injury to Millie Bright opened the door for her to play a leading role as England won the tournament, and the World Cup is following a similar script for the centre-half.

A shoulder injury cut short Bright’s World Cup debut against Scotland and McManus kept her place for Friday’s 1-0 win over Argentina which booked the Lionesses’ spot in the last 16 ahead of tomorrow’s Group D decider against Japan.

“These things keep happening to me,” said McManus, 26. “I’m thankful Millie’s okay, but a little bit of me does want to make sure I get the starting shirt for myself. I did against Argentina and I was over the moon.”

It has been quite a rise for McManus, who began her career as Manchester City’s kit woman and could end it as a World Cup winner.

“It’s crazy,” she said. “I remind myself every now and again where I’ve come from. I just hope my journey keeps going because I’m absolutely loving it.”

Bright is fit again, but McManus will be hard to oust after dictating the tempo against Argentina with a brilliant display of keep-ball, which exemplified Phil Neville’s tactical revolution as England coach. She completed 50 passes in the first half alone, seven more than the entire Argentina team, underlining the move away from the more direct football of Neville’s predecessor, Mark Sampson.

“The centre-halves were running the game,” said McManus, who joined city rivals United before the tournament.

“Manchester City play passing football, from the men’s first team to the women’s first-team to the academy, so it’s not new for me. The coach at Man City, Nick Cushing, gets to speak to Pep [Guardiola] a lot. Rodolfo [Borrell, Guardiola’s assistant] would come over and help Nick with his coaching style and in the first couple of years of the project we were trying to adopt the men’s style.

PA

“Phil drives it every day. The more passes you’ve got, the more the opponent hasn’t got the ball, so they can’t hurt you. The more passes we play, the more of a threat we are, the more comfortable we are, the more fluid our players.

“I’d prefer to be on the ball than chasing the ball. Kick it long and chase it is not a style for me.”

McManus helped City to a domestic cup double last season, but she grew up a United fan and was keen to outline where her loyalties lie when asked if she has based her game on any of City’s treble-winning men’s team.

“I look up to John Stones and Vincent Kompany, but my heroes have always been Rio Ferdinand and [Nemanja] Vidic — I’ve never seen a partnership like that since,” said McManus, who, like her manager, can also play at full-back or in midfield.

“To come on in the first game was a shock,” she said. “It seems to keep happening to me.”

Another way of looking at it is that McManus keeps making things happen for herself.

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