How England Lionesses Can Unlock Jess Park – Europe’s In-Form Manchester United Midfielder

There was a split second at the edge of Atletico Madrid’s penalty area when time seemed to slow. Jess Park took the ball out of her feet with one touch, then another. No panic, no rush. Just clarity. From the technical area, Marc Skinner already knew what was coming.

The strike was pure. Right foot, clean connection, arcing beyond a forest of red-and-white shirts and beyond the reach of goalkeeper Lola Gallardo. Top corner. Tie over. Manchester United into the Women’s Champions League quarter-finals for the first time.

“We’re getting to the point now, as soon as it leaves her foot, you know it’s in,” Skinner said afterwards.

He wasn’t exaggerating.

Park is playing the best football of her career. The question now is simple, but not straightforward: how do England’s Lionesses harness the form of one of Europe’s most in-form attackers and translate it onto the international stage?

Jess Park’s Manchester United Evolution: Why the Lionesses Must Adapt

Park’s move from Manchester City to Manchester United last summer raised eyebrows. It felt bold, perhaps even risky. But it has proven transformative.

At City, she was largely used as a central midfielder or a classic No.10 — tidy in possession, intelligent between the lines, occasionally decisive but rarely the focal point. For England, she occupied similar spaces when called upon. During the triumphant Euro 2025 campaign, she was a peripheral figure, making just one substitute appearance.

Now, she looks indispensable at club level.

Skinner has repositioned her predominantly on the right flank, though that description barely scratches the surface. Park starts wide, yes, but she rarely stays there. She drifts inside, drops deeper, pops up centrally, sometimes even appears on the opposite side. The key is not her starting position but her freedom — balanced carefully with defensive discipline.

That freedom has unlocked something.

Previously, her best return in a single Women’s Super League season was nine combined goals and assists. This year, she has already surpassed that mark with games to spare. Add contributions in domestic cups and Europe, and she is enjoying her most productive campaign yet.

But club football and international football are different beasts.

The Lionesses’ Tactical Puzzle: Translating Club Form to England

Jess Park Man Utd Women 2025-26

Sarina Wiegman’s England do not play like Skinner’s United. Nor can they.

At club level, a manager can sculpt a system over months, shape recruitment around a vision, and drill automatisms into muscle memory. International windows are fleeting. Training sessions are precious and limited.

Skinner himself acknowledged as much after Park’s goal against Atletico: “Tonight, there’s loads of space and so the game’s different.”

In Europe, particularly against expansive opposition, space opens up. In international qualifiers, especially against compact sides like Ukraine or Iceland, that space shrinks.

And then there is personnel.

To grant one attacker significant freedom, the structure behind her must be rock solid. The midfield balance must compensate. The full-backs must read triggers. The defensive screen must anticipate transitions.

That brings us to another layer of complexity: Lauren James.

Jess Park and Lauren James: Freedom Without Chaos for England’s Lionesses

Lauren James, like Park, thrives when unshackled. At Chelsea, she has recently been afforded considerable liberty — drifting centrally, appearing in pockets, popping up in half-spaces. The results have been electric.

For England, however, it has not always clicked so seamlessly.

James began Euro 2025 in a central No.10 role during the opening 2-1 defeat to France. England looked disjointed, too open between the lines. Wiegman reacted swiftly, shifting James back into a more orthodox wide role for the 4-0 win over the Netherlands. The structure stabilised. The balance returned.

The lesson was clear: freedom must not come at the cost of cohesion.

And yet, Park’s current form demands attention. You cannot ignore a player in this rhythm. Confidence is a fragile currency; when it flows, it must be invested.

The intriguing possibility is not choosing between Park and James, but finding a way for them to complement one another.

Could they interchange? Could one drift while the other holds width? Could their movement create overloads centrally without exposing England defensively?

It would require precision. Communication. Buy-in from the entire midfield unit.

But the potential upside is tantalising.

Central Role or Wide Threat? Finding the Best Use of Jess Park

With Ella Toone unavailable for this camp, an obvious solution presents itself: deploy Park centrally.

She has done it before for England. She understands the responsibilities. Her decision-making, sharper now than in previous seasons, could thrive between the lines against deeper blocks.

Yet part of what has elevated her at United is unpredictability.

Skinner explained it best: “When she was at City, she had a very defined role. What we’ve done is try to negate the pressures by putting her in spaces teams don’t get used to. You stick her in one space and it can stifle the situation.”

That is the risk with simply slotting her into Toone’s role and expecting magic.

At United, Park is hard to track because she rarely occupies the same zone for long. Defenders hesitate. Midfielders get pulled out. Channels open for others.

International football rarely allows such fluidity by default. It must be designed deliberately.

Perhaps the upcoming fixtures offer the ideal laboratory.

Ukraine and Iceland: A Testing Ground for England’s Lionesses

England will enter matches against Ukraine and Iceland as overwhelming favourites. The Lionesses will dominate possession. The burden will be on creativity rather than containment.

These are not friendlies, but they provide something close to experimental conditions.

Wiegman could afford to trial a more dynamic attacking configuration — one where Park and James rotate, where the right-back underlaps, where the central midfielders stagger their positioning to protect against counters.

It may not be a template for all scenarios. Spain, waiting in April, will present a vastly different challenge — technical, suffocating, tactically astute. That match will demand structure above flair.

But international football rarely offers the luxury of trial and error. Without friendlies, competitive qualifiers become the only space to innovate.

And innovation may be necessary if England want to maximise one of the country’s most in-form players.

Confidence, Intelligence and the Next Step

There is another dimension to Park’s rise: maturity.

She has always possessed technical quality. What feels different now is conviction. She shoots earlier. She commits defenders. She looks decisive rather than tentative.

Skinner called her “an intelligent human”. That intelligence could be crucial at international level, where tactical nuance and situational awareness are paramount.

Ultimately, the challenge for England’s Lionesses is not simply to fit Jess Park into a shape. It is to build a framework that amplifies what she is currently doing so naturally at Manchester United — without compromising balance.

That may mean subtle tweaks rather than wholesale change. It may mean trusting her to drift while ensuring the midfield screen holds. It may mean allowing moments of improvisation within a disciplined structure.

Whatever the solution, one thing is clear: Jess Park is no longer a fringe figure knocking politely at the door. She is one of Europe’s most in-form attackers, a Manchester United midfielder brimming with confidence and end product.

If England can unlock her fully, the Lionesses’ attack may reach an entirely new level in 2026.