Being hard to beat, being competitive, making this a really hard place to come - McKenna - video Dailymotion

NicheSportMedia

Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna discusses being hard to beat, being competitive, making this a really hard place to come is a great step but now thy need to start winning matches to stay in the Premier League  24/11/2024  Ipswich Town Stadium, Ipswich, UK

Transcript

00:00Did you come away from that game almost a little disappointed that you hadn't won it?

00:07I think we certainly could have won it, so you could look at it that way, it depends

00:10on your perspective. I think we were certainly the better team in the first half overall

00:17and I thought as the first half went on we really grew in ascendancy and went into half-time

00:22in real dominance. But the second half, Man United had some good periods of control as

00:27well and we had to defend on shape and show good discipline. Although we still had a couple

00:31of big chances to win it, so we certainly could have won it. But I think when you concede

00:34an early goal to Man United with the motivation that they were playing with today, the game

00:39could also get away from you in another direction. So the main positive is it didn't and we were

00:44morally competitive through the game and everyone represented themselves very well.

00:52Andre Anel has made two brilliant saves and even Amiran said without him Manchester United

00:58could have lost. Are they key moments of the game?

01:03Yes, I thought his save from Liam was incredible. I thought it was his head, to be honest, but

01:08if he saved that from that range it's an incredible save. The save in the second half was probably

01:12a big one, I've not seen it back, but that was maybe the clearest chance in the second

01:16half. So that's a really good save and he's a good goalkeeper. I think we probably had

01:22the better chances in the game, but it was an even game in other parts and it was a competitive

01:28game. So we certainly felt that we could have won it, but there's big positives in how we

01:32played.

01:33What did you make of going up against Reuben, who's got quite a tactical game and lots of

01:38changes throughout the game?

01:41It was a good competitive game. It was a challenge for us going into it in terms of preparation

01:45to be fair and there's certain things that you could predict, but certain things not,

01:49especially after an international break, not being sure with injuries. So that side of

01:53it made it a challenge. I think that was a challenge at the start of the game, to be

01:56honest, because you weren't sure going into the game what the positioning would be. Of

02:00course, you get the line-up, but you don't know will Diallo play a wing-back or Garnaccio

02:03play a wing-back. It wasn't easy to be certain. So it was probably a few times in the first

02:07five, ten minutes where we were not caught out, but where it was hard to be certain about

02:12the positioning of the opposition. It took us a little while to get on top of that, but

02:16I thought after probably the first ten minutes of the first half, we'd done exactly that

02:21and we started to get on top of it. The intensity of our pressure and the speed of some of our

02:26combination players really took control of the game.

02:29It was a good challenge in terms of the quality of the opposition players. They made changes

02:35in the second half, got good players coming on. They got more control than what we would

02:39have liked really in the second half, but at the same time we showed a good level of

02:43maturity and resilience in our defending in that phase. It made it a really well-contested

02:52game.

03:10Yes, I think we've shown that for the large majority of the season, but I think it's pretty

03:18clear that we're making progress. I think you can see it in individual players and their

03:23improvement and their performances. You can see players really settling into the team

03:26who've come here. You can see we can't forget the journey for Cameron Burgess or Wes Perns

03:32today of where they've come to and now they're both competing really well in that game. So

03:37individuals are improving. I think as a team we're developing. I think we looked at pre

03:43the Tottenham game, we made some comparisons internally with the Man City game before the

03:47game and posed that to the players to say that we went to Man City's second game. We

03:51did some things well, but in the end we weren't able to manage the game against a top, top,

03:56top team and it ran away from us. We did that much better last weekend and I think you can

04:00draw some comparisons today with the Liverpool game, to be fair, and we did that before the

04:04game and said, look, we've got a show now. Eleven games since we've played Liverpool,

04:08a lot of the same ingredients as we did against Liverpool, intensity over pressure, bravery

04:12on and off the ball, but we have to find a little bit more, both in terms of being clinical

04:17to go and score a goal and also in our game management and maturity. I think if you look

04:22at the second half today compared to the second half at Liverpool, when Liverpool got on the

04:26ascendancy in the last 30 minutes of that game, they ran away from us really and cut

04:31through us. Today, whenever the game got away from us a little bit in the second half where

04:34we lost the domination that we had in the first half, I thought it was a really mature

04:38second half because we stuck together, we defended on shape, everyone stuck to their

04:42jobs, didn't give away many big chances and then you give yourself a chance to win the

04:46game and even taking lames out of it, Conor, the good chance in the cutback at the end

04:50that maybe you can then go and win the game. So, even in a microcosm, I think you take

04:55those two games from the first two games, Liverpool and Man City, and you take Tottenham

04:59and United today and you can see some progress there. We feel it, but we have to keep it

05:05going. It's the position that we're in when you draw a game. If you continue with that

05:11next week, then you show momentum, but if you don't and you don't show it, then you

05:15lose momentum, you lose the game and you've not won in two games. So, that's the reality

05:19of where we're in. We feel that we're progressing, but we have to keep going.

05:29How's he doing?

05:32Yeah, he's doing well. I think he showed it in early parts of the season as well. Maybe

05:37all the players are going to have a little dip for one or two games, but I think people

05:42were probably saying that after the Villa game, after the Southampton game, what an

05:45impact he's having in the Premier League, after the Liverpool game even. So, he's shown

05:50good stuff from the start of the season, but again, he's starting to understand it a little

05:53bit more. It's his second season of senior football, it's his first season of starting

05:58and it's his first season being in a team who are going to be in the bottom third of

06:01the league, all likely. So, there's a lot of things there to understand, let alone the

06:05increased level of the challenge with the teams and the players he's playing against.

06:09So, he's maturing well. He showed all the qualities we want from a number 10 today,

06:14to be honest. We feel like when teams come and press us high and open up the middle of

06:18the pitch, having a dribbler like Omari in there is really, really hard to handle and

06:22I think that really unlocked the first half for us really. They were trying to step on

06:26him from centre half and he couldn't quite get to grips with him and he was dribbling

06:30through the pitch time and again. He gave a good performance and like many of the players

06:35I think he's improving.

06:38Ben was injured, so he missed out on the little injury he had over the international break.

06:44Hopefully not, nothing too serious for Nottingham Forest, we don't know.

06:57Yeah, we're going to have to win some home games for sure. I think you've described it

07:03pretty well. I think a pretty good step is being hard to beat, being competitive, making

07:08this a really difficult place to come, imposing ourselves on the opposition. But we also need

07:14to win some home games over the course of the season and that's what we're trying to

07:17do. We've had four draws here, I think we could have won all four. Par score, we should

07:23have won one that for me isn't debatable in the Leicester game and you take out the

07:29other three draws, par score is probably winning at least one if things fall your way. We don't

07:34feel like we're far away but it is another step. Being competitive, being hard to beat,

07:39not losing many games, that's a step. Winning your first game is a step and winning more

07:45regularly than what we are is another step that we still have to try and make.

07:49Are we all good? Everyone happy?

07:51Thank you everyone.

Being hard to beat, being competitive, making this a really hard place to come - McKenna

Category

Transcript

Recommended