adminIpswich Town: Kieran McKenna on Hull City and squad rotation
Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna is expecting a different challenge against Hull City this evening, highlighting their impressive attacking strength that has guided them towards the top of the Championship table.
The Tigers came into the campaign with low expectations, having narrowly avoided relegation to League One on the final day of last season.
However, under Sergej Jakirovic, they have spent most of the campaign in and around the top six, with plenty of goals going in at both ends.
They come into tonight’s match off the back of a 3-2 win at home to Portsmouth and a 3-2 defeat at QPR, meaning that they have scored 28 goals and conceded 27 in just 16 games so far this season.
“They have been a big threat, creating a lot, scoring a lot,” McKenna said. “I think they are maybe the second top scorers in the league and the data underneath that backs that up.
“Their attacking play has been really, really strong. They have been a big threat.
“We know we’ll have to respect the qualities that they bring and we’ll have to defend really well, but as we do, we’ll have to impose ourselves really well on the game and be a threat to them.
“It should be a good game, it’s one we’re looking forward to.”
An open, end-to-end game arguably suits Ipswich more. They have won their last two away matches by 4-1 scorelines, but have been frustrated on Suffolk soil with a 1-1 draw against Watford and a stalemate against Wrexham.
“It’s different, and maybe the last couple of home games and last couple of away games have sort of panned out a little bit like that,” McKenna admitted.
“We managed to get the first goal away from home, then the game opens up a lot more for you. At home, we haven’t managed to get it, and then you end up trying to beat the door down, which is difficult as well.
“If it’s a team who come against us, it’s a challenge in a different way, but there might also be a bit more space for us to attack as well.
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“These things go in swings though, don’t they? Six weeks ago, we’d scored three against Norwich, a couple against Portsmouth and five against Sheffield United, but we couldn’t win away from home and hadn’t got our first away win.
“A month later, we’ve scored two four-goal hauls away from home, and teams have come to Portman Road and managed to make it really difficult for us, where we haven’t managed to get the first goal and we’ve been frustrated in terms of how clinical we’ve managed to be.
“These are the challenges of football and trying to be a good team. These things tend to swing over the course of a season, if you do well in one way and teams try to stop you. If you don’t do well in one way, teams try to exploit that.
“That’s why you need to keep developing in every area, all areas of your game. It’s why you need your whole squad and group with players of different qualities, so you can win different types of games.”
This match comes at the start of a hectic run for Town, with trips to Oxford United and Blackburn Rovers preceding two huge home matches against high-flyers Coventry City and Stoke City.
With that in mind, McKenna expects to use his squad to keep everyone fresh and hand out opportunities, calling on supporters to back whoever starts for Ipswich as they look to climb up the table.
“It’s not a no-brainer,” McKenna said about rotation. “But we have seven games in 21 days. We have a strong group, so we’ll have to utilise them all.
“It’s important that we get behind the players who need the support. They are all here because we believe they can contribute, and it’s still really early days for a lot of them at the football club.
“You’re talking about quite a few of our players out there today [v Wrexham] who have had three, four, two, five starts at the football club – that’s nothing. You’ve got Leif Davis who has made 150.
“If we’re going to make big judgements on people after two, three, four, five starts, then I think we’re heading in the wrong direction.
“We need to get right behind whoever plays go there as a real team. We’ve got three tough away games now, but a challenge to go and tackle.”
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