McKenna: I Enjoyed Watching Us Play Tuesday, 8th Feb 2022 23:19 Town boss Kieran McKenna said he really enjoyed watching his side as the Blues defeated bottom club Doncaster Rovers 1-0 at the Eco-Power Stadium. Tyreeq Bakinson’s first goal for the club saw the Blues to the win but having dominated throughout the margin of victory really ought to have been more comfortable. “A really good performance,” McKenna said. “I enjoyed watching us play. I thought we had good control of the game in the first half. Took the ball really well but we had that extra bit of penetration and thrust to our game. “I thought our movement off the ball was really good, found spaces behind the midfield, we ran down the sides of them. We had a threat in the box with crosses, we had more bodies in the box, more service to the striker. “Our counter-pressure was good, we didn’t allow them to play or build into our half at all in the first half. “Lots of pleasing bits of our performance, obviously the main thing we could have improved upon tonight was to get the second goal. If we’d got the second goal, there was every chance we would have gone on and got three and four. “But when you don’t get that second goal, there’s always a chance that something can happen at the end. There were a couple of balls in our box that might have ricocheted the wrong way on another night. “Really pleasing performance. Pleasing with the goal, pleasing with how we defended and just being that clinical to kill the game off a bit earlier would be nice.” The Northern Irishman was happy to see Bakinson pop up on the edge of the six-yard box to add the final touch after Macauley Bonne’s header had been saved. “He’s capable of both roles really,” McKenna reflected. “He’s capable of sitting a little bit deeper and building up the play for us. “This is the first time he’s played in there with Lee Evans, who is obviously really good at that role. Lee gives us that control and that experience and that positioning in the middle of the pitch to play through him. “So we gave Tyreeq that license tonight to run off more, to be able to get beyond their midfield and make it into the box, and he’s shown throughout his young career to date that he’s able to chip in with a goal. “Nice for him to get into that position. Macauley was unlucky with the first header, but nice to have that extra body in the box to be able to finish it off.” Town have beaten two sides in the relegation places over the last few days and McKenna was asked whether he was pleased that his side was able to cope with the level of expectation. “I think we just take it one game at a time, to be honest,” he responded. “Gillingham were second-bottom of the league but they came off of a win and I think they won again tonight, and I knew watching them that it was going to be a difficult game. “Doncaster went to Sunderland on Saturday and put in a really good performance, not just a good result but were 2-0 up and could have been three or four-nil up with how they counter-attacked. “It’s not so much looking at the league position in this league at times in this division, some of the teams are so different, the styles of play are different. “Doncaster have a lot of young players, some pacy forwards and are a really good team on the counter-attack, which they did well against Sunderland on Saturday. “So we knew that was going to be a big part of today - controlling the ball, getting the positioning right, not giving them too many counter-attacks and I think we managed to do that I don’t think they had a pure counter-attack in the whole game. “We don’t worry too much about positions of teams. I’ve said all along that it’s game by game, let’s try and win the next game, respect each opponent and thankfully we did that tonight.” McKenna again made changes, on this occasion three, and was asked whether he is still looking for his best XI or whether such a thing doesn’t exist. “I think with the options we have up the pitch, I don’t think there’s such a thing for us at the moment,” he considered. “We’ve got a nice consistent base at the back at the moment with the players who are playing in the backline and our wing-backs, there has been a little bit more consistency. “Having said that, we’ve got people like Cam Burgess training and training fantastic, a good player at this level, an experienced player ready to step in when we need him. “We’ve been consistent in the back half of the pitch. We’ve had issues in midfield which has forced us to rotate, but we’ve got good options and it’s given me a good chance to have a look at different players. “We’ve missed our captain [Sam Morsy], who is a massive player for us, for four games and managed to win three of them, which is pleasing, and in the front half of the pitch we’ve got really good options. “It’s one of the advantages we have in the division is that the depth of our squad is strong and it’s something I want to use. “It’s different profiles for different games. Sometimes we’ve felt like two strikers a bit closer together was the best way. Sometimes split strikers down the sides of the centre-backs has been what we’ve felt is the best way and sometimes, like tonight, we’ve used players in number 10 positions between the lines to play off a central striker. “It’s nice to have those options tactically, it’s nice to have the personnel, who can play in different ways, and it probably makes us harder to play and prepare against and enables us to look at these games as they come and think in what way we can use the resources at our disposal the best.” Joe Pigott missed out on a place in the 18 having started against Gillingham but McKenna says that was no reflection on the former AFC Wimbledon man’s performance. “No, absolutely not,” he insisted. “It’s just that way at the moment, you can only have 16 outfielders in the squad. “Sometimes we’ve got away with having the four strikers in the squad, other times we’ve felt we can only have three and we need a bit of extra cover on the bench. “We had a couple of boys with niggles going into the night, so we only travelled with the three strikers. “I spoke to Joe, his performance on Saturday we thought was positive for him coming back into the team, all strikers are reliant on good service and he didn’t always get that on Saturday but he gave good things to the team. “Like I’ve said, everyone’s going to be important, sometimes people are going to miss out on a squad for a game or two because of the depth of numbers that we have but he’s going to be an important player for the rest of the season.” The Blues are next in action against the MK Dons on Saturday, with more than 7,000 fans set to make the trip, a tougher prospect than Rovers with the Buckinghamshire sitting in third despite having drawn 1-1 at Fleetwood this evening. “Looking forward to it, like we do every game,” McKenna said. “Milton Keynes, I’ve seen quite a bit of them already, a very good footballing team, good style of play, going well in the league. “And we know there’s a big travelling fanbase going there as well. I think everyone’s excited by the numbers and how that represents the club and how it shows the scale of the fanbase here. “It sets it up for a good game. I think whoever we played on Saturday we’d be looking forward to it, but Milton Keynes we’re expecting a tough game, a good game and a good support and we hope to go there and do well.” Town made more than 600 passes in the game as they recorded their fifth clean sheet in the eight games since McKenna has been at the club. “The team sheets are going to be important for us,” he said. “It’s definitely not from lots of defending as a team and letting the opposition have the ball. It’s important for us that if we have the ball we control the game in their half of the pitch if possible, then we’re going to be better defensively. “I think tonight’s a good example. We knew Doncaster went to Sunderland on Saturday and put in a really, really good counter-attacking performance and it was going to be really important to keep the ball, control the game, get our positionings right so that when we lost it we were always there to press or to win it back, and we managed to do that. “The defensive record’s important but, for me, clean sheets are about how well we’re connected as a team. On the ball, off the ball, set plays, counter-attacks, all of those things. “And we’ve managed to do that pretty well over the last seven weeks, but we can still improve.”  McKenna’s former Manchester United colleagues Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Michael Carrick were at the game and the Blues boss was pleased to see them. “Lovely, two fantastic football men, two Champions League winners, but two good friends and two Ipswich Town fans now,” he said. “They’ve been following all the games on iFollow and I think they’re hoping to come down to Portman Road at some point as well. “Nice of them, they came over to the hotel this afternoon, met some of the players and the staff. It was nice of them to make the journey and I really appreciate it.” McKenna says he calls the pair up to bounce ideas back and forth. “Yes, just in general,” he said. “They’re two colleagues but two friends as well, two people I’ve worked closely with and enjoyed working with, and two friends. “We’re in contact, speak about football but speak about other things as well. They’re very supportive of me, and [assistant boss] Martyn [Pert] as well, of course. We all have a good relationship. And, as I say, two new fans for Ipswich Town, which is nice.”
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