Borussia Mönchengladbach sporting director Roland Virkus says Town’s decision to field an U21s squad in this afternoon’s friendly between the clubs at the ATS Sportpark in Heimstetten is “incredibly disappointing” (KO 2.30pm CET, 1.30pm BST).

The Blues announced last night that it would be a young squad managed by John McGreal taking on Die Fohlen in this afternoon’s match, Town having been impacted by injuries during pre-season.

Keeper Cieran Slicker is the only player with any first team experience in the Blues’ XI, while Die Fohlen have named a very strong side.

“We’ve had a great training camp and were hoping to round the week off with a friendly against strong English opposition,” Virkus told his club social media.

“That Ipswich have now gone against our contractual agreement due to personnel issues is incredibly disappointing and has left us very frustrated.

“Unfortunately, we were unable to find an alternate friendly opponent at short notice, so we have no choice but to try and make the best out of the situation.”

Ideally, Blues boss Kieran McKenna would have liked to have fielded two separate senior XIs in the games against Borussia and then Hoffenheim on Saturday, but admitted at the weekend he was struggling for numbers with a number of players having picked up knocks.

“We hope so because the games are pretty close apart,” McKenna said when asked whether he planned to field different sides in the two matches following last Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Fortuna Düsseldorf at Portman Road.

“But we don’t have the bodies for that in terms of senior players at the moment, so we’re going to have to have a look at it and try and find the right balance between stretching and pushing the boys with minutes but not over-pushing them. In an ideal scenario we’d have two separate XIs to play the games.”

Town U21s: Slicker, Jambang, H Barbrook, Maionis (c), Ayoola, Turner, Valentine, Carr, Foyo, Roberts, Ayinde. Subs: Williamson, Okunowo, Nwabueze, O Davis, T Taylor, Onuchukwu, Babb, Morgan.

Borussia: Omlin, Itakura, Stöger, Weigl, Honorat, Kleindienst, Plea, Netz, Reitz, Scally, Elvedi.

Photo: IMAGO/fohlenfoto via Reuters Connect

BeattiesBackPocket added 18:46 - Aug 2 Ipswichinio I would say after training yesterday he felt the players may have some of the normal pre season niggles and not worth the risk. A minority on here like linkboy need to work out what the priorities are the league? or ONE friendly?
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Carberry added 19:25 - Aug 2 This isn't Stevenage and Wimbledon, we're playing with the big boys now and if McKenna knew it would be a stretch last weekend then they should have been informed. Of course the one eyed people on here saying 'do one' to Mönchengladbach just don't get it, do they. This is our reputation in Europe crashed, who will want us in their pre-season preparations once the Germans spread the news we are totally unreliable. Smacks of arrogance, I'm afraid.

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WestSussexBlue added 21:37 - Aug 2 Some very harsh and unsubstantiated claims on here. This is the last scenario the club would have wanted in such a friendly but sometimes needs must. Signings are imminent but fell short of making these friendlies which are exactly what they are. Keep the faith.
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