West Ham United 4 v 1 Ipswich Town FA Premier League Saturday, 5th October 2024 Kick-off 15:00 |
McKenna: West Ham Are Still Building But We Have a Lot of Respect For Them Thursday, 3rd Oct 2024 18:43 Town make their first visit to West Ham United’s London Stadium on Saturday with the Blues looking for their first win of the season and the Hammers their first point at home. Despite their lack of a victory, Town, who are 15th, a point off the relegation zone, can be happy with their start having lost only two of their six matches since returning to the Premier League after a 22-year hiatus, to the division’s top two, Liverpool and Manchester City, in their opening two fixtures. The Blues are now four games unbeaten having drawn their last four matches. The last time Town drew four on the trot in the top flight was during a run of five successive stalemates in August and September 1992, the first two months of the Premier League following its inception. West Ham, under new manager Julen Lopetegui, who took over following David Moyes’s departure in the summer, are 14th, one place and one point above the Blues. The Hammers’ only victory this season came away at Crystal Palace on the second weekend, a 2-0 success. They are currently undefeated on the road in 2024/25 having drawn their other two away games, 1-1 with both Brentford and Fulham. But on home territory they are yet to pick up a single point having lost 2-1 to Aston Villa on the opening day, been beaten 3-1 by Manchester City and then comprehensively 3-0 by Chelsea a fortnight ago. The Palace win is the only Premier League game in which the Irons have been in front this season with 23 minutes the shortest time of any team in the division have been ahead. Town have been in the lead for 29 minutes, the second shortest. Blues boss Kieran McKenna feels his team is moving in the right direction with displays having been positive throughout the early stages of the campaign, despite the 12 signings still being bedded in. “We think we are progressing well,” McKenna said. “We are six games in so it is early on into the season but we know where we are at as a group and we know we are building into the division and building a lot of new players into the squad, and that is going to take time. “I think those things considered, we have been pretty consistent with our performances and been competitive in nearly all parts of every game. That has given us a chance to pick up results and we have had a run of draws now. “It will be fantastic to turn one of those into a win, but I think if you are competitive in games and picking up points regularly, then you are going to give yourself a chance. “Bu that wasn’t the absolute priority on our checklist this summer, of course, there are financial reasons as well. Players from the Championship are more attractive to us but also we didn’t massively prioritise it when we went from League One to the Championship, it is more about finding the right people and the right profiles who can come here and do well. “We have tried to do that again this season and the players are learning every week. There is going to be mistakes along the way, but I think if everyone keeps the right mindset it will put us in a good position.” With both sides desperate for a win, is he anticipating a close game? “Let’s hope we can make it really competitive. I don’t think there will be many weeks this year when we are going to blow teams out of the water, so we have to work really, really hard to be competitive, we need to perform close to our best every week to be competitive, especially away from home. “We need to be really, really good in all phases – with the ball, without the ball, on our set plays – against a really strong opponent who invested a lot in the summer and who have a high level of individual talent in their squad. “They have a really good physical profile in every position and it is going to be a big test. But we know if we work as we have been over the last few weeks, we can impose our game – as I think we have increasingly done so as the weeks have gone on. “We are starting to impose our football a little bit more and we hope to make it a really competitive game. “If we can do that, then football always comes down to the moment and margins and we hope that we can be really clinical in the execution of our moments, as well as defend the opponents’ moments well. This will give us the best chance of getting a result.” Reflecting on the Hammers, whose new boss Lopetegui is coming under some early pressure following their slow start, McKenna added: “West Ham are a new team, in that they have a new manager and two new centre-halves [Jean-Clair Todibo and Maximilian Kilman] playing together. “They have a new right-back in Aaron Wan-Bissaka and they are integrating some other new players as well. They are still building what they want to be and we have a lot of respect for them. “They are a very good team with a very good, experienced manager. They have signed a lot of good players on top of the very good players they already had. “They have been a very competitive Premier League team for a number of years and we pay them a lot of respect in terms of how we prepare for the game and negate the things they do very well. “But we will also go there with the same mindset as we do every week – and go there looking to impose ourselves, try and play our football and make sure we are very organised and resilient whenever West Ham are having their moments in the game.”
McKenna will probably hope to field much the same side as drew 2-2 with Aston Villa last Sunday, although revealed he had some injury concerns at his lunchtime press conference without naming those concerned. Assuming everyone comes through OK, Aro Muric will be in goal with the increasingly familiar pairing of Dara O’Shea and Jacob Greaves in front of him with Leif Davis on the left. Axel Tuanzebe, who has started every game on the right, has been withdrawn from the DR Congo squad due to injury and seems likely to be replaced by Ben Johnson facing his old club. Skipper Sam Morsy and former West Ham loanee Kalvin Phillips will be in the centre of midfield. Ahead of them, McKenna could again look to switch his widemen, Jack Clarke and Chiedozie Ogbene having come in for Sammie Szmodics - a childhood Hammers fan - and Wes Burns against Villa. Omari Hutchinson seems likely to be the number 10 behind central striker Liam Delap. According to Iraqi reports, striker Ali Al-Hamadi is injured and out of their October internationals but seems unlikely to have been in the Town 20 at West Ham in any case. OppositionWest Ham will be without German international forward Niclas Füllkrug, who has been out for the last four matches due to a calf and achilles issue. The Hammers have no other injury concerns with midfielder Edson Alvarez back from a one-match ban. There has been speculation that Lopetegui could leave Mohammed Kudus out after the two apparently clashed following the Ghanaian’s half-time substitution in last week’s 1-1 draw at Brentford. Quizzed on the incident at his pre-match press conference, Lopetegui said: “It was for tactical reasons. The second half we worked as a team, and for me this is a very important step. I highlighted the behaviour in the second half because I think we put on the pitch what we needed.” Asked about the importance of Kudus and Lucas Paqueta, he added: “It's important that the team play well and work well. It's about all of them, not about one player or two. “Football is a collective game and we want all of them to work as a team and work for the team. This is the only way I know how to be a strong team.” Reflecting on the challenge presented by the Blues, Lopetegui added: “We go into every match knowing we are going to play against a good team, and Ipswich are another good team. “They’ve worked well together for a few years now, with a very good coach, and obviously achieved back-to-back promotions to get into the Premier League. “I think they are a very consistent team - that’s why they’ve drawn their last four games in the Premier League - and with and without the ball they are a very interesting team. “We have to be ready to compete to be able to win this game, and that’s definitely what we’re working towards.” Regarding his team’s lack of a win so far, the 58-year-old Spanish former Wolves boss said: It’s always very important to win, and that’s why we work hard every day. “We don’t look too far into the future - the only thing we have in our minds at this time is the game against Ipswich, but it is important for us to perform well in this match and get the desired result. “Our job in football is to live with pressure - it is normal, because we want to win. We haven’t lost away, but we haven’t won at home, and we want more. That’s why we are continuing to work hard, and our aim is to change that record on Saturday.” HistoryHistorically, West Ham have had the better of it, the Blues winning 21 games between the sides (21 in the league), the Hammers 27 (24) and 20 (17) ending in draws. The teams last met in January 2012 when Town recorded their first double of the season with a form book-shredding 5-1 victory over Championship leaders West Ham, who would eventually win promotion via the play-offs, at Portman Road. Michael Chopra opened the scoring in the third minute, Daryl Murphy adding the second in a frantic period before the break in which Jack Collison, who later had a spell with the Blues without making a first-team appearance, pulled one back for the Hammers and Lee Martin made it 3-1 from the spot. In the second half, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas netted the night’s best goal, a low 35-yard strike which beat Robert Green off his post, then added the fifth in the final moments. Earlier in the season at Upton Park, ex-Hammer Bowyer netted his first competitive goal for the Blues a minute from time as Town left Upton Park with a deserved 1-0 victory. The veteran midfielder had struck the woodwork in a first half largely dominated by the Blues with Chopra also going close. Familiar FacesLong-serving West Ham left-back Aaron Cresswell played for Town in both those matches having joined the Blues after leaving Tranmere in the summer of 2011. The Liverpudlian, now 34, made 138 starts for the Blues, scoring seven goals. He moved to the Hammers in the summer of 2014 for £3.75 million rising to £7 million, all based on appearances. The former England international has now made 328 starts and 22 sub appearances, scoring 11 times. This season Cresswell has made two late sub appearances in the Premier League. Town’s on-loan Manchester City midfielder Phillips was on loan with the Hammers in the second half of last season. It was not a happy spell with the England international making only three starts and seven sub appearances and falling out with fans with matters coming to a head when he raised a middle finger to an abusive fan as he got on the team bus. Blues right-back Johnson moved to Portman Road after leaving the Hammers in the summer having been with the East Londoners since he was seven. Johnson made 70 starts and 39 sub appearances, scoring twice for the Hammers. OfficialsSaturday’s referee is Anthony Taylor, who has shown 39 yellow cards and no red in seven games so far this season. The Cheshire-based official will be assisted by Gary Beswick and Adam Nunn, while the fourth official will be Andrew Kitchen. The VAR official is Darren England and his assistant Scott Ledger. Taylor’s most recent Town match was the 2-1 FA Cup defeat to Maidstone at Portman Road in January in which he yellow-carded George Edmundson and two of the visitors. Before that, he was in charge of the 1-1 play-off semi-final first leg draw with Norwich at Portman Road in May 2015 in which he yellow-carded Paul Anderson and two Canaries. Prior to that, his last Blues game was the 1-0 home victory over Derby in October 2009 which ended Roy Keane’s Blues’ winless league start to that season at the 15th attempt, perhaps a positive omen for McKenna’s Town as they look for this season’s first victory. Squad FromMuric, Walton, Gray, Johnson, Davis, Townsend, Tuanzebe, O’Shea, Woolfenden, Greaves, Burgess, Phillips, Morsy (c), Taylor, Luongo, Hutchinson, Chaplin, Szmodics, J Clarke, Broadhead, Burns, Ogbene, Delap, Hirst.
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