| Ipswich Town 0 v 4 Newcastle United FA Premier League Saturday, 21st December 2024 Kick-off 15:00 |  |
McKenna: We Have to Take Lessons From Game That Ran Away From Us Saturday, 21st Dec 2024 18:47 Boss Kieran McKenna says his team have lessons to learn from their 4-0 home defeat to Newcastle United, a game he felt ran away from the Blues. Town, who remain 18th in the Premier League and still without a home win this season, never looked like taking anything from the match after the Magpies had gone in front in the opening 25 seconds through Alexander Isak, who went on to net his first hat-trick for the North-East club. “We have to take some lessons from it, for sure,” McKenna said when asked what Town have to take from the loss. “We haven’t had many like that, we’ve been really, really competitive across the season and I’ve been saying that the group have been doing very, very well to be as competitive as we have been. “We have to be close to 100 per cent to be competitive in games and do all the right things, and we didn’t manage to do that today. We came up against a very good opponent, who were better than us today and the game ran away from us. “There are certainly things that we can learn from it, there are certainly things in the first half especially that we need to do better, things that we’ve done really well this season and we didn’t manage to show today. “With the games that we have coming up, it’s crystal clear that we’re going to need to show a different side of us in the next couple of games.” Reflecting further on the lessons which his team need to learn, he added: “I think the first goal, of course, it’s disappointing, but we’ve made a couple of mistakes in the goal and it can happen if you’re a team who starts on the front foot against a very, very good team. “For me, the period going up to half-time, the 20 minutes going up to half-time, because after the goal, we were in the game, we were OK, we had plenty of opportunities on the ball, we got to good areas, we had some big chances and the game was pretty open. “But I think the game started to get away from us at the mid-point of the first half and they were becoming a big, big, big threat and our game management, our decisions, our defensive organisation, our defensive resilience, things that we’ve been excellent at this season and that we’ve leaned into in difficult times. “We didn’t do them today and we allowed the game to be open, we allowed the game to be end to end and with the personnel that Newcastle had on the pitch and where we were at, that always suited them. We didn’t stem that flow and that’s part of the reason why the game went from 1-0 in the first half to 3-0 and really got away from us. “I think we needed to manage that period of the game very, very differently and make sure that we got to half-time at 1-0 down and gave ourselves a chance to attack the second half.” Quizzed on the opening goal with Jacob Murphy having got in behind left-back Leif Davis, McKenna said: “It’s not probably giving away too much, we know that Leif is really aggressive in terms of his jumping to press on first phase, he’s done it for two and a half seasons here. “Of course, we have to execute well if we want to be a brave team and be competitive as we have been, and you’re always going to leave some space. “It wasn’t an unusual move for us from a defensive point of view, but we didn’t deal with it as well as we usually do.” Regarding hat-trick scorer Isak, McKenna said: “He’s a very good striker, we’ve faced plenty of good strikers this year but he’s of a very high level and everything that we thought Newcastle were and that everybody knows they are at their best, they showed today. “They’ve got an incredible athleticism, incredible pace, not just in the frontline but at full-back and in midfield. They’ve got incredible athleticism and they managed to open us up today and we didn’t manage the game well enough when it was open to close it up and if the game ends up as open as it was in the first half today, then that doesn’t give us our best chance, that gives Newcastle their best chance and their forwards were all a big, big threat.” Regarding the third Newcastle goal, Isak’s second, when Town lost possession playing out from the back, he said: “We’ll never know whether it was a costly moment,” he said when it was put to him that it had been damaging moment. “I think the particular action we’ve done time and time again this season and time and time again last season and we’re actually one of the teams who have conceded the fewest from building up, we’ve been good with it. “I think the incident was more in the context of the 15 or 20 minutes I’m talking about where we weren’t managing the game well, where we weren’t recognising the state of the game and that incident is, of course, easy to pick out because we need to do better on it just before half-time. “But that was completely in the flow of the 15 or 20-minute spell where there were lots of decisions like that from an attacking and a defending point of view that led to chances for the opposition. “I think it was not necessarily, for me, a discussion around playing out from the back because we know that’s something we believe in, has worked well for us this season as well as in the last seasons, but more about managing the game in really difficult moments. That goal was in context with the 15-20 minutes which came before it.” McKenna admitted his team missed the suspended Liam Delap’s physical presence with Sammie Szmodics having moved into the number nine role. “You always miss it in certain moments,” he said. “I think more of our problems today were from a defensive and defensive transition point of view, to be honest. “We got to good areas, we had opportunities in the game, Sammie has a big one-v-one at 1-0 and there’s not many people you’d want to put in that position other than him. “Of course, you’re going to miss Liam’s quality in the final third, Liam gives us more opportunities to play over the press or play down the sides of the press and we didn’t have as much of that on the pitch in the first half, although Sammie still had some good moments in those settings for us. “We’re always going to miss Liam, especially at a time when George Hirst is out. But for me, today our issues were more defensively and defensive transition and game management than what we did the ball. “I actually thought we had enough moments, we got through them enough, we broke their press enough, we broke their midfield line enough to have got something from the game, it was the chances that we gave away that were more of a problem.” McKenna was pleased with the way the Portman Road faithful continued to back their side, aside from a few boos at the half-time whistle. “I thought the crowd were very good,” he said. “I think the game was realistically gone at half-time. Of course, at 3-0 you don’t give up in terms of the result and we wanted to get the next goal but really the second half, after they got the fourth goal, it was about showing the right characteristics, the right resilience on the pitch and the crowd showed that as well to really high level. “They stuck with us really well, they know the journey that the group’s been on. I think most understand how hard it’s been for the group to be as competitive as we have been. “Of course, we would have liked to have turned the margins to win a couple more and get a few more points but to be as competitive as we have been, I think the crowd know how much effort that’s taken and today got away from us. “We don’t want that feeling too often, so we’ve got to learn lessons and learn them really quickly and try and hit our absolute maximum level in the next couple of games. We’re grateful for the crowd’s support and we don’t take them for granted.” Having been without Delap today, the Blues will be without skipper Sam Morsy at Arsenal on Friday, the Egypt international having picked up his fifth booking of the season having gone nine games without a yellow card. Kalvin Phillips is Morsy’s likely deputy and came on as a sub in the second half for his first action since injuring his ankle at the start of November. “He’s had a better week this week, it’s the first week this week since he had his injury when he’s been able to train uninterrupted all week, so that was a positive and good for him to get 30 minutes,” McKenna said of the on-loan Manchester City man. “He and Jack Taylor are both ready and available, Massimo [Luongo]’s had some illness, so we’ll have to check on him over the next couple of days. “We’re missing important players at the moment and that’s challenge for our squad. Of course, everyone misses players but we’re missing some big players and today we were missing, in terms of physicality in our squad, we were missing our most physical player against maybe the most physical team in the league, certainly right up there in the top three. “From a physical point of view today, it was a massive challenge and we missed Liam and the other players who were missing and we’ll some in the next game against Arsenal but that’s the challenge that we have to rise to.” McKenna says his team won’t dwell on the performance but at the same time won’t sweep it under the carpet. “We won’t do that, but it’s not about brushing it either,” he said. “I think some of the lessons from today and some of the things that we didn’t do are going to be absolutely pivotal in the next couple of games. “We’re taking about game management, defensive resilience, those sort of things. Going away to the Emirates is as tough as it gets in terms of the requirements in those respects. “We’ve got to take the lessons from today and if we do, then in some ways it’s a useful time to go and have a couple of really, really difficult games because we’re going to have to go and show those things in abundance.” Looking to January, McKenna was asked whether he will have money to spend during the transfer window. “We want to try and make the squad stronger, that’s for sure, and do that in the best way possible,” he said. “It’s not always about money to spend in January, it’s about finding the right players, the right deals to try and make the squad better. We’re certainly going to try and do that in January as, I’m sure, every team will.”
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