Ipswich Town 0 v 6 Manchester City FA Premier League Sunday, 19th January 2025 Kick-off 16:30 | ![]() |
McKenna: We Have to Enjoy the Challenge and Have a Positive Mindset Saturday, 18th Jan 2025 06:01 Town boss Kieran McKenna wants his side to impose themselves more on Manchester City at Portman Road on Sunday than was the case at the Etihad Stadium earlier in the season, but knows that won’t be an easy task despite the visitors’ uncharacteristic struggles this season. (Sky Sports Main Event/Football, KO 4.30pm). The Blues were beaten 4-1 by City in their second match back in the top flight in August, Sammie Szmodics giving McKenna’s team an early lead before the Premier League champions took the game away from them in a devastating 191 seconds in which they scored three times, adding another late on. McKenna was asked whether he sees Sunday’s game as a benchmark, an indication of how far the Blues have moved on since that fixture. “Let’s see,” he said. “It’s always better to show it than to talk about it. Our actions will show. “We played them really early in the season, we got ourselves in a great position with an an early goal. “Probably one of the big reflections on that game was that we weren’t able to handle the negative momentum away from home and when they scored the first goal from our mistake, giving them a penalty, they were able to take the game away from us really, really quickly and we weren’t able to manage that. “I think we have improved in that phase of the game. Certainly in tough games away from home we’ve learned to manage negative momentum better than we did that day. “I’m sure we’re going to have to do that on Sunday at times. It’s certainly not going to be all our way for 90 minutes, so we’re going to have to dig in and stick together for periods of the game, but also we want to impose ourselves on them, which we weren’t able to do too much in the first game after we got the goal. “It’s going to be a great challenge, it’s one to look forward to. We’d have loved to have gone into it after a good result against Brighton, but we have Liverpool and Man City in the next two games. We have to enjoy that challenge, we have to take the games on, we have to go into them with a positive mindset and that’s what we’ll start working towards from tomorrow.” The defeat to the Seagulls saw Town drop back into the bottom three behind Wolves on goals scored, but McKenna says the league situation doesn’t have an impact on his approach to the game. “I don’t think the position in the league for either team, really,” he reflected. “If we’d won against Brighton or not doesn’t really change it. Man City obviously have had mixed results. “We need to go into it with humility, respect the opponent, but also belief in ourselves to do something that no one will think we’ll be able to do, one, make it a really competitive game and two, get a result. “We, of course, respect the opponent, everything they’ve done over the last few seasons and this season, and we know they’re still a top, top, top team. We’ll prepare for that in the best way possible but we also need to find a way to go and compete and try and make it as difficult a game for them as possible.” Having been something of an unstoppable behemoth for the last few seasons, winning four Premier Leagues on the bounce, City have been uncharacteristically vulnerable this year. They currently sit in sixth in the division, 12 points off the top with leaders Liverpool having played a game fewer. They are three points behind Newcastle in the final Champions League spot. Having at one stage won only once in 12 matches in all competitions, including a seven-game winless run, City have recently been more their old selves, winning three in a row - including the 8-0 FA Cup hammering of Salford City - before a 2-2 draw at Brentford on Tuesday. But McKenna says City’s struggles this season don’t really change how he and his staff look at the game. “Not really,” he said. “I understand it because the fact that they’ve dropped off and the results have been a big surprise to everybody because they’ve been so consistently excellent. “I think that also reflects the strength of the league and how hard it is to win games. But on the other hand, they were 2-0 up at Brentford the other night after a couple of wins and if they had seen that game out then people would be saying that we’re playing them at the wrong time and they’re just on the cusp of getting back into good form and all these things. “I think they have better availability than they had a few weeks ago. We have full awareness and the respect for the strengths that they have and we can only go out and do our best and put in the best performance possible and fight with everything we can to try and get some points, and that’s what we’ll do.” The TeamWith the Blues having two tough games in only four days, McKenna could make changes, one of them enforced. Christian Walton is likely to keep his place in goal with McKenna likely to stick with all or most of his defensive line. Ben Godfrey is an option coming in on the right with Dara O’Shea moving inside and Luke Woolfenden dropping out but the on-loan Atalanta man may not be considered ready given his lack of game time with the Serie A side. Axel Tuanzebe is close to a return but seems likely to come back into the squad next week at Liverpool. Jacob Greaves and Leif Davis look set to keep their places, while on the right Ben Johnson could come in for Wes Burns with McKenna having switched the two almost game to game in recent weeks. In central midfield, skipper Sam Morsy will return to the XI having been left out on Thursday with Kalvin Phillips ineligible against his parent club. The Egyptian international will be partnered by Jens Cajuste. Omari Hutchinson and Nathan Broadhead, who would be making his 50th league start for the club, will probably continue as the number 10s behind Liam Delap, who will be facing his old club. Jaden Philogene looks set to make his debut from the bench at some stage, while Jack Taylor will make his 50th appearance for the Blues if he is involved. The OppositionCity have a doubt over star striker Erling Haaland, who has signed a new 10-year deal, the Norwegian international having appeared to be struggling in the second half of the draw with the Bees in midweek. Asked whether the 24-year-old, who has netted 21 times in 28 appearances this season in all competitions, including a hat-trick against the Blues at the Etihad, would be fit for the visit to Portman Road, manager Pep Guardiola said: “We will see, yesterday was a day off, now we are going to train, and we will see because some players finished [against Brentford] with some problems like every game. And we will see.” Guardiola, whose press conference was dominated by questions about Haaland’s new contract, says he’s delighted that Delap has made such a success of his move to the Blues up to now, the 21-year-old having joined Town from City for an initial £15 million in the summer. “He’s doing really well,” he said. “Many players came up from this academy. They are set up perfectly in the Premier League. “When he was here, always we thought he was a typical striker for the Premier League. He’s doing really well and we’re happy for him.” Midfielder Rodri is out for the season with an ACL injury, while England centre-half John Stones remains sidelined with a foot problem, but another centre-back, Ruben Dias, and attacker Oscar Bobb are back training after a muscle injury and broken leg respectively. Wantaway defender Kyle Walker has been left out of the last two matchday squads and seems likely to be omitted again. HistoryHistorically, Town have the edge having won 27 games between the sides (25 in the league), drawing 15 (14), while City have run out victors on 24 (20) occasions. Town have lost only three of their last 10 against City in all competitions and only two in eight in the league. At the Etihad in August, Haaland netted a hat-trick as City came from behind to beat the Blues 4-1 as Town fell to back-to-back league defeats under McKenna for the first time. Sammie Szmodics gave the Blues a shock lead in the seventh minute but the Premier League champions hit back only five minutes later as they scored three goals in 191 seconds - Haaland two, one penalty, and Kevin De Bruyne - with the Norwegian completing his treble two minutes from time. The teams last met at Portman Road in the FA Cup fourth round in January 2002 when Premier League Town fell to an embarrassing 4-1 home defeat to then-First Division opposition as an excellent second-half City performance won the day. Town had had the better of the first period, but City went in one up after Eyal Berkovic had volleyed home following a dubiously awarded corner. Sean Goater added a second on 65 before Marcus Bent pulled one back for Town in the 83rd minute. However, Goater added his second and City’s third three minutes later, then Darren Huckerby grabbed another in the final moments. In the Premier League eight months earlier at Portman Road, high-flying Town confirmed City’s relegation back to the First Division after only one season, the clubs having come up together in 1999/00. The Blues, who were on their way to fifth place and UEFA Cup qualification, defeated Joe Royle’s side 2-1 at Portman Road on the last night of the old North Stand. Goater gave the visitors the lead but Town turned the game around through Matt Holland and Martijn Reuser to keep the Blues’ Champions League hopes alive with only a final-day visit to Derby remaining. Familiar FacesTown loanee Phillips is a City player but is ineligible against his parent club, who he joined in the summer of 2022 from Leeds. He has made only two league starts and 14 sub appearances for the Premier League champions. Delap joined the Blues last summer, having made one start and five sub appearances for City - two appearances from the bench in the Premier League - scoring one goal. Keeper Aro Muric came through the City academy and made five senior appearances - all in cups - before moving on to Burnley in the summer of 2022. Another of Town’s glovesmen, Cieran Slicker, is also a City academy product, joining the Blues from his hometown club a year ago. The Etihad club’s keeper-coach is Ipswich-born former Blues number one Richard Wright, who came through the Town youth set-up and went on to make 257 senior appearances between 1995 and 2001, and was a member of the team which faced City in the three games in 2000/01. OfficialsSunday’s referee is Sam Barrott, his assistants Timothy Wood and Richard West, and the fourth official Tim Robinson. The VAR official is Paul Tierney and his assistant Nick Hopton. West Riding-based Barrott, who began taking charge of Premier League fixtures last season, has shown 80 yellow cards and no red in 16 games so far this term. His only Town match this campaign was the 0-0 draw at Brighton in September in which he cautioned Morsy, Phillips, Hutchinson and four home players. Barrott refereed Town on five occasions in 2023/24, the last the 0-0 draw with Watford at Portman Road in April in which he cautioned Harry Clarke, Kieffer Moore and one Hornet. Prior to that, he was the man in the middle for the 4-0 win at Millwall on St Valentine’s Day when he awarded the Blues a late penalty, after Ali Al-Hamadi was felled by Murray Wallace, that the Iraqi international converted, his first goal for the Blues. Barrott also also yellow-carded Davis and three Lions. Before that, Barrott took control of the 1-1 Boxing Day 2023 draw at home to Leicester in which he booked Marcus Harness and two Foxes. He also officiated in the 3-2 Carabao Cup victory at home to Wolves in the preceding September in which he yellow-carded Elkan Baggott, Lee Evans, Sone Aluko and three of the Premier League side. Barrott also took charge of the opening Championship fixture at Sunderland, which they won 2-1, in which he dismissed Black Cats right-back Trai Hume for two bookable offences and yellow-carded Morsy, Hladky, Burns and one Wearsider. In 2022/23, Barrott was a late replacement official for April’s 6-0 thrashing of Charlton after it had emerged that the official originally slated for the game, James Bell, was a fan of Sheffield Wednesday, who at the time were vying with the Blues for League One promotion. He showed yellow cards to Davis and four to Addicks, two to Ryan Inness, who was then issued with a red with two minutes left on the clock, his fourth dismissal of the season and fifth in just over a year. Barrott had taken control of the 1-1 draw at Cambridge two months earlier in which he awarded the U’s a penalty after Edmundson had clumsily felled Conor McGrandles, which Walton saved. Barrott also booked Edmundson, Morsy and two home players. He was also the man in the middle for the opening game of that season, the home game with Bolton Wanderers, which also ended 1-1, and in which he gave the Trotters a penalty, which was converted by Aaron Morley, after debutant Davis had tripped Conor Bradley. Evans, Woolfenden and two visitors were booked. Prior to that, Barrott was in charge of McKenna’s first match as Town boss, the 1-0 home victory over Wycombe Wanderers at Portman Road in December 2021 in which he booked Morsy, Joe Pigott, Matt Penney and one Chairboy. Squad FromWalton, Muric, Slicker, Davis, Townsend, Johnson, H Clarke, Godfrey, O’Shea, Woolfenden, Burgess, Greaves, Morsy (c), Cajuste, Luongo, Burns, Taylor, Hutchinson, Philogene, J Clarke, Broadhead, Delap, Hirst, Al-Hamadi.
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