Blues manager Kieran McKenna says Sunday’s heavy defeat to Manchester City was analysed, both looking at the positives and the negatives, before the attention was turned towards Saturday’s trip to Liverpool.

The 6-0 hammering by the Premier League champions was the biggest defeat of McKenna’s managerial career and equalled the record home loss, Liverpool coincidentally having inflicted a loss by the same margin in February 2002.

“We had a really good training session yesterday,” McKenna said. “To be honest, it's still a short week with the Sunday turnaround, so yesterday was really the only day that you can really train hard with the whole group and compete, and we had a really good day.

“We looked back at the game. We analysed the positives, and there were positives in there, which is always [the case], when the scoreline ends up in that way, it's different, but there were positives in the game.

“We analysed the periods and really the main period of the game that we needed to do better in. And we owned it as a group and move forward together.  And from there, it's been looking forward to the week.

“We've been getting some bodies back into training, so the training numbers have been good. It’s the first time we've had Jaden [Philogene] training with us for a couple of days, really, and Julio [Enciso] came into the group today as well and we’ve a few players back.

“The group feels healthy and the boys are still in good spirits and really looking forward to the challenge this weekend.

“Liverpool away at Anfield, of course, you'd like to go there after a really good victory. It's more difficult to go there after a difficult game, but it's still an occasion that we have to embrace. We have to look forward to it, and we have to take it on in the best way possible.”

After the City game, McKenna spoke about his players needing to show character on the training ground and he was asked how that might translate when they walk out on the pitch at Anfield.

“Well, that's for us to go and show,” he said. “I think at the training ground you have to come back to work with an openness to accept that we had a difficult day.

“To be able to accept the reality that it can happen when you're playing against a world-class opponent, but also be honest enough to look at the things that we could do better to have made it a different game.

“So we've had to show those qualities and then you have to be ready to go again, push and train, and look forward with optimism and positivity.

“The players have certainly done that over the last couple of days. We've had a couple of really good days together. Then we need to get ready to go to Anfield, and we're going to have to show an awful lot of qualities. 

“We need to go there with humility, know that it's a really strong opponent and we're going to have to fight and show resilience and defend as a team right away through the game to keep the game competitive.

“But we also have to go there and believe in ourselves and know that we've shown against other very good teams this year that we can compete across games, and certainly across periods of games we've shown that we can go to big teams and score goals. And we've shown that we can go to big teams and play good football and impose ourselves on them as well, so we have to try to do that for periods of the game on Saturday.

“I think we've had a good couple of days here, but what's going to matter the most is the personal qualities, the team spirit, the ethic and the character that we show on the pitch on Saturday at three o’clock.”

Having given City a decent game for the first 27 minutes, the Blues were undone by a move down their right, from where the visitors scored several more of their goals with league debutant Ben Godfrey having a tough evening on his return to the Premier League following his loan move from Atalanta.

McKenna was asked whether work needs to be done on communication between his defenders.

“When you concede goals as we did, then you look back on them as a team, but also with a defensive unit and identify the areas that we could have done better, and there are certainly things that we could do better,” he said.

“I know what the mitigating factors are. We had one day of preparation for the game [following the previous match against Brighton] and were playing players who are new to the club and new relationships on the pitch.

“And we were playing against a world-class team and world-class relationships of players who have played together for a lot of years and have a really, really good understanding of each other's games and world-class physical and technical attributes to go and exploit those areas.

“I think it's natural that we wouldn't necessarily be at our very, very best in that instance. After having had a really good game against City for 27 minutes, they hit a really good place in the game, executed fantastically well and we weren't able to find the quality to stop them. 

“So, we look back on that and I think we will continue to improve. I think in the circumstances we've spoken about it there, it's natural. And when you bring in players in January anyway, you do it because you believe that they can help the team over the next four or five months. 

“But for all players who come in, there's also going to be a little bit of a period of getting up to full speed and a bedding in period and doing that in the Premier League is really, really tough.

“I think that's going to be a challenge over the next few weeks as well. That was a challenge against City, but I think that would have been a challenge for any team in that environment, and the challenge was a little bit too much for us on the day.”

Put to him that it’s now a straight fight between Town and Wolves for 17th spot, McKenna said: “I don't know. In both aspects, I don't know how many points Leicester are behind us and I'm pretty sure they'd like to be in the conversation and are probably one game away from both of the teams you just mentioned.

“I'm sure Southampton haven't given up yet and I'm sure the teams who are above us aren't on holiday yet, either.

“There are 17 games left to play. I won't do the math on how many points that is, but it's plenty of points.

“There's lots of time left in the season. We're just over halfway. There's a lot of football to be played. Our focus is on ourselves and trying to improve, trying to learn our lessons as we go along.

“Of course, now we're into another phase of trying to integrate new players that we think can help the team, but that's going to take time and we need to keep focusing on that and go out every single game to the end of the season, and there are a lot of them, and see where we are.”

Photo: TWTD

MK1 added 17:37 - Jan 23 Great that the Man City result wasn't just shrugged off, but neither that nor the next game against Liverpool should be over thought. Both those sides are pushing for the PL title or top4 & CL, so really in a different league to us.
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Blue_Heath added 17:38 - Jan 23 Hopefully now we can use Philogene as the left outlet rather than Davis to stop the defence shifting over leaving the right hand side exposed.
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Cloddyseedbed added 17:52 - Jan 23 Ben Godfrey had a 'tough evening' as Johnson decided to play up the pitch and vacate his defensive duties, it was plain for everyone to see and it was not addressed. Same result will be against Liverpool if that is once again adopted. Man City targeted that area and so will Liverpool. Johnson doesn't look fit or is out of his depth.
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Gforce added 17:55 - Jan 23 On another note, Southampton are currently demanding a minimum 55 million for Tyler Dibbling , what on earth does that make Delap worth ??
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Stato added 18:00 - Jan 23 The centre of midfield hasn't provided enough protection for the defence all season. Morsy is our weakest link and KM has a complete blind spot on him.
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Town1Inter0 added 18:11 - Jan 23 Spot on Cloddyseedbed. It's often the case when a defender has a nightmare, that others around him have left him isolated. Gareth Bale destroying Javier Zanetti, scoring a hat-trick in the Champions League comes to mind (back in 2010), when Zanetti was seen as the best RB in the world !!
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Bluebass added 19:22 - Jan 23 Some fans seem to want to scapegoat particular players. It used to be Kayden Jackson, and now it's Ben Godfrey. It isn't fair and we should get behind all the guys.
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flykickingbybgunn added 20:02 - Jan 23 But as ever it is good to find KMck being positive and up beat while also taking on board mistakes. Even I'm fired up and I'm not going to be able to see the match.
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cressi added 21:01 - Jan 23 Apart from a great crowd reaction can't see a lot in that performance that was positive defended like a pub side at times harsh but reality.
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flykickingbybgunn added 21:50 - Jan 23 Cressi you are right. A Block were singing their hearts out right to the end. A credit to themselves and the club.
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