Liverpool 4 v 1 Ipswich Town FA Premier League Saturday, 25th January 2025 Kick-off 15:00 | ![]() |
McKenna: Liverpool a Really, Really Complete Team Saturday, 25th Jan 2025 09:33 Town boss Kieran McKenna says Premier League leaders Liverpool, who his side face at Anfield on Saturday, are “a really, really complete team”, who have been fantastic this season. The Reds currently top the division, six points clear of Arsenal with a game in hand, while the Blues are 18th and inside the danger zone on goal difference behind Wolves following last week’s 6-0 thrashing by Premier League champions Manchester City. Liverpool also head the Champions League table with a 100 per cent record having beaten 10-man Lille 2-1 in their most recent game on Tuesday. “They've been fantastic,” McKenna said when asked about the Merseysiders’ season, new manager Arne Slot having taken charge in the summer following Jurgen Klopp’s exit. “They've been an enjoyable watch and in some ways also to watch how the team has developed because they were very good in pre-season. “I think even in pre-season before we played them first time round you could see that he'd really managed to get his imprint on the team very, very, very quickly. “They've carried that right the way through the season, really, and I think probably the biggest observation you could make is that they're a really, really complete team. “They defend well and they can press high, they defend in the block well, they have discipline in their defensive shape, their counter-press is good, their counter-attacks are good, they have a real threat with attacking transitions. “They can both control the game with possession, but they can also change gears really, really quickly and go to hurt the opposition with a variety of threats. “They can go in behind, they can pass through you, they can go around the outside and go one-v-one, they can cross it and they can shoot from outside. “There are other teams who can do this, but they have a really good balance for it. I think they're well coached and have good structure and principles in all phases. “They have a very good squad and a deep squad, so they can rotate as well and it's clear to see why they're having a very good season.” McKenna dismisses the suggestion that the match is a free hit for his side with few anticipating Town taking anything from the afternoon. “We don't look at it in that way,” he said. “I think in terms of a result, no one expects us to get a result and there are long odds against us doing so. But I don't think we can ever say it's a free hit in terms of the performance, in terms of what we show. “We have to show the right things, we have to represent ourselves right, we have to represent the club right and we want to go there and show what we are as a team. “We know in this particular game that's going to also rely on some really good individual and team defending, but we also want to go and impose our bits of the game that we take pride in and that we believe have made us competitive this year and will bring us success in the end. “I think result-wise, if we can get a result at Anfield against a team in their form, it would be incredible, but you can't go in thinking that that is the main outcome on the day and a result is positive and a non-result is negative. “It's about the qualities that we go and show as a team, the aspects of the performance that we go and show, and if we can do all those things right, and it's our day, then it's a football match and you never know what the result can be.” The Reds have been beaten only once this season, a 1-0 home loss to Nottingham Forest in September, 17 Premier League games ago. Aside from that, Liverpool have won seven and drawn two of their league matches at Anfield during 2024/25, Fulham and Manchester United, both 2-2, having held them to stalemates. Last week, they won 2-0 at Brentford, Darwin Nunez netting twice in injury time to claim the three points, and Bees boss Thomas Frank declared Slot’s men the best team in the world at the present time. “It didn't feel like it at 5pm on Sunday,” McKenna smiled ruefully. “I think it's certainly a fair statement. The Premier League is the strongest league in the world and they've been the best team in the Premier League this season. “They've shown outstanding qualities in all phases. I'm not sure exactly where the new league table is, but they've been, I'd say, the most impressive team that I've seen in the Champions League as well as the most dominant. “I think that's a pretty fair estimation of the scale of the challenge and in many ways what a good one to take on.” McKenna was asked where he would place Mo Salah, who has already scored 22 times this season in all competitions, among the Premier League’s greatest players. “I think that's an argument for our dressing room. Axel Tuanzebe you should ask that to because he usually leads the argument of ‘who’s the greatest?’ and ‘who’s the top five of this?’,” he said. “Does he rate him? I’m pretty sure he does, I haven’t asked him. “I think those conversations are pretty good dressing room conversations, the analysis room, a little top three list and who would be better in the game. “I think he's certainly one of the best players in the history of the Premier League. He has been incredibly consistent for so many years and has gone from strength to strength. “Having seen him and maybe analysed him maybe four, five or six years ago with Man United as a first-team coach, to see him today and you think he's probably stronger now or certainly no weaker than he was then, so that level of consistency into his 30s is a testament to how he works. “Sam Morsy speaks very highly of him from their interactions with Egypt and everyone knows what a top professional is. He's certainly one of the best to play in the Premier League. “We did a good job in the first game of stopping him for a period of the game, but we weren't able to stop him for 90 minutes. That's the challenge amongst all the other world-class players they have is to try and limit him as best we can on Saturday.” Many of the Town squad will be playing at Anfield and in front of the Kop’s wall of noise for the first time and the Blues boss was asked what advice he has for them to manage their emotions. “That's going to be a good challenge,” he said. “Again, first and foremost, we need to enjoy it. We need to, when the songs are going up or when we step out of our concentration zone and notice the surroundings, enjoy where we are and where we're competing because it's been a journey to get here, and we need to look forward to these challenges. “But other than that, it's focus on the game, focus on the details, focus on your role, how you can help the team on and off the ball, focus on your job on set plays, stay concentrated on the details, stick to the task and stick at that for the whole 90 minutes and see where it gets us. “That's all you can do. It’s a game of football and we need to really take care of the things that make the difference.” McKenna and his staff enjoy the challenge of pitting their wits against the bigger clubs and the preparation which goes into it. “We do because you can't help but learn in those scenarios where you're looking at a team who are very well-coached and world-class players in every position,” he said. “The challenge of trying to find a way to make us competitive in the game, trying to find the balance between being defensively solid but also have some sort of foothold in the game in a way that we can believe we can hurt the opposition is a really good challenge and one that you can only be stronger for. “We've got to keep taking those challenges on in a positive aspect. They come around in quick succession, with Man City we had in essence one day of preparation really, which was really, really tough. “We've had a couple of extra days for this one, but it's still coming around pretty quickly after the last one. So we need to keep going at them with optimism and with positivity and come up with the best way that we can to be competitive.” At Portman Road in August, the Blues made their return to the Premier League and went toe-to-toe with the Merseysiders in the first half before the visitors took charge in the second and in the end ran out comfortable 2-0 winners. “It was a great occasion, there’s no doubt about it,” McKenna recalled. “It was an occasion that we were all looking forward to and that we didn't want to miss out on. “And to be there, it doesn't feel it at the moment and maybe not in the summer, but maybe in 10 summers’ time, we'll look back and think that was a great occasion for the first Premier League game back at Portman Road. “It was a strong performance in the first half. We made it really difficult for Liverpool. We didn't have the quality of execution on the day to go and capitalise on the strong first half. “As can happen at this level, and has happened since and it won't be the last time a team of that level, when they get the first goal, they’ve pulled away from us and we weren't able to stay with them. And they showed in the second half some of the qualities that probably signified the season that they were going to go on to have. “But there were big positives from how we played in the first half that we took confidence from throughout the season. “However, I don't think we can lean into that too much this week. We're going away to Anfield, it's a completely different phase of the season and we know the confidence, form and level of the opponent we're facing. “That was a different game and it was a good one for the club, one we could have got something from didn't manage to, but I think we showed ourselves well.” The TeamMcKenna is likely to make changes to his team for the visit to Liverpool having made five ahead of the Manchester City match, which came only three days after the home game with Brighton. Christian Walton will continue in goal, while Axel Tuanzebe looks set to return to the starting XI on the right of the defence after coming on as a sub against City, his first appearance since injuring his hamstring at Nottingham Forest at the end of November. Dara O’Shea seems certain to be to the left of Tuanzebe with McKenna having to pick between Cameron Burgess and Jacob Greaves in the other central defensive role. The former Hull City man may get the nod. Leif Davis will be the left-back with Ben Johnson probably continuing on the right. In central midfield, McKenna may stick with skipper Sam Morsy and Jens Cajuste, although Kalvin Phillips may well come into his thoughts with the on-loan Manchester City man available again having been ineligible against his parent club. New signings Jaden Philogene and Julio Enciso may not have trained enough with the squad to be given starts but will almost certainly be on the bench. Omari Hutchinson and former Everton man Nathan Broadhead are likely to be behind striker Liam Delap. HistoryHistorically, the Reds have much the better record in games between the clubs, winning 37 (29 in the league), 22 (19) ending in draws and Town victorious on 14 (13) occasions. Town have lost their last three in the league to Liverpool, conceding 13 goals to no reply in the process, but have won two of their last three league matches at Anfield. The Blues most recently beat Liverpool at Anfield in December 2000 when Marcus Stewart’s trademark goal saw George Burley’s side to a 1-0 win as they finished fifth on their return to the top flight. That was only Town’s second ever win at Anfield, Adam Tanner’s goal having seen the Blues, with Burley having taken charge less than a month earlier, to a 1-0 goal success in January 1994. On the opening day of the season at Portman Road, two goals in five minutes just after the hour mark saw Liverpool to a 2-0 win to spoil Town’s return to the Premier League after a 22-year absence. After the Blues had more than held their own in the first half, Diogo Jota opened the scoring on 60, then Salah, who had created the first, added the second five minutes later with the result never in doubt from there. The teams met most recently at Anfield in the Worthington Cup in December 2002 when Town were beaten 5-4 in a penalty shoot-out following a 1-1 draw after extra-time at Anfield. Jamie Clapham was the only man to miss a spot-kick after Tommy Miller and El-Hadji Diouf, also from the penalty spot, had scored the goals in normal time. The previous season, Town were relegated from the Premier League in their second year in the top flight following a 5-0 final-day defeat at Anfield, the Blues’ last Premier League game before this season. Two goals from John-Arne Riise and one each for Michael Owen, Vladimir Smicer and Nicolas Anelka broke Town hearts and secured Liverpool second place in the table. OfficialsSaturday’s referee is Michael Salisbury, his assistants Mat Wilkes and Derek Eaton, and the fourth official Darren Bond. The VAR official is Paul Tierney and his assistant Craig Taylor. Salisbury, whose father is long-serving EFL referee Graham Salisbury, is in his fourth season as a Premier League referee. The Preston-based official was the VAR official for the Brighton game when he failed to overrule referee Tony Harrington’s decision not to send off Joao Pedro for his challenge on Blues keeper Walton, with ex-referees’ chief Keith Hackett highly critical of the pair afterwards. Salisbury was also at Portman Road in December when he refereed the 2-1 defeat to AFC Bournemouth, booking Delap, Sammie Szmodics and one of the visitors. Prior to that, he was slated to take charge of the Blues’ 4-1 defeat at Manchester City in August but pulled out just before kick-off due to injury and was the fourth official. He was also the VAR official for the Brighton away match. The only Town game he has taken charge of was the famous 3-2 victory over Southampton at Portman Road in April last year in which he booked Morsy, Conor Chaplin and Jack Taylor, as well as one Saint, and dismissed former Blues loanee James Bree with five minutes remaining for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity. Squad FromWalton, Muric, Slicker, Davis, Townsend, Johnson, H Clarke, Godfrey, O’Shea, Woolfenden, Burgess, Greaves, Morsy (c), Cajuste, Phillips, Luongo, Burns, Taylor, Hutchinson, Philogene, Enciso, J Clarke, Broadhead, Delap, Hirst.
TWTD Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
You need to login in order to post your comments |
Blogs 298 bloggersIpswich Town Polls[ Vote here ] |