Town boss Kieran McKenna says criticism from pundits suggesting the Blues have been too open during their Premier League campaign doesn’t overly concern him.

Former Arsenal and England forward Paul Merson, now working for Sky Sports, said following the Blues’ 3-0 loss at Newcastle last weekend: “They tried to play. This is what I don’t understand when teams come up, they’ve got to mix it up.

“Because of this new Pep Guardiola way, everybody thinks they’ve got to play it – he plays like that, Arsenal play like that and Liverpool play like that because they’ve got top, top drawer players. If you haven’t got top, top drawer players, don’t play like that.”

A month ago, McKenna firmly but politely took issue with Tony Cascarino and Danny Murphy claiming the Blues and Southampton had been unwilling to change their playing styles following promotion to the Premier League.

Asked about Merson’s comments, McKenna, whose team has far from taken a single approach across the season, responded: “It doesn't overly concern me because there are lots of people who have to give an opinion on football and I'm pretty sure they don't have the time to watch every game on a team.

“So it's always easier if people feel that they can put a label on a team and this is why when something's gone wrong, and I've said many times if there was one aspect of why this season has been a challenge, I'd like to think we're smart enough to have solved it. 

“So it's easy to put a label on a team, and when you're a newly promoted team, and you concede more goals than what you want, it's easy to put the label and say that they play too open.

“I think the reality is we've been very, very adaptable this year, our style of play, we've tried to keep our most positive elements but we've been nowhere near as attacking or as open or as dominant in our play as what we have been in the last two divisions and we've had to try and be adaptable while still trying to keep some of the core elements that make us successful.

“I think our challenges this season have been vast and, in my opinion, have not been related to playing style.

“I think we've won matches where we've been positive and we've won matches where we've defended deeper.

“And we've certainly lost or dropped results whenever we've had attacking game plans or more of the balance of play and we've lost games where we've set up to be really compact and frustrate the opposition and defend really deep.

“So you can win or you can certainly lose as a team in our position in different ways, and if we have a choice and we feel that the team can compete in that way, we'd always try and rather compete in a positive way.

“But we've also been certainly, in our eyes, very pragmatic at times this year whenever we felt that we needed to be to protect the group.
“So it is what it is. I think our reflection would be a lot more detailed and nuanced than trying to identify one area.

“If people really look at the background of the group and where the players have come from, look at the journey that they've been on and then how they competed against Newcastle last week or an Arsenal the week before and say that's about playing style, I would disagree on that.

“We'll reflect on everything as the season ends and I'm sure there will be things we can do better.

“But certainly I'm very, very confident that there won't be one reason at the end of it and to try and label one reason why a team in our position has struggled to win games in this league this season is not the right approach.”

Quizzed on whether there was one key moment in the season where if a result had gone another way then the season might have progressed differently, McKenna said: “I think there's been quite a few. I think probably more so some big moments in the first half of the season and we ended up at the halfway point of the season with a pretty reasonable points total.

“I think we all thought at that stage it certainly could have been higher because any margins that there were in terms of late goals, decisions, things going against us, they pretty much went against us in the first half of the season, and we ended up still being pretty close.

“The second half of the season, we haven't picked up points at as fast a rate as we did in the first half of the season.

“Again, there'll be lots of different reasons for that. There's no doubt that the injury and availability in the second half of the season has been a big, big problem, but it has been a challenge right through the season, to be honest.

“So that certainly hasn't made it easier. And that then leads to a lot of other challenges. That means that we haven't picked up as many points in the second half of the season as we would have liked to so far.

“I don't think it's ever about one moment whenever it's across 38 games it will be by the end of the season or 34 to this point.

“I think we know that we've come up short. We certainly feel that we've been in enough games and the margins have been close enough that with some very, very, very small details or decisions going our way, we could have more points, and we could have been closer to the teams above us. But we are where we are and we know that we've ultimately come up short.

“So, I don't think it's ever about one game or one moment, but I think there's certainly been, as I said before the season and during the season, it was a season where from the jump that we've had, pretty much everything would have had to have gone right.

“It's not been an impossible task, but almost everything or a lot of things would have had to have gone right. And that's not been the case and ultimately then it's just been a step too far.”

Meanwhile, McKenna didn't see the footage of Newcastle fans applauding Town supporters out of St James' Park last week, but wasn't surprised it happened.

“I'm social media free, so I didn't see it, but you felt it in the game, as I said after the game,” he said.

“The game didn't go how we wanted, but there's clearly some affinity between the two clubs linked to Sir Bobby. It was nice that they both recognised that.

“It's two clubs with some similarities, I think, in terms of their importance to the town or to the city and their location and everything right in the middle of that city, and, of course, a nice link with one of the best managers ever. It's a nice thing to have.”

TWTD

Edmundo added 16:25 - May 1 There's a reason Merson, Cascarino and Murphy all have jobs sitting and shouting at a TV rather than actually coaching the stars on that TV, and that's why KM doesn't bat an eyelid when they spout their tripe.
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Leejames99 added 16:30 - May 1 Journey, margins, injuries blame anything but himself. Merson and the pundits are right, why is he so arrogant as to not simply say at this point the club weren't good enough and we couldn't adapt and underestimated the Premier League. Even fans know he never changed tactic and after the first half of the season teams very easily worked out to just play the flanks, near every goal conceeded is the same virtually. He could of tried Davis in front of Townsend, he could of tried Hirst and Delap together, he didnt he only has had to change slightly because of injuries, he wants to play like the tip teams but we don't have the world's best. Martin was the same. And it's a big reason Muric looked so bad his job it's to save shots not play around in front of World Class strickers. I'm sure most will hang on his every word but saying we played well in big defeats is a new one. Needs to learn a bit of humility and responsibility. He isn't learning he been around Prem years.

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poet added 17:17 - May 1 I agree entirely with Edmundo. Merson should stick to what he knows, but then again his playing days have long since evaporated. McKenna is absolutely right. When any club gets relegated, there are numerous factors as to why that happened. However, Mister Merson seems to believe he can wrap it all up in a nice little bundle under the heading of just one aspect. Narrow mindedness and having a blinkered view hardly covers it. It’s just simply an ill-conceived half baked opinion, designed to fill a few lines in his next column for Sky Sports. In other words…. It’s not to be taken seriously, and as Edmundo points out, McKenna clearly doesn’t.

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Carberry added 17:22 - May 1 I wonder how managers see themselves sometimes? They appear to live in their own psychological bubble where they only look at the next game, never want to glance at the League Table, believe that small margins can exist over a whole season and find complex reasons for every reverse. McKenna and others often talk about their team's identity, but criticise others when they try to subjectively describe it. The versality he talks about is so subtle we just don't see it (I certainly don't), it would be great if he would explain what he was trying to achieve and how. Because, let's face it, it just didn't work.

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Leejames99 added 17:27 - May 1 @poet I'd agree if it was just one player saying it but it's not its every pundit and reporter in the country saying it. The only people pro Mckenna are on here, we are the strangest fans, Leeds even want fake gone and he got them promoted. It's a business and I'm not sure how many chances Mckenna has left now. I think some will be in shock soon, Mckenna will know if he doesnt get Town back up his stock he has left will go right down, he will know if we arent top 2 even 6 in December he is gone, so any Prem club who want him he will go, he will say he left the club in a good place blah blah. Hopefully get good compensation for him.

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Dissboyitfc added 17:55 - May 1 McKenna makes a very good point when he says they dont watch all the games and give teams labels. Anybody else listen to Troy Deeney the other morning? When he said Ipswich have spent a fortune on buying in players like Calvin Phillips, Priceless!!
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armchaircritic59 added 17:59 - May 1 Labels? I hate them! Whether applied to people or in this case, style of football. I guess it's the only way some people can sort one thing/person out from another in their minds. Bandwagon jumpers are nearly as bad, one pundit says something, another says "I'll have some of that", without even bothering to watch enough matches to pass a proper judgement. If anyone thinks we've stuck to one style of playing, home and away, all season, they are seriously myopic.

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Leejames99 added 18:58 - May 1 @poet Just think, in my opinion, that if it took a boring season of shut up shop to stay in Prem Id take it, i have this feeling that Mckenna feels the players who got us promoted will do it again, i personally don't think Morsy should stay or J Taylor, the reason being is I feel this season, if they have taken anything from Prem, to survive you need players who have played together and Mckenna bought in too many players who he wasn't going to play instead wanting to give the lower league players games (which they deserved). I look at this season as somewhat of a reward for the likes of Morsy, Burns, Walton, Chaplin etc who would of never got to play in Premier League and might get them a good move where we would make profit. I think now is time for a reset, alot of those players are out of contract in 26 so should cash in now. I think they should try and keep Burgess and Tunazabe along with Cajuste and pray he convinced the likes of Hutchinson and J Clarke to stay and be part of the challenge to go back. Time will tell and of course Mckenna has been a great manager and I also think he has the tools and talented players to get back up with a few additions in one go, I just don't think he has it in him to sell the Morsy, Davis, Burns etc, they would all do well in Championship but surely we now need to build an elite team to go back up and we have three transfer windows so he has the time and money, it's time to now show what he learnt and if his ability matches his plaudits, pivotal season in his career, he will either be the next Sir Bobby or the next Paul Jewell

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Carberry added 21:54 - May 1 Whatever the views on adaptability, styles of play, recruitment and passion, we didn't succeed. That's the end of it. For McKenna to suggest there were positives and to offer his wisdom to promoted managers is pretty arrogant in my view. He seems to be in denial that it has been a failure of a season while he has been at the helm.
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BonchosAura added 23:07 - May 1 I get that the points total is disappointing, but if we'd had some luck and things going our way we'd at least be much closer to survival. So many incidents that didn't go our way, that would have led to us picking up points. And what do people honestly expect from this season? Competing with 17 clubs with established squads they can incrementally improve with big money signings. We were bottom of the league for squad value at the start of the season. We had to improve the squad to have any chance, which means a bunch of players who don't know each other or have a rapport and then we got hit with a lot of very unfortunate injuries, including our best defender slicing his hand with a kitchen knife! The idea that someone can look at our season and moan at McKenna is insane to me. I can't be bothered to do it but you could list the incidents and decisions that have gone against us and its a lot of points affected. There were some off days including some games we really should have won. (Soton H, Man United A) but with what he was dealing with that was bound to happen. IMHO McKenna and Ashton played a blinder by thinking long term with the squad and signing players with a high ceiling that could improve with time and give us a good chance to go up next season, and hopefully a better chance in two years where we won't have to sign a whole team. I remember when we went down last time and everyone wanted Sheepshanks out. I think this fanbase is mostly not delusional. So McKenna didn't work two miracles in a row. But ive enjoyed this season and we'll really miss him when he's gone. Yes we didn't stay up, and we have a low points total, but if that's your only metric for success/progress it's only going to be harder the more the promoted teams go down.

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Saxonblue74 added 06:34 - May 2 If you want stubborn and unadaptable look no further than Russell Martin, his refusal to change style and adapt to different situations very quickly saw him sacked. Mckenna changed personnel, formation and tactics regularly and anyone with an informed opinion will realise the constraints he was working under later in the season due to injury and ill discipline. Any manager promoted to the Prem in the modern era has to work miracles to survive. I pray that he stays for the foreseeable and anyone who thinks otherwise should be very, very careful what they wish for.

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Dissboyitfc added 07:08 - May 2 Lee Ames look where Everton are now and where they were under Dyche! Some of the comments on here are priceless!
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Leejames99 added 08:50 - May 2 @dissboyitfc ? Lol they are 1 position higher and still in the Prem, when Dyche was sacked they were 16th they are now 15th and beat us comfortably at home. Dyche and Moyes play same game defensive first. How priceless, maybe should check stats before dissing me, made me chuckle though
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Doublepivot added 11:47 - May 2 Under Dyche Everton were in a real relegation scrap. The fans wanted him out, appalled by his style of football. Under Moyes they are now 17 points clear of relegation.
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Bert added 12:26 - May 2 Totally agree with KMcK. The second half of the season in particular.
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Leejames99 added 14:01 - May 2 @doublepivot Who were they in a real relegation scrap with? It was only halfway through season, bottom half yes and like every other club in bottom half managers get changed regardless of who they are. They might of been in a scrap and would of been in a scrap for sure if ourselves and Leicester had a bit more fight and experienced managers. 17th team are 15 points clear with 4 games to go shocking. If we hadn't of given up 2-0 leads at Chelsea and Man utd, put up a fight vs Wolves and held on to a point at Palace we would only be 5 behind with 4 to go and 3 of the bottom half to play which would very much of been a scrap as it was we gave up on leads, didn't have the fight vs Wolves and couldn't hold on at Palace. All those games were lost or drawn late on in games and just points to Mckenna having to 1 Stick with Davis and 2 have to use all subs rather than just hold on for the points. Appalled at Dyche playing style, he and Moyes play exactly the same way!

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