Town manager Kieran McKenna was delighted with Jaden Philogene’s performance in the Blues’ 3-1 victory over Aberdeen at Pittodrie.

The £20 million January signing from Aston Villa netted twice and was involved in George Hirst’s goal playing in a left-sided role.

“Very good tonight,” McKenna enthused. “His off the ball work first of all was outstanding. We saw last week, he’s capable of regaining so many balls in the opposition’s half, he has a real skill for it. When he works like that, you’re three quarters of the way to a good performance.

“He’s got some qualities, for sure. We’re looking at him in more of the left wing role at the moment. He can do both sides, we didn’t get a chance to look at him on the left really last year, it’s something we wanted to have a good look at and look at his relationship with Leif [Davis] and Conor [Townsend] down that side, different balances that we can use across the course of the season.

“He’s given us something a little bit different on that side. Jack Clarke can give us something from that side, a Broady [Nathan Broadhead] or a Sammie Szmodics can give us something different on that side, so it’s going to be good to have the different threads.”

Davis played a different role against Aberdeen, narrower, more down the middle than Town fans have become used to.

Asked whether that was to give England U21 international Philogene, whose 2024/25 was curtailed by an MCL injuries, more space, McKenna said: “Not just Jaden, we have Jaden and Jack Clarke in the squad, who are both very, very good on the left in wide areas, so we want to have the different balances.

“We know that Leif’s stormed up and down that line for us for quite a few seasons now and done an incredible job and will do that again at times this season, but being able to attack in different ways from different angles with different players with different qualities in different positions will only strengthen us as a team.

“It will be good for those individual players and good for us as a team to have that different type of threat. It’s something that we’ve been working on that across pre-season and will add to us across the season, I think.”

ITFC

jdtractor96 added 23:00 - Jul 25 McKenna is fantastic. We are so lucky
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PortmanTerrorist added 05:52 - Jul 26 Plans B and C. Brilliant! ...and hopefully we will see those patterns emerge ASAP as we definitely needed something different esp with squad changes since last Championship season.
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Len_Brennan added 07:15 - Jul 26 Philogene looked excellent last night & is going to be a star for us, barring injury, this season. I'm a fan of Jack Clarke & have really been looking forward to seeing him rip it up in the Championship for us, after an initially challenging spell in the Premier League. I thought he had gotten much better in the second half of the season, as he adapted his game & by the end was making a real impact in games. The problem that he has now, that became apparent last night, is that Philogene worked really well on the left side, in tandem with Leif Davis, who was immense running the line, but also alternating & cutting into the middle. This play looked like it has been worked on in training & will be a real threat for us when the season starts. But where does that leave Jack Clarke, especially when we still have Broadhead & Szmodics to play on the left side of the attacking 3 (or of the 2 #10s depending on how we are set up)? Last night he played on the right, but despite a couple of excellent pieces of skill, & an undouted increase in his tackling from 12 months ago, he looked a bit lost out there for large periods & doesn't present the threat he does from the other side. Clarke spent much of last season learning to play differently to his natural inclination, and I fear that he may suffer a similar fate again this season, through no fault of his own. We are unbalanced atm, with Burns unlikely to available much, or even be registered, pre Christmas, Ogbene only just back & being a more direct option, and strong indications that Hutchinson will move in the coming week/s - McKenna was careful in his comments regarding Omari's partipation for us; implying rather than stating, allowing wiggle room. There is still work to be done in getting that balance right.

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ArnieM added 07:29 - Jul 26 It’s all about partnerships, and adaptability. It sounds like we are starting to get that in the 5am/ squad now. Can’t wait for the CC season to start, where we will see some proper football. COYBs
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MVBlue added 08:15 - Jul 26 We'll need Broadhead & Szmodics because there will be teams. that sit back and leave no room for Clarke and Philogene. We'll need crafty players to unlock those defensive teams, and Sammy and Nathan are those players.
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TomCruise added 09:21 - Jul 26 Philogene played well last night and stood out. Gave me the impression that if Hutchinson goes, we already have his replacement ready to go. Oh if we can hold on to them both though...
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