Blues boss Kieran McKenna has praised forward Jaden Philogene’s work off the ball, believing it is one of the forward’s greatest strengths.

Former England U21 international Philogene, 23, played an important role down the left flank in Saturday’s 3-0 victory over Coventry City, much of it the sort of tireless defensive running which often goes unnoticed, rather than the more eye-catching forward play which has seen him net six times at Portman Road this season, including a hat-trick against Sheffield United and one of the greatest ever East Anglian derby goals in the 3-1 victory over Norwich City.

“Jaden knows how important I think that is,” McKenna said. “One, for a forward player in modern football and, two, for him because his capacity is incredible. 

“You look at his physical outputs on a game like Saturday and he’s one of the rare players who can be top or thereabouts on the pitch for distance, can be top for high speed, top there or thereabouts for sprint and be top there or thereabouts for accel-decels [accelerations and decelerations] and also hit a good high speed.

“So his capability from a physical perspective is huge and the biggest opportunity to go and use that is without the ball because, especially when you’re playing wide, sometimes you’re waiting for the ball to arrive to your area.

“He’s got a fantastic capacity in that he’s brave and he’s agile and he’s able to get his foot or his toe to things, so he is very good at regaining possession. 

“I think it’s a massive strength of his and it’s one we want to keep seeing him use. He was a big part of the game on Saturday, [Milan] van Ewijk is so strong for them going down that side.

“Jaden’s capable of pressing a centre-back and recovering back to a full-back and he did that time and again, and he can do it for a whole game.

“It’s a massive, massive asset that he has and we encourage him to keep using it and keep showing it, and when he does it it’s a massive asset for the team. And it can be a big, big part of his career as well.”

Photo: Matchday Images