Leeds United v Ipswich Town: Kieran McKenna on big Championship clash

It's a third-versus-second Championship clash at Elland Road, with the Blues 10 points clear of Daniel Farke's men heading into the festive period.

“There’s no doubt about it, it’s a top, top opponent," said McKenna, whose side lost 4-3 in the reverse fixture back in August.

"It’s a big step up again. We felt like Middlesbrough, Watford and then Norwich was a big step up to have that level of opponent in the space of a week, especially with two of those games away. 

“This is another big step up, there’s no doubt about it. Not just Saturday, but the game coming on Tuesday (at home to league leaders Leicester) as well. 

“It’s a wonderful game to look forward to. It’s Leeds United away, one of the best supported clubs in the country, on the 23rd of December with both teams in a really strong position in the table. It’s a challenge to really enjoy and take on. 

“We know it’s going to take a top, top, top performance to get anything from the game. They’re a big attacking threat, especially at home. They’ve been dominant in their home games this season and we know we’re going to have to perform really, really well to be in the game."

Leeds come into this game having dropped points in their last two matches - a 1-0 loss at Sunderland followed by a 1-1 home draw with Coventry.

Asked if he felt the Elland Road crowd could be turned, McKenna replied: “We speak about the context of the opposition - where they’re at as a team, the crowd and the atmosphere - ahead of every game. This will be no different. 

“Of course they’re a big club. I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have expected us to be in this position at this stage of the season. We can go there in a really positive frame of mind to go and take the game on and focus on performing as well as we can without too much pressure on ourselves. 

“If you can perform well, stay in the game, impose yourself on the game in different ways, then sometimes the home crowd can work for or against the home team. We’re always aware of that. 

“They’ve got a lot of threats starting and on the bench. They’ve got a lot of combinations and ways of attacking. Our focus has to be on performing our jobs to the highest level we can."

Asked what his side's approach to the game would be, the Blues boss replied: “I think we showed in all three games last week that our preference is always to try and be as aggressive as we can, try and win the ball high up the pitch, try and defend high up the pitch, try and keep possession in the opposition’s half when possible.  

“We also know that going away to Middlesbrough, Watford and, especially, this Leeds side, there will be spells where we have to defend deeper, where we have to defend together, where we’ll have to defend closer to our goal.

"It’s about being fully prepared for the individual threats that they have and the movements they like to make. Keeping our concentration to a really high level is going to be absolutely paramount to stopping a really dangerous attacking side. 

“We’ll try and be aggressive when we can, but we also know we’ll have to deliver a really well-rounded performance on and off the ball and also on our set plays."

Reflecting on his side's 4-3 home defeat to Leeds back on August 26, McKenna said: "I thought it was a good performance that we took confidence from.

"You look at the value of their front line and quality of player all over the pitch and we knew it was going to be a big, big step up. But I thought it was a game we competed well in. Certainly with the ball we were an attacking threat throughout the game and there were spells where we defended well. It was a nine minute spell in the first half where we made a couple of mistakes, but also you have to credit the opposition. That was a moment where the players felt the step up in level.

"But we came through that, we kept our composure, the crowd stuck with the team, the team stuck to the plan and what we believed in. We stuck in the game, grew in the game and took confidence from that.

"Of course we know the challenge only gets bigger. We're playing them away from home this time. They've had more time together with the manager, they've had more time together as a group of players, so we expect the challenge to be bigger. But we also feel we have improved as a group of players since that point. We're hoping we can show that on Saturday."

With Ipswich, fresh up from League One, sandwiched between the three teams who came down from the Premier League last season - Leicester, Leeds and Southampton - does McKenna see his team as the underdogs in this promotion fight?

"It's not something that we're thinking about," he replied. "We're not pitching it as being between the top four in the league as it is now. There's other teams a few points behind as well. We're not framing ourselves in that picture.

"But I think it's a pretty obvious thing to say, yeah. You look at the strength of the teams around us and the squads they have, to be honest I think they are unusually strong. All three teams around us didn't necessarily peter out of the Premier League. They have squads that were invested in. They've invested in young players, good players and kept a lot of their groups together.

"The points tallies alone reflect it's not a usual strength top of the Championship. It's an exceptional strength top if the Championship, so for us to be competing there after 22 games, of course, reflects really, really well.

"But's 22 games and we've still got 24 to play. There's so much football to be played over the next nine days, let alone the next four-and-a-half months. It's certainly far too early to be thinking about positions or where we are relative to other teams and who's in the hunt for what. We're just trying to keep getting better.

"Of course we're playing two of the teams around us in the next few days and that will be a good marker of how we're developing. We'll give both games everything we've got and see where we are after that." 

Several opposition fans have long proclaimed that Ipswich will fall away in the top-two race, only for the Blues to keep chalking up victories. Asked if he took any pleasure in that, McKenna said: "I don't think it's something you can take a lot of enjoyment from because you'd probably have to pause to do that and look back and reflect on what's been an incredible first half of the season, but there's no time to reflect.

"I'm sure we're overperforming what anyone's expectations would have been. I'm sure the teams around us would expect that, with the points totals they've got, they might be in a different position. 

"We've performed well over the first half of the season, deserve to be where we're at, but we're not at the halfway point yet. We know a Championship season can ebb and flow, we know that other teams will strengthen a lot in January and that there's an awful lot of football to be played.

"We can't give any energy or mental head space to thinking about what anyone else thinks about us. It just has to be focus on the next game, the big challenges ahead and keep trying to find ways to improve the players and team."

Town have no fresh injury concerns going into this fixture, with longer-term absentees Lee Evans (knee) and Janoi Donacien (groin) the only two currently unavailable.