Ipswich Town have taken two points from their opening four Premier League games. Kieran McKenna insists adapting to the level is going to take time...
Ipswich Town may still be waiting for their first Premier League win of the season, but no-one can say they've looked out of their depth in the opening four games.
The Blues had Liverpool on the back foot for the best part of an hour at Portman Road before succumbing to a 2-0 defeat, then took the lead at Man City before losing 4-1. Kieran McKenna's men then looked the more likely to win in the second half of an absorbing 1-1 home draw with Fulham and dug deep to grind out a 0-0 draw at Brighton.
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All-in-all, given the context of 22 years away from the big time, back-to-back promotions from League One and 11 fresh faces to integrate, it's been a really encouraging start. Town have been competitive, to a point, against two behemoths and taken a share of the spoils, in different ways, against two established mid-table outfits.
“I do feel more relaxed now the window is shut for sure. It was such a busy period for us as a football club," admitted McKenna, who spent in excess of £100m in transfer fees to try and get his squad ready for a huge step up.
“Our infrastructure and where we’ve come from means the burden of bringing players in and helping players move on is shared across not that many people.
“It’s nice now to be able to look in the eyes of our squad and know that this is the group we’re working with until at least January.
“Integrating the new players is a challenge. To start with there are lots of practical things like housing, nurseries and schools that when it comes to helping them and their families settle in. Again, that work is spread here across not as many people as it would be at Manchester United, for example. So it means everyone is having to work really, really hard.
“Of course we want to get the players up to speed from a tactical point of view too. That means lots more individual sit downs to go through extra video clips to discuss how we can integrate them in the team, what role we see them in and what the details we’ll be looking from them in and out of possession.
“All of that is going to be a process over time."
McKenna has a 27-man first team squad to work with. The core of his back-to-back promotion winning squad remains in place, with 11 fresh faces (not including returning loan star Omari Hutchinson) brought in to drive standards higher. Of those 11, only Jacob Greaves and Liam Delap have started all four league games so far.
“The thing that is positive here is that we've got a fantastic group of plyers who help with that integration," said the Blues boss.
"We’ve got over 50% of the squad who were with us in the Championship. I don’t know the numbers, but maybe close to 50% were possibly with us in League One too.
“So a lot of the players have been here a good amount of time, they know how we work, what we do well and they are really helping pass that on to the new players.
“The characters that we’ve brought in to the building will be a big help too. Bringing in people who we think will fit in with and add to the culture, who are hungry to be here, was top of my check list this transfer window, as it has been in every window. We’ve done that. That means the people you are bringing in are more likely to settle in.
“We’ve also brought in profiles of players who fit how we play. Thankfully when we’re bringing in players we’re not usually asking them to do something drastically, drastically different from what their best attributes are. That helps the football integration a little bit."
Town are now preparing for a trip to fellow newly-promoted side Southampton on Saturday. The Blues did a Championship double over the Saints last season, while Russell Martin's men are yet to put a point on the board since securing promotion via the play-offs.
“It’s not going to happen overnight," said McKenna, further discussing how he's going to get his new-look squad fully up to speed.
"Across the squad so far I think we’ve had maybe 14/15 Premier League debuts. So we’re in a process and I think we’re going to get better week-by-week if we take the right approach.
“It’s good that we’ve already been pretty competitive in our games. If we stick on the right path, stick together, then over the course of weeks and months we’ll be in a much better place than we are now."
If Town's best is still a way off, then these early performances should provide a great deal of encouragement.
League One promotion winners (11 = 41%)
Walton, H.Clarke, Woolfenden, Burgess, Davis, Morsy, Luongo, Burns, Chaplin, Broadhead, Hirst.
Championship only promotion winners (5 = 18%)
Slicker, Tuanzebe, Taylor, Hutchinson, Al-Hamadi.
New signings (11 = 41%)
Muric, Johnson, O'Shea, Greaves, Townsend, Phillips, Cajuste, Ogbene, Szmodics, J.Clarke, Delap.
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