Ipswich Town: Kieran McKenna on art of maximising squad potential

Seven games played, four points on the board. Plenty of positives to take, but ultimately Ipswich Town are still waiting for their first Premier League win in more than 22 years

“I would imagine we still have the lowest wage budget in the league by a long way and the lowest squad value in the league by a long way," said Blues boss Kieran McKenna, when quizzed about his £100m+ summer spend last month. "So the fact that we’ve spent some money on players isn’t what’s going to make us have a good season."

So what is going to prove the difference if Ipswich, a third-tier club from 2019-2023, are to beat the odds and retain their place at the top table?

Kieran McKenna took Ipswich Town from League One to the Premier League with largely the same squad. (Image: Ross Halls)

“I think there’s a lot of different things," said McKenna, when asked about the art of getting a team to overperform.

"Building a personal connection with a player is the most important thing. Having that trust and relationship has to be there before you can try and improve players and help them get to their maximum capacity.  

“Not just in football, but probably in all walks of life, we’re probably not operating at our maximum capacity every day in our jobs. So it’s about trying to help them be the very, very best they can be by working with them day-in, day-out in a good environment where we try and develop their strengths and improve the bits of their game that they find more difficult. 

“Being in a good group helps. Having the confidence that, okay, you’re going to a higher level and facing a big challenge, but you have trust and faith in your team-mates and know that they have your back. It's about building that mindset and belief that we’re all part of a group and the group is the strongest thing. If everyone plays their part and contributes then we’ll each help each other do better than what each individual maybe thought was possible."

Ipswich Town have taken four points from their opening seven Premier League games. (Image: Ross Halls)

Asked if he believed everyone has the potential to be a star, the Blues boss thought for a second and replied: “No, I don’t think so. I don’t think star is the word. I think everyone has the potential to improve and potential to develop though.

"Not many people are operating at their maximum capacity every game – whether that’s physical reasons, technical reasons, mental reasons, tactical reasons. So it’s trying to help each player in each of those areas. We’ve created an environment that has been built to support them. 

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“On top of that, I believe in building a system that brings out the strengths of the players and limits their weaknesses, to a certain extent. I think we’ve done that with the group we’ve had here over the last couple of years. I think those who’ve watched us enough see players playing in really specific roles that suit their profiles really, really well.

"Maybe a Wes Burns is a good example of someone who’s played different roles in his career - right-back, he’s played striker, he’s played on the wing – but we’ve tried to find a role that brings out his very best attributes, which is being wide, on the touchline and making runs in the space behind the backline without having too much responsibility in terms of creative passing in the build-up and things like that. In doing that, he’s gone from Fleetwood Town, and a signing the club made for 50 thousand pounds, to playing really well against (Liverpool's) Andy Robertson and others in the Premier League. 

Kieran McKenna says Wes Burns is a good example of a player that Ipswich Town have got the very best out of in recent years. (Image: Ross Halls)

“That’s just one example. You can go through the rest of the group. It’s about trying to build a system that brings out the best attributes in your players and maybe masks some of the things they’re not so good at. At the same time you still acknowledge and work on the things they can maybe do better."

There's no getting away from it, Town's next three games - Everton (h), Brentford (a), Leicester (h) - are big. Winning at least one of those home games against opposition likely to be in the relegation dogfight looks vital. More than a quarter of the season will have been played once those matches are over.

“I think our goal is to be as competitive as we can each week, so in that respect you could say we’re on track because we’ve been competitive for the large majority of most games," said McKenna.

"We’ve had draws which, on another day, you could win or lose. But if you can be competitive in as many matches as possible then you give yourself a chance to find a way to get a result. 

Ipswich Town will be looking to bounce back from a 4-1 defeat at West Ham when they host Everton at Portman Road this weekend. (Image: Ross Halls)

“We know that we’re not going to win four or five nil every week, so it’s about finding ways to prepare, to compete, to be a difficult team to play against and then finding way to go the extra yard and find a way to win games. 

“As I’ve said many times, points totals, league positions, things like that don’t interest me greatly, especially at this stage of the season. Of course, we want to pick up as many points as we can, but the first goal has to be to try and be as competitive as we can in the division while we’re still trying to develop ourselves as a team. I think, on the whole, we’ve done that."