Kieran McKenna | Close to signing long term deal to stay at Ipswich

Munkehboi

Full Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2013
Messages
1,129
Location
Luke Shaw's bum
Joint on points with Leicester at the top now. I've watched a fair few of Ipswich games this season and love the way they are playing without fear. They've been slow starters in recent weeks but they just have the self belief to score. Interestingly, only four teams in the football league have scored in every league game this season: Liverpool, Brighton, Spuds and Ipswich.

Carrick getting lots of headlines recently and rightly so for turning things around but Ipswich still remain quite under the radar to me. Think Mckenna will prefer it that way.
 

city-puma

Full Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2020
Messages
3,363
Location
NYC
Joint on points with Leicester at the top now. I've watched a fair few of Ipswich games this season and love the way they are playing without fear. They've been slow starters in recent weeks but they just have the self belief to score. Interestingly, only four teams in the football league have scored in every league game this season: Liverpool, Brighton, Spuds and Ipswich.

Carrick getting lots of headlines recently and rightly so for turning things around but Ipswich still remain quite under the radar to me. Think Mckenna will prefer it that way.
No matter what, until 2/3 of season finish, they are underdog in many people’s perception. It will do all the good for them. If they are still the top two in final third of the season, let’s see how he can lead them to finish the season.
really glad to see him doing so well there.
 

DWelbz19

Correctly predicted Portugal to win Euro 2016
Joined
Oct 31, 2012
Messages
34,230
A [pretty much] League One side level on points with a [pretty much] PL side is remarkable work by McKenna. What a job he’s doing
 

Johnthedevil

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Oct 31, 2014
Messages
18
If McKenna takes Ipswich to two promotions in two seasons, that'll be some achievement, especially with Ipswich's limited resources.
 

Sylar

Full Member
Joined
May 15, 2007
Messages
40,636
bring him back here and within 20 minutes all that would be gone with being replaced by someone just screaming for more pashun and desire.
Not only that but mckenna will try implement what he's doing at Ipswich, then realise how mediocre our players are whilst having to contend with how our players keep getting injured (and how unfit they are)
 

2 man midfield

Last Man Standing finalist 2021/22
Joined
Sep 4, 2012
Messages
46,341
Location
?
Will be interesting to see how he adapts if they get promoted. Kompany found out that playing that style of play against PL teams gets you shafted more often than not.
 

UnitedSofa

You'll Never Walk Away
Joined
Jul 12, 2013
Messages
6,872
Still can’t get over the fact that during Ole’s reign both McKenna and Carrick were slammed as PE Teachers and now look :lol: :lol: - (Yes I will bring this up at every opportunity)
 

flameinthesun

Full Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2014
Messages
2,106
Location
London
Still can’t get over the fact that during Ole’s reign both McKenna and Carrick were slammed as PE Teachers and now look :lol: :lol: - (Yes I will bring this up at every opportunity)
Honestly anytime someone brings up the quality of the first team coaches or starts one of those "what does this coach do" thread its a good reason to ignore them. No one has a clue how good or bad a coach is and what they do on the training ground. Its fair game to go after a manager but I've never gotten this trend of going after 1st team coaches, especially as the coaches are there to implement what the manager wants.
 

Greyfog

Full Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2018
Messages
667
Location
High Road
Supports
Enugu Rangers
Give him a pre contract before City snap him up when Pep leaves. You read it here first.
 

Zed is not dead

Full Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2023
Messages
1,552
Honestly anytime someone brings up the quality of the first team coaches or starts one of those "what does this coach do" thread its a good reason to ignore them. No one has a clue how good or bad a coach is and what they do on the training ground. Its fair game to go after a manager but I've never gotten this trend of going after 1st team coaches, especially as the coaches are there to implement what the manager wants.
SACK FLETCHER!!!
 

city-puma

Full Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2020
Messages
3,363
Location
NYC
Still can’t get over the fact that during Ole’s reign both McKenna and Carrick were slammed as PE Teachers and now look :lol: :lol: - (Yes I will bring this up at every opportunity)
Rightly so!
There are people here! Think about it.
 

Real Madras

Full Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2016
Messages
1,080
Location
London
Supports
Real Oviedo
He bloody well should be a Manchester United manager one day. He knows the club and his time under Ole who I think played the best football since Sir Alex left the club. He's doing good things with Ipswich and I really like him. His team play great football. Its brilliant to see.
 

Moriarty

Full Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2008
Messages
19,184
Location
Reichenbach Falls
If McKenna takes Ipswich to two promotions in two seasons, that'll be some achievement, especially with Ipswich's limited resources.
They had another manager once that did something similar. He took Ipswich into the 1st Division then won the title. His name was Alf Ramsey. McKenna is following in some pretty big footsteps, not to mention Bobby Robson.
 

Loon

:lol:
Joined
Aug 17, 2011
Messages
9,244
Location
No-Mark
Still can’t get over the fact that during Ole’s reign both McKenna and Carrick were slammed as PE Teachers and now look :lol: :lol: - (Yes I will bring this up at every opportunity)
Was going to make the same point. If he was daft enough to come, and things did not go well instantly, he’d be the same again.
 

ArmaDino

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Apr 21, 2023
Messages
237
Something is just not adding up here.

Him and Carrick were in charge of the United training sessions/ tactical training etc. And yet we looked just as disjointed as we are looking right now.

And yet he goes down to League One and manages to coach an average team to play like Barca.

Carrick goes to Boro and he managed to stabilize the team and have them playing good footy.

Something is just off about all of this.

Clearly there is something more going on at the club than just coaching tactics. ETH who came from the Netherlands with glowing reviews and is having a very torrid time just making our players run.

Can be a big fish in a small pond thing for all 3 of them, just like Potter. Or there might be more going one behind the scenes that we are not aware of.

Also well done to McKenna for making Ipswich a joy to watch for the neutrals and their fans as well(something I wish United would be able to do again).
 

THE ZOL

Daddy Sancho
Joined
Apr 22, 2022
Messages
216
Location
Sudan
Supports
Al-Merreikh (Omdorman)
Something is just not adding up here.

Him and Carrick were in charge of the United training sessions/ tactical training etc. And yet we looked just as disjointed as we are looking right now.

And yet he goes down to League One and manages to coach an average team to play like Barca.

Carrick goes to Boro and he managed to stabilize the team and have them playing good footy.

Something is just off about all of this.

Clearly there is something more going on at the club than just coaching tactics. ETH who came from the Netherlands with glowing reviews and is having a very torrid time just making our players run.

Can be a big fish in a small pond thing for all 3 of them, just like Potter. Or there might be more going one behind the scenes that we are not aware of.

Also well done to McKenna for making Ipswich a joy to watch for the neutrals and their fans as well(something I wish United would be able to do again).
Carrick and McKenna play identical systems, which were similar to what we tried to do at United. Luke Shaw was in the form of his life just as Leif Davis is for Ipswich this season and Giles was for Boro last season because the right-back inverts to form a back 3 and the left-back has more freedom and space to bomb forward.

We faced a higher standard of opponent though. We came up against better organised and more intense presses, or teams just sat back in a low-block. This is why we did not control games as much as Ipswich do (Boro did last season, this season they have been stripped of so many key players that they are struggling).

We didn’t quite have the right talent for that system either. Pogba, Bruno and Rashford are more direct and therefore more devestating on counters. Aging Matic and injury prone Pogba were problems. Remember the amazing football we played post-lockdown? Second only to the first 12 or so games of the Ole era as our best football post-SAF. That was down to our pivot being able to recieve from the centre-backs and progress the ball to the forwards. It was tougher to do this with McFred.

Either way, the Ronaldo signing killed everything. It wasn’t so much his pressing, but it was more his inability to hold the ball up, his positional indiscipline (drifting wide too much) and the tendency to look for Ronaldo early instead of being more patient and waiting for space to open up elsewhere.

The last months of the Ole days were not representative of the progress we were making at the time.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: RedSky

Sweet Square

ˈkämyənəst
Joined
Jun 6, 2013
Messages
24,023
Location
The Zone
Something is just not adding up here.
Tbh the forum tends to think if someone doesn’t succeed at United it then means this person knows nothing about football and has always been terrible.

It’s possible for someone to fail at United but still be a very good coach.
 

ArmaDino

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Apr 21, 2023
Messages
237
Carrick and McKenna play identical systems, which were similar to what we tried to do at United. Luke Shaw was in the form of his life just as Leif Davis is for Ipswich this season and Giles was for Boro last season because the right-back inverts to form a back 3 and the left-back has more freedom and space to bomb fo

We faced a higher standard of opponent though. We came up against better organised and more intense presses, or teams just sat back in a low-block. This is why we did not control games as much as Ipswich do (Boro did last season, this season they have been stripped of so many key players that they are struggling).

We didn’t quite have the right talent for that system either. Pogba, Bruno and Rashford are more direct and therefore more devestating on counters. Aging Matic and injury prone Pogba were problems. Remember the amazing football we played post-lockdown? Second only to the first 12 or so games of the Ole era as our best football post-SAF. That was down to our pivot being to recieve from the centre-backs and progress the ball to the forwards. It was tougher to do this with McFred.

Either way, the Ronaldo signing killed everything. It wasn’t so much his pressing, but it was more his inability to hold the ball up, his positional indiscipline (drifting wide too much) and the tendency to look for Ronaldo early instead of being more patient and waiting for space to open up elsewhere.

The last months of the Ole days were not representative of the progress we were making at the time.
Very thought out post. Thank you for your input mate.

I will say this about Ole's purple patch: a lot of those results also had to do with Herrera providing balance for our midfield. Ole played a midfield of 3 during the time of our purple patch of Matic-Herrera-Pogba.

Once Herrera got injured and then left we just never looked the same.
 

Borninthe80ts

Full Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2021
Messages
725
Carrick and McKenna play identical systems, which were similar to what we tried to do at United. Luke Shaw was in the form of his life just as Leif Davis is for Ipswich this season and Giles was for Boro last season because the right-back inverts to form a back 3 and the left-back has more freedom and space to bomb forward.

We faced a higher standard of opponent though. We came up against better organised and more intense presses, or teams just sat back in a low-block. This is why we did not control games as much as Ipswich do (Boro did last season, this season they have been stripped of so many key players that they are struggling).

We didn’t quite have the right talent for that system either. Pogba, Bruno and Rashford are more direct and therefore more devestating on counters. Aging Matic and injury prone Pogba were problems. Remember the amazing football we played post-lockdown? Second only to the first 12 or so games of the Ole era as our best football post-SAF. That was down to our pivot being able to recieve from the centre-backs and progress the ball to the forwards. It was tougher to do this with McFred.

Either way, the Ronaldo signing killed everything. It wasn’t so much his pressing, but it was more his inability to hold the ball up, his positional indiscipline (drifting wide too much) and the tendency to look for Ronaldo early instead of being more patient and waiting for space to open up elsewhere.

The last months of the Ole days were not representative of the progress we were making at the time.
This is the most rational and balanced summary I’ve read in regards to Ole time here. It just wasn’t sustainable at the time. Anyway I hope that McKenna can continue to improve regardless of where he ends up. Really enjoy watching his teams play.
 

adexkola

Doesn't understand sportswashing.
Joined
Mar 17, 2008
Messages
48,850
Location
The CL is a glorified FA Cup set to music
Supports
orderly disembarking on planes
Tbh the forum tends to think if someone doesn’t succeed at United it then means this person knows nothing about football and has always been terrible.

It’s possible for someone to fail at United but still be a very good coach.
I've said this before in a longer post but I'll summarize: the more coaches fail at a club, the more it's apparent that they're not the problem, and it's the club that sets them up to fail
 

Borninthe80ts

Full Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2021
Messages
725
It’s McKenna vs Carrick this week in the championship. It could be a good game as both teams are in form and playing good football. I’ll be looking for similarities and differences in style and application. Hope the result doesn’t affect the loser if any too much.
 

100

binary bot
Joined
Jul 14, 2010
Messages
11,044
Location
HELLO
Do you think he'd come? Doing an incredible job at Ipswich.
 

GreatDane

Full Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2019
Messages
1,670
Sitting second just behind Leicester is a great accomplishment.
If Jim comes in and fixes the structure, hire the right people to support the manager then he would be an interesting choice - but at the current setup we would destroy a promising career.
 

SilentWitness

ShoelessWitness
Staff
Joined
Jan 14, 2010
Messages
31,555
Supports
Everton
Would be one of the first choices for me if it ends up going tits up with Dyche. Seriously impressive to keep up with Leicester in general but to do it after promotion is even further a green flag on his CV.
 

Santos J

Full Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2013
Messages
7,387
Would be one of the first choices for me if it ends up going tits up with Dyche. Seriously impressive to keep up with Leicester in general but to do it after promotion is even further a green flag on his CV.
Yeah it's ridiculous really, 89 points from the last 105 possible for them.
 

rimaldo

All about the essence
Joined
Jan 10, 2008
Messages
41,425
Supports
arse
if you turn the volume up, you can clearly hear mckenna shout “just absolutely twat it with the outside of your foot, right into the top corner.” amazing management.