McKenna takes positives from Ipswich 4-1 City defeat
McKenna takes positives from Ipswich 4-1 City defeat
24/08/2024
Etihad Stadium, Manchester, UK
24/08/2024
Etihad Stadium, Manchester, UK
Category
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SportTranscript
00:00How are you doing, Phil?
00:06Yeah, we're not previewing that today, we'll preview that on Tuesday at the press conference.
00:14Yeah, I'll conduct it that way anyway, yeah, no problem.
00:17Okay, who wants to get us underway?
00:22Hi, Kieran.
00:23Hi.
00:24You started, obviously, in dream fashion, was that a lesson in the ruthlessness of this team and this league?
00:31Yeah, that was one of the lessons today.
00:33We got off to a fantastic start, scored a great goal in the transition, probably the exact goal that we wanted to score today.
00:40We knew that we could score with our line being high and Samuel Omari making runs behind and he finishes it off well.
00:46We got off to a great start and then, of course, the game was lost in a five-minute spell.
00:52There's some big lessons for us to learn and I'm sure we'll do that.
00:54The first goal is a penalty where it's not a very dangerous situation.
00:59Of course, it's a 1v1, but you know you're going to have to face them in this level.
01:04But being disciplined to not give away the penalty is really important and a 1-0 lead that if we had,
01:09we'd have managed to hold on to for 10-15 minutes.
01:13I think the base was there for us to have a really competitive game today.
01:16I think everyone was comfortable with the plan that we came in with and how we executed in the first few minutes.
01:21But, you know, 1-0 goes to 2-1 in the space of a matter of seconds,
01:26more so than minutes and the feel of the game changes completely.
01:30What I think is positive and what was important from 3-1 is that we managed to get back hold of the game.
01:36We managed to show resilience, the team stayed together and we went from whatever it was,
01:41the 16th minute to the 88th minute without conceding.
01:44Of course, they had chances in the first half.
01:46In the second half, I think we defended well as a team and didn't give away too many opportunities.
01:52I think we had, in my eyes, a clear penalty that we should have went in at 3-2.
01:56I know City could have had other goals, but I think we should go in at 3-2.
01:59It's a really hard one to stand out.
02:01It wasn't given, especially with the intervention on the first goal and we could have went in at 3-2.
02:07So, yes, there's positives to take.
02:09There's, of course, some big, big lessons that you get from facing a team at this level
02:12and that's normal for us to go through that with where the team and where the group and where the individuals are at.
02:17But, again, I think it'll be a positive experience for us in the season.
02:25You've had the toughest possible start.
02:28Are you seeing enough in your team to encourage you that you can compete against the other teams in the Premier League?
02:34Yes, I am.
02:36Not to say that we were in any way dominant or we didn't manage to make the game competitive enough today,
02:42but I've seen enough in moments.
02:44Of course, last week we made a really competitive game for 60 minutes against Liverpool
02:48and we showed the atmosphere, the intensity that we can play with at Portman Road
02:54and how difficult we can make it for teams coming there.
02:58Today, we didn't have as much of the game for sure, but we scored our first goal.
03:02We showed that we can come to the best team in the league away from home
03:05and on a difficult day to play against City as well.
03:07Let's be honest, it's their first home game.
03:09They've had a full training week.
03:11It's their first game back here since they won the league.
03:13There's great positivity around it.
03:15It was always going to be a difficult day to play them,
03:17but we showed we can come here, we can score on the transition.
03:22And, of course, the spell of chances that they had and goals that they had is a lesson,
03:27a period that we have to learn from, similar to last week,
03:29where Liverpool, in some ways, scored two goals in five minutes.
03:32So, we have to improve in those moments.
03:35But, on the other hand, we've shown in very small periods of the game
03:40that we can play with the ball and play bravely and take the ball.
03:42It wasn't enough today, but it was maybe four or five moments in the game.
03:45We have to turn that into eight, nine, ten and many more moments.
03:49I thought there was a lot of individual performances that were positive for us,
03:52stepping up to the level.
03:54And I think we'll have taken a lot from the first two games.
03:57We'd like to be sitting here with points on the board,
03:59but we know the Fisher list meant that was going to be really difficult.
04:02We know we're in an adaptation process.
04:04We're coming with a group of so many who have climbed from League One
04:08in a very short space of time.
04:09We're now trying to integrate new players into that.
04:11That's not going to be an overnight process,
04:13but I think week by week we're learning lessons
04:16and I'm sure that we'll improve over the weeks and months to come.
04:20Second goal.
04:21You've spoken before, last season, about goalkeepers being brave on the ball
04:25and that you don't have a go at them for that.
04:28Same today, perhaps with a couple of similar goals last season?
04:32I think it was probably a game management one today, a little bit.
04:34It wasn't necessarily bravery or overplaying.
04:36We didn't get caught passing it.
04:38We just got caught with taking too much time on the ball
04:42in a situation where a fantastic team have just scored a goal
04:45and they're going to come after you and you're not going to have very much time.
04:47So I didn't think it was necessarily a playing out from the back situation.
04:51It was a game management situation that we didn't do well enough
04:54and we have to learn from.
04:57A similar lesson from the Liverpool game,
05:00where you said at 1-0, stop it going 2-2-3.
05:04That little period where you can feel a turn and a twist in the game
05:08and you've got to react to that.
05:10Is that again the lesson today?
05:12Yes, it is.
05:13And to be fair, I think after the third goal,
05:15we showed that we have learned the lesson.
05:17We just didn't learn it quick enough after the first goal went in.
05:21But I think there were positive signs from that.
05:24When the third goal was in, the players got together on the pitch.
05:27They pulled themselves in.
05:29They stayed together.
05:30We showed resilience in the next spell.
05:32Of course, when the momentum is that strongly against you,
05:35there's still going to be some chances.
05:36But we showed some resilience within it.
05:38Nobody dropped their head.
05:39Our shape never really opened up.
05:41We didn't have huge organisational issues.
05:46By how we managed that five-minute spell,
05:48we put ourselves in massive negative momentum
05:50and we had to fight to stay in the game in that period
05:53and claw some of that momentum back.
05:55We've done that pretty well, to be honest.
05:57It's a decision that's, from my view, pretty hard to understand.
06:02We go in at 3-2 and in the second half,
06:05until the 88th minute,
06:06we were a couple of minutes away from coming back in
06:08and saying, okay, we've drew the second half.
06:10It wasn't the game that we wanted it to be.
06:12We weren't able to be as aggressive as we wanted to be.
06:15But the five-minute spell in the game that we had
06:17dictated that that wasn't going to be possible today
06:19and we had to protect ourselves a little bit more.
06:22But the group done that well
06:23and we were really close to coming in
06:24and saying that from 3-1 on 16 minutes.
06:27The game very almost finished up in that situation
06:29and actually, with a penalty that could have been,
06:31it could have been a little bit different the other way.
06:33Did you see clarification on that,
06:35why that one didn't go to VAR but the first one did?
06:38No, the fourth official gave a signal that
06:43it had been turned down for VAR
06:45and they had looked at it.
06:46So I promised myself I don't want to speak
06:49too often about VAR coming into the league, to be honest.
06:52I think the only thing I can say is
06:55possibly there's a little bit of a difference at times
06:57when there's a situation like the first goal
06:59where the play is stopped
07:00and then the situation after our penalty appeal
07:03is different because City have the ball
07:04and they keep it for a minute
07:05and it's easier to forget about it.
07:07But yeah, I've seen it live.
07:09I thought it was nailed on.
07:10I've seen one replay.
07:11Maybe I need to see a little bit more,
07:13but I thought Leaf had one arm being pulled
07:15and another defender come across
07:16and swiped across his legs
07:18and from the angle I've seen,
07:20it's hard to say it's not given.
07:23All good?
07:25Thanks, guys.
07:26Cheers.