Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna believes tomorrow’s trip to Nottingham Forest will present another opportunity to demonstrate their Premier League development.
The Blues lost their first two games of the season to Liverpool (2-0 at home) and Manchester City (4-1 away), but they applied what they taught when they recently beat Tottenham (2-1 away) and Manchester United (1-1 at home).
Tomorrow’s game at Forest will present a different type of difficulty. They’re more tactile and forthright. There is less focus on the game. Despite the fact that the hosts are seventh in the table, Ipswich enters the game as a less likely underdog. When all of the foregoing occurred earlier in the season, it resulted in flat.
“From a tactical, physical, and mental standpoint, Tottenham and Manchester United were a distinct type of game. “This is now a different challenge against a team that plays very differently than those teams,” McKenna explained.
“And there’s a distinct amount of scrutiny surrounding a Man United game on Super Sunday versus a Saturday three o’clock away from home.
“From a mental standpoint, it’s about truly tuning in. This is a Premier League game against a top side with far more experience at this level, top individual calibre players, and a season in which they have demonstrated their ability to hurt any team. They can certainly hurt us.
“Then we have to deal with the stylistic differences.” Nottingham Forest are extremely good at using Chris Wood as a target man in the build-up, which is very different from facing Marcus Rashford or Dominic Solanke. We’re going to have to work pretty hard to stop him. It won’t be simple, but we have a strong plan.
The Blues manager added: “Our previous two games have had fantastic results, and I think the two games before that (4-3 loss at Brentford and 1-1 home draw with Leicester) were very positive performances where we should have had more points, so we feel like we are in quite good shape.
“But this is a whole different style of game, with a different task and opponent, and we need to step it up again. It everything begins anew at three o’clock on Saturday, and we must battle for a different outcome.”
