© Photo by Rebecca Lindskoog on Unsplash
36-year-old Kieran McKenna is embarking on the first managerial role of his career with League One promotion hopefuls Ipswich Town. As the former Manchester United assistant manager to Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer inches close to his first anniversary at Portman Road, how is the Northern Irishman faring in attempting to awaken Suffolk's sleeping giant from its slumber?
The Ipswich supporters are dreaming of promotion out of the third tier of English football after a surprisingly extended stay in League One. Failed promotion attempts under Paul Lambert and a brief nightmare spell under Paul Cook saw the club's new American ownership group – Gamechanger 20 – take a different approach to appointing their next manager. CEO, Mark Ashton, has a history of giving young, untried managers their bow. The likes of Brendan Rodgers and Lee Johnson were both appointed by Ashton at Watford and Bristol City respectively, and McKenna blew Ashton away at interview. His methodical, intelligent approach wowed the Ipswich board, who unanimously approved his appointment.
Is McKenna's persona as bad as was previously reported by the United media?
© Photo by Harry Walsh on Unsplash
During the darkest days of Solskjaer's reign at Old Trafford, McKenna was regularly criticised for his training methods. One report described him as having a schoolteacher-like delivery on the training field. Yet you'll struggle to find a bad word said about him in deepest East Anglia.
McKenna seems at ease as a Tractor Boy. He is one of the calmest, most collected individuals you are likely to see on a touchline. Some supporters would argue it suggests he doesn't care, but that could not be further from the truth. Inside, there is an inner steel and laser focus on the task at hand, whether it's in the Portman Road dugout or on the club's Playford Road training centre. He's not someone you're ever likely to see tilted in public. Going on 'tilt' is a key psychological term in the poker dictionary, describing a player that becomes reckless and loses all sensibility at the table. McKenna has already demonstrated that he's keen to avoid getting too high with the wins and too low with the setbacks – although there haven't been any setbacks thus far in Town's 2022/23 League One campaign.
McKenna is bringing a winning mentality back to Portman Road
Since taking charge of the Suffolk side late last year, McKenna's win rate in competitive league games is an impressive 53%. 17 wins in 32 games, as well as just five defeats, have been the bedrock of a genuine title tilt in League One this campaign. McKenna's Ipswich side have been particularly watertight at the back, keeping more clean sheets (17) than goals conceded (16).McKenna has preferred the use of three central defenders so far at Town, with right-sided defender, Janoi Donacien, deployed as a wide, overlapping centre back, helping to provide further width for in-form Welshman, Wes Burns, who is battling for a place in Wales' 2022 World Cup squad.
There has been a real fluidity to Town's style of play. All three centre halves are proving increasingly comfortable at building from the back and controlling possession. Meanwhile central midfielders Sam Morsy and Lee Evans are the meat in the sandwich, providing the guile and the drive that's been sorely lacking from Ipswich squads of yesteryear.
McKenna is also utilising two attack-minded number-tens in his free-flowing 3-4-2-1 system, with number nine Freddie Ladapo tasked with doing a lot of unselfish work, pressing from the front and enabling Town to play the game in their opponents' half. Occupying defenders is also creating an abundance of space for number tens, Conor Chaplin and Marcus Harness, who've already bagged four and three league goals respectively.
The feel-good factor is back at the stadium, too. Attendance is firmly on the rise. Average crowds of 25,000-plus are the norm right now, which wouldn't be out of place in the top-flight, let alone the Championship. McKenna recently stated that he sees his remit at Ipswich as a long-term project, rebuilding the club from the ground up, with an off-field infrastructure and an on-field team that can finally enable Ipswich to emerge from the shadow of bitter rivals, Norwich City.
For too long the Suffolk side has been an irrelevance in English football, but McKenna could be the man to mastermind that long-awaited renaissance.
