In just under two years, Kieran Mckenna has taken Ipswich from mid-table in League One year in, year out to the automatic places in the Championship. This save is going to be imitating the approach that Kieran has taken to propel himself into one of the most exciting young manager prospects in the world.
Why Ipswich you may ask?
Is it because Ipswich once a fallen giant are now back on the rise and I’m coming in to replicate the recent success? It’s a much simpler explanation: I support Ipswich and every FM my main save to start up will always be with Ipswich. Obviously in previous years we have been in League One but now we are promoted to the Championship, the proposal of managing Ipswich is more appealing than ever!
Last season was the most memorable season many Ipswich fans have ever experienced. We finished on 98 points just pipping Sheffield Wednesday to that second automatic spot, in the most thrilling and scintillating League One title race of all time. Our free-flowing aggressive attacking play resulted in us scoring 101 goals, which is some feat. We have started this season in the same vein, boasting the top scorers in the championship and are on course to repeat our 100-goal feat.
Our return to the championship has started in similar fashion. We sit second in the league at this current point with a healthy advantage over recently relegated prem teams Leeds and Southampton on obscene budgets for this league. This start for a newly promoted team is not normal and has never been seen before. I have full confidence that we can keep up this run.
Why am I choosing to imitate Kieran Mckenna?
All Ipswich fans idolise Kieran, myself included as he is already my favourite manager in my lifetime. He is level headed, so cool and collected. All of his players and the media speak incredibly highly of him and this is the environment I want to bring to Ipswich in this save. Kieran has got the fans back on our side after years of dull football, which disillusioned large parts of the fanbase. Now we sell out Portman Road every home game!
Brief overview of Kieran’s pathway to Ipswich
Kieran learnt his trade at two of the biggest English clubs in the world. A knee injury forced him into an early retirement at just 22. Spurs gave Kieran his first pathway into coaching with the under 18. Shorty after, Manchester United was his next step and he was an assistant to Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunner Solskjaer learning from them day in, day out. This resulted in Kieran receiving his first managerial role at Ipswich, where he has simply been a revelation.
Five fundamentals to continue
- Tactical approach
- Recruitment
- Set pieces
- Facilities
- Youth
- Tactical approach
Kieran sets up in a hybrid positive 4-2-3-1 system. Whilst we have maintained the phenomenal goalscoring exploits from last season, this season we have transitioned from a control possession team to more of a gegenpressing system. In simpler terms we have given up more of the ball and we now attack fast and direct. This has been a genius change because more championship teams set up more open and are easier to exploit on the transition instead of coming up against low blocks week in, week out. We have also scored the most goals in the championship this season. This graph from credit https://theanalyst.com/ emphasises this.
We set up super combative at home, which is shown in the obscene amount of goals there have been at Portman Road so far this season – pure chaos and elation every game. Excuse my maths if I’m wrong, but I make it 40 goals at Portman Road in just eight games which is simply unheard of and has somehow been sustainable and consistent so far. In contrast, away from home we set up more passive and there has been plenty of grinding out 0-1 wins.
Despite attacking faster and more direct, the fundamentals of playing out from the back bravely to beat the opposition press stays the same and perhaps is even more positive and aggressive than ever. Also our high press is relentless, hunting in packs to win the ball high up the pitch.
Player roles in detail
SK on attack = Super positive starting position, extremely sharp off the line. Not afraid to be brave on the ball playing risky passes in tight spaces to beat the press. In real life, Vaclav Hladky has been the best goalkeeper in the championship so far this season and played this role to perfection, so many goals have started from the back to front!
FB = Play more advanced when at home marauding forward. In contrast, away he plays more passive, focusing more on the defensive side at times slotting in as a back three.
BPD = Both CBs are comfortable on the ball and will be crucial when building from the back, the Left CB will be playing wider to cover the WB on attack.
WB on attack = Arguably the most important position in the tactic and only right it is filled by our best player on both FM and real life: Leif Davis. He has a free roaming role and provides the width down the left side. He’s an assist machine and sensational at crossing.
DLP = Likes to drop into deep positions under pressure to show for the ball and beat the press. I have an instruction on Sam Morsy to dribble more. He dominates the tempo of the game.
SV = Segundo Volante is the perfect role for our tactic, gives the freedom for SV roam forward and join in on the attacks just like in real life. It also means the SV will play as a double pivot next to the DLP but will act more as an advanced playmaker in attack.
W = Kieran likes to use a traditional winger, hugs the touchline driving down the line and whipping in trademark low crosses to the edge of the box. Both winger options have lots of pace.
SS = Shadow striker is the perfect role for bags man Conor Chaplin. He will be very active getting shots off, much like real life where he has taken the most in the championship. Looking forward to seeing those late runs on the edge of the box.
IW = The Inverted Winger will tuck in and fill the space inside to facilitate the left wing back to hug the touchline. Nathan Broadhead is a player who is capable of unlocking any defence with a moment of magic.
CF= Was looking at all the different striker roles and the complete forward is the role that suits Kieran Mckenna’s tactic the most. Offers great link up play dropping deep to bring others into play. Also makes sharp runs into the box, not a role any of our strikers can play on FM so retraining them to play there.
Subs
Another key reason we have been so successful this season is because of our stacked squad depth. Kieran sets up his subs bench unbelievably positive rarely leaving a natural CB on the bench as he looks to prioritise attacking changes. In almost every game this season we have used all of our allocated five subs. Kieran on average makes around three subs 60-65th min and a couple more 75-80th min.
2. Recruitment
Another integral part of our success that we have got spot on is our recruitment: the recruitment team takes a calm and calculated approach when it comes to signing players and we have proven in recent windows that if we want a player we will get them. This summer we secured the permanent deals of long term targets George Hirst and Jack Taylor.
Kieran likes to target young, hungry, athletic and technical players. So far we have targeted players from clubs based in England – this has given us great success up to this point but won’t be sustainable long term when trying to compete in the Premier League which is the long term goal and it is important to acknowledge British players come at a premium price. I will restrict myself to only being able to sign British players until Ipswich gain promotion to the Premier League. International transfer market is something Ipswich are looking to explore in real life and it will be interesting to see how soon this will be sanctioned.
I will be looking to merge out the likes of Donacien, Aluko, Ball, Evans, Jackson and Ladapo who are all nearing the wrong side of 30 with a fresh generation of younger talent. However, they will all be sticking around until at least January because I am disabling the opening transfer window to give every player a chance to shine.
3. Set pieces
Set pieces have been taken to a new level under Kieran. Leif Davis takes an incredible whipped corner. He has also improved massively at throw ins and his long throws have been another weapon added this season. Leif has plenty of different routines, he can whip it into the near and far post. A trademark routine is that Conor Chaplin marker will be blocked off and we go short to him so he can get a free shot off. Short corners have also been frequently used with a variety of different short corner routines.
We rank extremely high for attacking set pieces: we have scored 7 goals from set pieces so far this season from an XG of 6.42. A lot of those 7 goals have come in recent games. We have also had the third most shots from set pieces with 72. This is a huge credit to Kieran and the team. With the new set pieces creator on FM24, I will be looking to replicate some of these routines that have bought great success.
We rank just as high for defensive set pieces. Despite giving up an average amount of shots and XG, we have only conceded 2 goals from set pieces this season which is joint best. For a fairly small team, that is a truly impressive feat. This is why both offensive and defensive set pieces will be of huge priority.
4. Facilities
Since Gamechanger (Ipswich American Owner group) arrived, our facilities have come on leaps and bounds supported by constant funding and investment such as:
- New £2.5 million Portman Road playing surface including a new hybrid surface with artificial grass
- 3 new training pitches at Playford Road for £1.5 million
- New advertising board, tv screens and dugouts
- Land purchase to further develop the stadium
I will be continuing this upwards trajectory of infrastructure, looking to keep growing the club’s reputation by taking the already good training facilities to great whilst also attempting to expand the stadium.
5. Youth
Our youth set up has been a contrasting topic in recent years. Many of our hottest prospects go on to join more luxurious clubs for decent fees. However very few go on to bigger things than us. For example Ben Knight moved to Man City and struggled on loan at Crewe last season and the jury is out whether he will make it, we can make up to a million through that deal. Even recently Tawanda Chirewa moved from us to the Wolves academy – some of our best prospects who are tempted by other opportunities. I personally don’t think it’s a bad thing as we are getting good compensation for players that are unproven.
A couple of very unpopular names also decided to find opportunities elsewhere. First off, Liam Gibbs decided to snake us and move to arch rivals Norwich. To be fair to him, he is getting minutes there however, he isn’t playing well and wouldn’t get anywhere near Ipswich’s squad. An even more controversial figure Tyreece Simpson went very public on Twitter with his views to get a move after a decent half a season on loan with Swindon. He eventually got his big money move to Huddersfield but has zero goal contributions since moving on loan to Northampton. This shows the grass isn’t always greener.
On the brighter side, we have a couple of incredible prospects coming through who are locked down to long contracts. First Indonesian superstar Elkan Baggott, a Rolls Royce of a CB who has impressed every time he has featured. Also home-grown midfielder Cam Humphreys is superb technically and was given his first taste of regular first-team football with a run of games in League One last season. Both players are in the first team picture this season.
One thing I will continuing implementing even more to a degree is recruiting youth talent between the ages 16-20 to bolster our youth teams. In January, we recruited youngsters Ryan Carr and Leon Ayinde from Carlisle and Cork City respectably. Both players impressed in the first team during pre-season, which shows opportunities are there for youngsters. The youth recruitment at just one and half stars is poor and needs to be improved as soon as possible.
First game away at Sunderland analysis
Tactically, I made a couple of tweaks to thwart Sunderland’s main threats. Sunderland’s star man is a certain Jack Clarke who is simply sensational: to stop Clarke in real life we started our best one-on-one defender Donacien to stop Clarke and it worked a treat. Donacien marked Clarke tighter to limit his space to dribble. Also, I decided to keep Patrick Roberts on his right foot because I know how dangerous he is when driving on his left. He was anonymous.
Sunderland started the much better of the two teams and took the lead just seconds in and somehow it came from our throw – Jack Clark pumped it up the pitch and our defensive line was shambolic. Rusyn steamed through with no one around and tucked it in. Not that start we needed.
We took a while to get into the game and it was all Sunderland the majority of the first half. Some excellent by-line work from Cam Humphreys threaded it through for Chappers who clinically smashed the ball into the far corners. A crucial goal before half time.
Not much to say about Sunderland second goal: Hume again unmarked had the freedom to cut in and leather a strike into the far bottom corner. Hell of a finish to put Sunderland back ahead.
Our super subs inserted a new lease of energy: firstly a Leif Davis curled effort caught out an out-of-position Patterson with a screamer. Shortly after – don’t ask me why – Kayden Jackson was on free kicks but he swung in a beauty which was powered home by Woolfenden with a massive header to complete the comeback!
Brandon Williams, fresh of the bench ensured all three points were coming back to Suffolk with a cheeky deflected strike and opening up Leif’s assist tally for the season, the first of many.
I’m delighted with how the save has started with a huge win over Sunderland away to start the season in perfect fashion. The tactic is looking good – I’ll keep making little tweaks to make sure it suits Kieran’s style as much as possible.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed making it!!
