Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna sees side take ‘steps forward’ in victory against OGC Nice ahead of Premier League opener with Liverpool

Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna felt there were good positives and steps forward from his side as they beat OGC Nice 1-0 in their final pre-season friendly at Portman Road this afternoon.

Axel Tuanzebe netted the game’s only goal in the 58th minute to see the Blues to victory.

“It was a good game, a good challenge,” McKenna said. “Some good positives and steps forward in our performance and areas still to be improve, players getting fitter and stronger week by week but also a lot of the squad have still got a way to go in that area.

“It was a good game, could have gone either way with the penalty especially. But I thought we did plenty of good things in the game. A really good one to look back on.”

For the second week running, the Blues scored their winner via a set piece, Jack Taylor having scored the only goal against Bundesliga side Hoffenheim last week.

McKenna knows free kicks and corners will be vital in the season ahead: “There’s no doubt about it, I’ve spoken lots about how we’re going to have to try and keep our identity but adapt and we’re not going to be able to open up the game as much every minute of every game pretty much like we did last season.

“We’re going to have to find times to do that and find time to keep the game a little bit more closed and also we’re going to get fewer set pieces, so it’s going to be of the utmost importance to be even more efficient with them and we’re going to defend more, so we’re going to have to be even more resilient against our set plays.

“Lots of challenges for us in there and that’s two weeks in a row we’ve kept a clean sheet across 90 minutes and scored from a set play, so it’s a pretty good formula to strengthen ourselves again.”

McKenna tweaked his system slightly with Ben Johnson playing in a deeper midfield/wing-back role on the right rather than in the more advanced position Wes Burns usually takes up on that flank.

Asked why he made that change, McKenna explained: “A mixture of things. I think anyone who has watched us for a good period of time will know that one or two positions can be tweaked and the system can look different but in reality, nine or 10 of the roles are very, very similar.

“Sometimes we defend with a line of three, sometimes a line of four, sometimes a line of five.

“There were bits of the game today when we were super-aggressive and really defended big spaces and we were really, really brave and when we were defending a little bit lower, we made a back five a little bit earlier in our defensive structure with Ben dropping in.

“That was just something we wanted to look at over pre-season, to be honest. It gives us a different option, gives us a possibility to strengthen across the backline in certain situations and, of course, the chance to look at different personnel in different positions.

“The chance to look at Ben today playing in a more advanced role than he has in the first couple of games.

“Again, we’re going to need to be even more adaptable this year, not just in our system and the systems that we used, but also within the strategies that we use within that. Today was a good practice on certain bits of that.”

Looking back over pre-season as a whole, which ended with back-to-back 1-0 victories over teams who will be playing in the Europa League this season, McKenna reflected: “I don’t base a review of pre-season on the results of the matches, that’s for sure, but there’s been some positives to pre-season.

“That’s six weeks now, so by the time we reach Liverpool that will be seven weeks. There are quite a few of the group who have managed pretty much every session and been available for every game and that always gives you a really good chance going into the season. Some of the players have got through a really good body of work.

“We’ve had some good time together, two good trips away and a really competitive fixture list. Certainly some positives in there, some good additions to the staff, not just the technical staff but around the club.

“We’ve developed in certain areas but there have been challenges in there as well and the step up on all aspects of the club for the Premier League has been a big challenge, has been a big challenge for everyone.

“Everyone at the club is working incredibly hard to be as ready as we possibly can, but the reality is moving from the division we were in to the division we’re going to in the space of two years is an incredible jump. Everyone’s worked so hard to prepare as well as we can. We’re really excited now for next Saturday.

“We take the positives from pre-season, we know there are still several areas at the football club that we need to continue to develop and improve over the next few weeks, next few months and next few years and that’s going to be an ongoing journey.

“We take the positives and we go to next week now with a lot of excitement.”