As Ipswich Town prepare to meet Hull City at Portman Road, manager Kieran McKenna has emphasized the necessity of his entire squad contributing goals.
So far this season, 13 different players have contributed to the Blues’ 18 league goals in just nine games. Top scorer Nathan Broadhead has four goals, with Conor Chaplin, last season’s best marksman, trailing him with three.
Full-back Brandon Williams scored late to secure Town a point at Huddersfield Town on Saturday, while Harry Clarke, Luke Woolfenden, and Massimo Luongo have also scored in recent weeks despite playing far deeper than their offensive teammates.
McKenna believes that this is an important component of a successful team, emphasizing that his team’s goals are always a collaborative effort rather than the result of a single individual.
“It’s really important,” he remarked. “Last season, we scored a lot of goals. There was a point when it was questioned whether we would score enough goals, and we did.
“Then it’s a challenge going into a new season with a largely unchanged forward unit, with one or two really good additions.”
“We’ve shown that we can score goals and create opportunities at the next level.” When we score, it’s not just the strikers, I always say; it’s the entire squad. When we’re defending, the entire squad is involved.
“It starts with the goalkeeper, who’s got the responsibility to create chances, and it starts with our striker, who’s got the first responsibility to help us defend the goal. “As a team, we’re happy with the chances that we’ve created in most games. It’ll be a challenge to do that on Tuesday night, but that’s what we’re looking to go and do.”
Applying that to tomorrow’s game against Hull will be key, as it’s been a running theme in all of Ipswich’s home games so far this season. They’ve scored 12 goals in just four league games at Portman Road, but they’ve also conceded nine times.
The Tigers, on the other hand, boast the fourth best away form in the division, meaning that they’re likely to pose a real threat when they face Town under the lights in Suffolk.
“They’re a well-organized group,” McKenna said. “It’s probably fairly well documented that they play out from the back and have some good building principles, but they can also defend when necessary.”
“They’ve done some good things as a team, but we think we’re pretty good at some things as well.”
“Because we’re playing at home in front of our fans, we’ll look to attack the game, be really positive, and impose ourselves on the game.”
“We’re also going into it with respect for the opponent and the knowledge that we’ll have to defend very well as well.”
“It’s an exciting game to look forward to.” I believe it will be a high-level game, and we can’t wait to return to Portman Road.”
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