Ipswich Town welcome MK Dons to Portman Road this afternoon. Andy Warren takes a look ahead to the game.
A chance to build
You really can’t grumble at four points from the first two league games of the season.
It took Ipswich until game seven to reach and surpass that mark last season, so this has to be seen as a real improvement.
Town are in the mix from the off and have given themselves a platform to stay there.
It’s worth noting only Peterborough have taken maximum points from the opening couple of games, with five teams joining Ipswich on four.
By contrast, Town’s next two opponents (MK Dons and Burton) are yet to get off the mark and are yet to score a goal.
It’s the Dons who visit Portman Road this weekend, with Liam Manning’s side surely set to play themselves into the promotion picture at some point, despite their poor start.
A victory over last season’s losing play-off semi-finalists would be a significant one for the Blues and do a good job of putting Tuesday’s extremely disappointing Carabao Cup exit into the rear-view mirror.
Welcome back
McKenna made 10 changes to his team for Tuesday night’s cup loss to Colchester.
Chances are he could make another 10 this weekend.
Few, if any, of the Tuesday team pushed their case for a league start this weekend, though Luke Woolfenden could retain his spot and come back into the first-choice XI, having missed the win at Forest Green due to illness.
The core of Christian Walton, Janoi Donacien, George Edmundson, Sam Morsy, Lee Evans, Conor Chaplin, Wes Burns and Freddie Ladapo will surely all return. As will, most-likely, Leif Davis at left-back.
Marcus Harness will be hoping to complete the starting XI, having scored his first Ipswich goal at the New Lawn, but it wouldn’t be a complete shock if someone like Sone Aluko was given a start in his place.
A debut?
Richard Keogh, a former Town youth team team-mate of Dons boss Manning, became the Blues’ seventh signing of the summer on Wednesday morning.
He brings with him a wealth of experience and plenty of ability, with that combination surely serving Town well over the course of the season.
The veteran could be involved at the first time of asking this afternoon, with a place on the bench likely.
Style council
Kieran McKenna and former Ipswich youngster Manning are cut from a similar cloth in coaching, both part of wave of young bosses coming into the game.
Their footballing philosophies are similar, too, as we saw when the two teams met at the home of the Dons back in February.
Both want as much of the ball as possible, meaning they will inevitably have to share it a little more than they would like. Town shaded it at Stadium MK, in a game which ended 0-0, with striker Kayden Jackson used to try and stretch the field and make space for the Blues’ creative players to do their thing. It worked, but there was no way through.
The MK side coming to Portman Road today will be missing two of League One’s best players from last season, with centre-half Harry Darling sold to Swansea and creative force Scott Twine joining Burnley. Midfielder David Kasumu has also been sold to the Championship, too, with Huddersfield swooping.
Their exits have prompted a summer rebuild approaching the scale of Ipswich’s last summer, with 14 new players arriving.
Many of the names are familiar, with former League One cheat code Will Grigg returning to the club, and Championship veteran Bradley Johnson also arriving along with third tier regulars Jack Tucker, Ethan Robson and Nathan Holland.
Grigg and Holland are close to returns from injury, but Mo Eisa, Daniel Harvie, Tennai Watson and Josh McEachran are all sidelined, restricting Mannings’ options.
The squad looks good on paper, though, and MK’s footballing philosophy is strong. It may just be time to gel is what’s required.
Town know all about that.
Hello again
One player not mentioned there is former Ipswich forward Louie Barry.
The Aston Villa youngster was one of the 19 summer signings from a year ago, but it never really got going for him in Suffolk.
He clearly has talent, but the fact he was only 18 when he arrived and had so much competition for a starting spot meant he wasn’t able to play anywhere near as much as he would have liked.
Barry departed in January, having made only two league appearances, before spending the second half of the season in a Swindon side who reached the League Two play-offs, scoring six goals.
Now at MK he will surely get a real crack at League One, having featured in both of his side’s league games so far.
He’ll be hoping to impress this afternoon.
Feeling hot, hot, hot
Both teams will have to factor in the heat this afternoon, with temperatures set to reach the mid-30s by kick-off time.
“It’s going to be one of the hottest league matches I’ve ever been involved in,” Town boss McKenna said.
“I can’t imagine there will have been many hotter at Portman Road.
“It is quite unique circumstances, we had similar heat in pre-season on the day we played Crystal Palace and AFC Wimbledon, so we’ve had some experience and we’ve obviously trained in very hot weather now for the last couple of months.
“I think the players are adjusting to but it definitely does affect the game. The pitches are drier and slower and that changes the dynamic of the game at times, especially for a passing team or a team who like to control the ball like us.
“Those are the conditions and we have to adapt well to that. It’s going to be the same for both teams.
“There’s some adjustment needed, but we’ll do everything we can to control the strategies and the hydration and the cooling strategies to give ourselves the best chance to perform.”
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