Kieran McKenna Tuntut Ketangguhan Mental Skuad Ipswich Town di The Valley

Manajer Ipswich Town Kieran McKenna menuntut ketangguhan mental anak asuhnya saat melakoni laga tandang melawan Charlton Athletic di Stadion The Valley pada Rabu malam, 22 April 2026. Pertandingan yang dijadwalkan pukul 19.45 waktu setempat ini menjadi ujian berat bagi tim tamu di tengah ambisi mereka mengamankan tiket promosi.

Kewaspadaan McKenna muncul setelah manajer Charlton, Nathan Jones, melakukan perombakan besar-besaran dengan memasukkan delapan pemain baru ke susunan starter. Dilansir dari asatunews.co.id, langkah tersebut diambil tuan rumah untuk memutus tren negatif enam laga tanpa kemenangan sekaligus menjauh dari ancaman zona degradasi.

Ipswich Town saat ini berada di peringkat ketiga klasemen sementara Championship, sementara Charlton Athletic menempati posisi ke-19. McKenna mengingatkan skuatnya agar tidak lengah, mengingat pertemuan pertama kedua tim pada Oktober lalu berakhir dengan kekalahan 0-3 bagi Ipswich di Portman Road.

"It’s a team who beat us earlier in the season, so we know what they’re capable of," kata Kieran McKenna, Manajer Ipswich Town.

McKenna menilai kekalahan telak pada pertemuan sebelumnya diakibatkan oleh penurunan fokus para pemain setelah gol pertama lawan tercipta. Hal tersebut menjadi evaluasi utama dalam upaya membangun kekuatan mental tim musim ini.

"Maybe we’ll reflect on it a little bit more at the end of the season, but it was an important game for us because I thought we played really, really well in the game up until probably the point of their first goal and then we didn’t have the resilience to deal with the setback at that point," tutur Kieran McKenna, Manajer Ipswich Town.

Pelatih asal Irlandia Utara ini menegaskan bahwa proses pembentukan karakter tim barunya masih terus berjalan di tengah tantangan kompetisi yang ketat.

"And that, I’ve said all along, was always going to be a big, big challenge for a new group of players, especially coming into this club at this time with the journey of the last few years," ujar Kieran McKenna, Manajer Ipswich Town.

Meskipun mengakui adanya progres signifikan sepanjang musim, McKenna percaya masih ada ruang besar bagi timnya untuk berkembang lebih jauh lagi.

"And building that resilience is something that we’ve had to chip away at over the course of the season and we’re nowhere near complete yet as a team, but I think we’ve made some steps on it, but I believe we’ve still got some big steps to go," ucap Kieran McKenna, Manajer Ipswich Town.

Kondisi tim tamu sedikit terhambat dengan absennya Ashley Young dan Conor Townsend, sedangkan Charlton justru menyambut kembalinya Matt Godden. McKenna menekankan bahwa jadwal padat dalam enam hari ke depan akan menjadi pembuktian karakter tim yang sesungguhnya.

"A different stage of the season now. We know they’re a team that can threaten us, we know where we’re at as a team and my real feeling is that over the six days we’re going to have to show a huge amount of character and take some big steps forward if we want to be successful," jelas Kieran McKenna, Manajer Ipswich Town.

Mengenai performa laga tandang, McKenna menyoroti kesulitan ekstra yang sering dihadapi skuatnya saat bermain di luar kandang musim ini.

"We’ve spoken about it lots, we love playing here and our home record has always been strong," kata Kieran McKenna, Manajer Ipswich Town.

Statistik menunjukkan Ipswich telah menderita tujuh kekalahan tandang sepanjang musim 2025/2026, sebuah catatan yang menjadi perhatian serius tim pelatih.

"I’ve said it lots of times, away games are obviously more difficult but also when you’re a group coming together in a season, it’s probably going to be more difficult," ujar Kieran McKenna, Manajer Ipswich Town.

Meskipun demikian, McKenna menjadikan kemenangan tandang melawan Coventry City sebagai tolak ukur kemampuan skuat The Blues.

"I think we’ve had periods where we’ve had some good away results and we’ve won away against the team [Coventry City] who are going to win the league this year," tutur Kieran McKenna, Manajer Ipswich Town.

Ipswich membutuhkan sembilan poin tambahan untuk naik ke Premier League, namun McKenna mengakui ada momen-momen krusial yang hilang dalam beberapa laga tandang sebelumnya.

"But on the other hand, there have been probably too many away games that have got away from us in short spells and we know about those and we speak about those moments internally," ucap Kieran McKenna, Manajer Ipswich Town.

Walaupun Charlton hanya mencatat delapan kemenangan kandang, McKenna melihat jadwal tiga laga tandang dalam enam hari ini sebagai peluang krusial bagi kemajuan tim.

"I think this is a great opportunity for us, to have three away games in six days. I think we’ve shown a lot of things over the course of the season, but to go and get the results we’re going to need in those six days is probably going to take another step," jelas Kieran McKenna, Manajer Ipswich Town.