McKenna on squad growth and Southampton challenge
Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League game against Southampton (kick-off 15:00 BST).
Here are the key lines from his news conference:
Kieran McKenna spoke about whether this weekend was a six-pointer: "Every game in the Premier League is important to us, every game is vital. Every game is a challenge, every game is an opportunity. This weekend is no different."
On competitiveness, he said: "For us to be competitive in this league, for us to be successful at the end of the season, we’re going to have to show a lot of different strengths to our bow, that’s for sure and I think this weekend will be the same."
On his squad's development: "The weather being nice always helps, but since the end of the transfer window and international break, it’s the first time we’ve had the whole group together so we’ve been able to have more time with the players and some more detailed conversation, not just about technical and tactical things, but also about how we’re going to be as a group, laying down some principles for the culture of the group but also more time on the training pitch, more time to work on certain things and I can see the understanding in all elements is growing in the group."
On Southampton, McKenna said: "Southampton are a team that challenge every opponent that they come up against, in terms of how they hold the ball, the possession they have and how they hold the ball in deep areas and how you answer some questions that they’ll pose. And we know we’ll have to do that this weekend. So it should be a good game, we’re looking forward to it. We’re going to have to show lots of the good qualities we have shown across the first four games."
Follow all of Thursday's Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news
