Kieran McKenna: ‘it was hard to be certain’ about the position of MU’s players

Kieran McKenna admitted Ipswich Town were challenged by Ruben Amorim's tactical changes at Manchester United.

Amorim's success as head coach was aided by his 3-4-3 formation and he had limited training time at Carrington to prepare the players for the clash with Ipswich at Portman Road.

The 39-year-old had just two training sessions with the full squad after the international break and has warned United will have to “suffer” for his new system to be successful.

But there were also some positives to take from Sunday's 1-1 draw against Ipswich. United made the perfect start to the match when they took the lead through Marcus Rashford after just 80 seconds and Amorim's system caused problems for McKenna's side in the opening substitutions.

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Amad started at right wing-back – he provided a brilliant assist for Rashford – and Diogo Dalot started at the other end, which McKenna said caused some confusion.

McKenna reflected on the match during his post-match press conference, admitting that 'it was difficult to be sure' about the positioning of United's players following Amorim's changes.

“I think we definitely could have won it. So you could look at it that way. It depends on your perspective. I think we were definitely the better team in the first half,” he said.

“I thought as the first half went on we really came on and went into the break with real dominance. But in the second half Man United also had some good periods of control. We had to defend on form and show good discipline. although we still had a few big chances to win.

“So we could have won it for sure. I think if you get an early goal against Manchester United with the motivation they played with today, the game could also go in a different direction. So the main positive is that that was not the case.” t and we were morally competitive during the match.”

McKenna continued: “It was a challenge for us to be honest about it in terms of preparation. And there are certain things you could predict, but certain things you couldn't. Especially after an international break, when you are not sure about injuries. So yeah, that side of it made it a challenge.

“I think that was a challenge at the start of the match to be honest because going into the match you weren't sure what the position would be. Of course you get the line-up but you don't know if Diallo will play .” a full-back, Garnacho will play a full-back. It wasn't easy to be sure.

“So there were probably a few times in the first five, 10 minutes where we weren't caught but it was difficult to be sure of the opposition's position.

“And it took us a while to get on top of that. But I thought after probably the first ten minutes of the first half that we had done just that and we started to get on top of it. And the intensity of our pressing and the speed of some of our combination players really took control of the game.”