Explosive Kieran McKenna Tactic

From a sports science student to this. Granted, Kieran McKenna did not knock-out Liverpool out of the Champions League yet, but his tactic did.

His tactic is the best I have used so far in terms of results and gameplay.

Kieran McKenna is a former Tottenham Hotspur player, who took on sports science studying as well as started his coaching career after he retired.

Even though he stayed 7 years at Tottenham, he retired at the age of 22, due to a recurring hip injury, without making a senior appearance.

Hearing this, should give no indication of the manager he will become. But his playing career being so short was a blessing in the end, as he had time to dedicate to his coaching studies.

He has managed various youth groups at Tottenham, moving to the under 18s in 2015. He then left Tottenham and joined Manchester United in 2016 in their youth setup.

Kieran McKenna was promoted to the first team staff by Jose Mourinho, as an assistant manager, alongside Michael Carrick.

Ole-Gunnar Solksjaer retained him, and Ralf Ragnick did as well. He left Manchester United in 2021, to become Ipswich Town’s manager, in League One.

There are no writings stating that his time at Manchester United as part of Jose Mourinho’s staff helped him in any way, but I believe it did.

Jose Mourinho’s tactical masterclass must have influenced Kieran McKenna a bit. Even though their tactical approaches are different.

Ipswich Town finished 11th in League One in his first season. In 2022-2023, Kieran McKenna and Ipswich Town did what seemed impossible at the time and got promoted to the Championship.

They started the 2023-2024 season with an impressive run of form, which sees them as part of the top 3 in the Championship with 6 matches to go.

If the Championship promotion was impressive, after Ipswich languished in the League One for a while, getting promoted to the Premier League would be a remarkable feat.

Kieran Mckenna’s tactic seems simple, yet it is effective. And has the element of surprise for the opposition.

A 4-2-3-1 formation, focused on creating and scoring as many attacking chances as possible and overwhelming the opponent in the process.

You need intelligent, spontaneous, and energetic players to be able to use this tactic.

In goal we have a sweeper keeper on attack duty. He is on attack duty as we need him to become a passing option in possession.

Wing back on defend on the right side. To balance out the complete wing back on attack on the left one.

The right wing back has run with ball wide player instructions, when in possession. To add an element of surprise on this flank also. However, this player is not playing as expansive as his left side counterpart.

Two ball playing defenders make up the defensive four. The left sided one has stay wider as player instructions, to position himself wider as soon as the left wing back gets up the field in possession.

Two defensive midfielders protect the defence. But they are required to do different things. The right one is told to hold his position, while the right one is told to get further forward.

This is to ensure that one of the defensive midfielders completes the back 3 when in possession, to prevent counterattacks.

While the left sided on gets up the field when in possession, adding more pressure to the opposition’s defence.

One winger on support on the right side. And a raumdeuter on the left side. Of course, inverted winger or inside forward works on this part as well. But I found that with a raumdeuter role, this player did not feel compelled to cut inside.

He played as the role is meant to and looked and found space when in possession, also making room for the complete wing backs appearance in attack.

A trequartista and an advance forward make up the formation. The treuqartista role was preferred as we needed movement in this area of the pitch.

Kieran McKenna’s formation is not a static one. So the roles chosen try to emulate this. And in the match engine they seemed to do as intended, creating movement, confusing the opposition at times.

These are the rest of the player instructions. And as mentality, you can start with positive and move to attacking if you are the best team in the league

In possession, fairly wide, pass into space, standard passing directness – to give another dimension to our attacks and slightly higher tempo.

Low crosses, run at defence and be more expressive. I would turn off be more expressive if you find that your players lose the ball too much or against tougher opposition.

Also make sure to turn off run at defence if you feel like you are dominated, to keep possession of the ball more.

In transition counter-press, counter and distribute the ball quickly, to the defence and through short kicks.

Out of possession higher line of engagement, higher defensive line, press more often, prevent goalkeeper short distribution, and get stuck in.

If get stuck in draws too many yellow cards, turn it off.

Kieran McKenna’s team pressures the opposition as soon as the ball is lost, especially in their final third, with the aim of recovering the ball quickly.

This tactic brought us the best season yet and to me, the best tactic I have used so far.

It is an expansive, energetic, and fun tactic to use.

We have scored 115 goals in the league, conceding only 26. I never had plus 90 goal difference so far. And we finished the season unbeaten.

But the important result came into the Champions League.

Initially, after we won against Juventus I called in a fluke. We had no right to do that. And we were leading 4-1 at some point.

Then it came the 0-0 against AS Monaco. And in the end, the 3-0 win against Atletico Madrid.

That is when I thought that we may be onto something. I grew accustomed to dominating domestically by now in my building a nation save in Romania, with FC Voluntari, so to have these results in the Champions League made me think that this tactic might be different.

And in the end, it was. After finishing top 16 in the league phase, we were put against Napoli in the second round.

They won 1-0 in the first leg, but we won 4-0 at home. We were drawn against Liverpool next and after the 5-0 defeat against them earlier in the league phase, surely this was the end of the road.

But it wasn’t. They lead 1-0 in Romania, only for us to make it 1-1 in the end.

Only to pull off the miracle at Anfield of all places. We never lead against Liverpool, but we were always their equals.

The game went to penalty kicks where our players did the impossible. Knocking-out Liverpool and qualifying to the quarter finals of the Champions League.

Of course, eventually we were no match for FC Barcelona. But this was a fun run to be on in the continental competition.

And using this tactic never made me feel like we were going to lose any game. In the end, we have won he domestic treble.

Kieran McKenna is manager who maybe was against the odds at first and maybe still is. But the same as his tactic, he pushes on relentlessly. Reaching close and closer to where he wants to go.