Mark Kennedy spoke to the press recently ahead of our away league fixture against Shrewsbury Town on Saturday afternoon and discussed our new recruit from Millwall, the potential of players departing Sincil Bank as well as Shrewsbury’s new look management.
City announced the signing of central defender, Alex Mitchell, on a season long loan from Championship side Millwall. Mark was pleased to get the deal over the line as he was a player the club have been chasing for some time.
“Very pleased to get Alex in, we’ve chased him for some time. It was a very difficult deal to get over the line but we’ve got ourselves another good player. There are things he can help us with and things we can help him with, and that’s what loans are for.”
Mark discussed the potential of outgoings at City. Although rumours aren’t circling yet, the head coach has plenty of quality players at his disposal that could be of interest to a Championship side. Danny Mandroiu has started the season well, and is showing all the attributes needed to play at a higher level, while the same could be said for Ethan Erhahon and Lasse Sorensen too.
Mark claimed he has no problems with players leaving for new challenges if it is right for the club, but as things stand he hasn’t heard of any interest in his players.
“I don’t think about that. I’ve said many times as a coach, especially when we’re getting players in, I feel we’re a brilliant platform club, I feel we’re on the rise, we’re on the up, but if people go a few places ahead of us or get to the end goal ahead of us, then good luck to them. It means we’ve done something right.
“If Liverpool come in for somebody and it’s right for us then we should all support that, it’ll only make the club better long-term, but I’ve had no heads up on anything.”
Once City have played Shrewsbury, the team will have a week off with no Tuesday night fixture scheduled. It has been a very busy opening few weeks to the season, and Mark is happy to get a week on the training pitch to work on the team. As well as that, the head coach said the data gathered from the first few games won’t define his team either, as he made it clear he’ll be sticking to his philosophy.
“I’m looking forward to actually putting in what I class as a really coachable day. Data doesn’t always measure success. We can be statistically a lot better than we were last year and finish lower. Sometimes you can get caught up in that too much but it might be about something you might see in the game. Sometimes it’s about sticking to your processes, philosophies and themes that you want to do.”
It’s been all change for Shrewsbury over the summer, with a new director of football in place along with Matt Taylor as the head coach too. Mark thinks we’ll be in for a tough game on Saturday against Taylor’s side, who have picked up 7 points from the 9 available so far this season.
“Shrewsbury are a good side, they’ve had a good start to the season. If we aren’t on top of our game, then we’ll have ourselves a really tough game, but if we are at our best, we have a great chance of winning.”
Analysis and reaction to Shrewsbury Town VS Lincoln City will be available over the weekend at AllLincoln both on www.alllincoln.co.uk and our Instagram page.