‘See It As An Opportunity’ – Martin On Ipswich Cup Clash

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‘See It As An Opportunity’ – Martin On Ipswich Cup Clash

Russell Martin is viewing Tuesday’s Carabao Cup Second Round tie at Ipswich Town as an opportunity for his Leicester City side.

2026-08-25T08:00+01:00

by Sam Jones

Published

19 Hours 45 Mins Ago

‘See It As An Opportunity’ – Martin On Ipswich Cup Clash

Russell Martin is viewing Tuesday’s Carabao Cup Second Round tie at Ipswich Town as an opportunity for his Leicester City side.

Sam Jones

2026-08-25T08:00+01:00

‘See It As An Opportunity’ – Martin On Ipswich Cup Clash

Russell Martin is viewing Tuesday’s Carabao Cup Second Round tie at Ipswich Town as an opportunity for his Leicester City side.

Sam Jones

2026-08-25T08:00+01:00

‘See It As An Opportunity’ – Martin On Ipswich Cup Clash

Russell Martin is viewing Tuesday’s Carabao Cup Second Round tie at Ipswich Town as an opportunity for his Leicester City side.

Sam Jones

2026-08-25T08:00+01:00

‘See It As An Opportunity’ – Martin On Ipswich Cup Clash

Russell Martin is viewing Tuesday’s Carabao Cup Second Round tie at Ipswich Town as an opportunity for his Leicester City side.

Sam Jones

2026-08-25T08:00+01:00

A change in focus sees us head to Portman Road for a meeting with Gary O’Neil’s Tractor Boys, who secured an opening day Premier League win over Sunderland.

With this cup clash sandwiched in between two Sky Bet League One fixtures, there is scope for changes to be made to the XI in Suffolk, Martin revealed, following our 2-1 reverse at home to Burton Albion.

“It’s going to be a really interesting and good game for us,” the 40-year-old assessed ahead of our next encounter. “And a tough test, obviously, against a Premier League opponent. It’s one that we really have to see as an opportunity. We have to go there and be proud of the performance.

“I think there are going to be people who are desperate to play and feel better about their performance than they do today (Saturday). I expect the guys who played and are playing Tuesday to really want to put things right.

“Then there will be people who are desperate to come into the team and stake their claim. Some will be really hungry for the shirt. After [Saturday], there will be opportunities.

“We have to prepare people to come into the team. We’re happy with the guys and if they’re coming in, we’ll still put a team out that we think can win the game. We’ll work tomorrow and Monday to prepare a game plan for that.

“There will be changes, for sure, and I’m excited to see some of the guys take the opportunity. It’s a massive opportunity. We have to put in a performance we feel way happier with.”

Reflecting on the frustrations from the weekend, which saw the Brewers claim all three points, he was disappointed with the manner of the two early goals conceded and demands better at both ends of the pitch.

“We have to have a real honest conversation,” Martin explained. “I have to take responsibility for it as a manager. If I haven’t prepared the team well enough psychologically, we have to look at why.

“The fundamentals of the game are always going to be the same, regardless of style of play. We can’t play in the way we want to without them and in the first 25 minutes they weren’t there.

“We’ve watched back the goals as a group and highlighted some bits that are not going to be us moving forward. In both boxes, it comes down to a real desire to score and a real desire to defend your goal. There’s lots of detail that leads up to that.

“The ball shouldn’t come through to the front man for the first goal; it comes through us way too easily. We’ve done so many sessions on that in pre-season but it’s just a lack of energy. We have to try and find a way to really sort that out.”

In terms of how the squad looks to be shaping up for midweek, Jayden Joseph missed the Burton reverse following a knock picked up at Notts County, while Conor Chaplin is awaiting his Foxes debut due to injury. Both have trained and Martin is hopeful to have both available this week.

He also discussed the fitness of new signing Admir Bristrić, whose first start for the Club came at the weekend, playing 55 minutes, as he gets up to speed following a summer arrival.

“JJ did a session to help him get back quickly and Conor trained similarly,” our Manager said. “He’s not quite there yet. He’s a real loss for us, JJ, because he was fantastic last week. I thought Bade [Aluko] did fine coming in. They’ll both be available for Tuesday, hopefully.

“Admir has trained for a week. Before that, he had about a week where he didn’t train, so he’s had a disrupted pre-season and he looked really tired.

“His game is to run and be powerful. We have players on the pitch who can take the ball. I’d have loved to keep Admir on, but we were down to 10 men. He ran very hard and I don’t think he’s ready for 90 minutes yet.”

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