Goalie Alex Palmer, striker Julio Enciso, winger Jaden Philogene, and right-back Ben Godfrey were all acquired by the Blues.
However, due to Wes Burns’ recent season-ending knee injury, they have few options for a right flank and are unable to bolster a striker unit that only includes Liam Delap and George Hirst.
McKenna remarked, “We worked really, really hard.” Because you’re just talking about a very, very small percentage of players who can come in and strengthen your squad or your club, it becomes more challenging as you move up the pyramid.
“We believe that the four players we’ve added strengthen our team and have an effect on it.
“I think the squad’s in a stronger position than it was at the start of January. We’ve got pretty good depth across the positions and, most, importantly we’ve got a really motivated group who are all fighting for the cause. That’s a really powerful thing. I think the group’s in a good place.”
Asked whether he feels he’s got enough depth up front and on the right wing, the Blues boss replied: “We feel we have. Of course we need the players to stay fit now.
“On the right wing, losing both Wes and Chieo (Ogbene) to season-ending injuries is difficult. Losing Wes so late in the window meant he was really hard to replace in the space of a week because players who were going to move were pretty much lined up.
“We know we can’t replace like-for-like in terms of Wes’ profile of a real penetrative straight-line sprinter who can attack the back line, attack the box, but also defend the box, defend as a wing-back and defend the back post.
“So we have to use other qualities. Ben (Johnson) has played there and provides different qualities in the role, Omari (Hutchinson) can play there and brings completely different qualities and we feel like Jaden (Philogene) has experience there. That’s one reason why we wanted to bring him to the club. So we have players who can fill the position.
“The centre forward position… Yeah, I made it known that, ideally, we would like to have three senior strikers in building, as I think pretty much every club would do.
“But the market for that type of striker is really, really small, to bring in a striker who could improve us where we’re at with Liam (Delap). Even to bring in a striker that’s ahead of a fully fit George Hirst, with the understanding he has of his team mates, his work ethic and his profile, is really hard to find. George has been very valuable for us and in his one start in the Premier League he did an excellent job against Brentford. He’s now feeling really good and is fully fit.
We therefore didn’t want to bring in a body just for the sake of having one. Only if it was truly bolstering the group did we wish to add. Since we couldn’t find that in the striker position, we now have two young and strong strikers with excellent attributes, in addition to other players who can play the position in different ways.
“Until the end of the season, that is who we will remain. We’re hoping for a favorable health report.
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