Luton boss Rob Edwards didn’t think his players had any issues in getting to grips with the system he selected during yesterday’s 2-0 defeat at Sheffield United.
After taking just one point from their previous two games, the Hatters chief swapped from the usual three man defence has gone with so far, moving to a back four in a bid to try and prevent the hosts from dominating proceedings, opting to line up with teenager Reuell Walters, a right footer, as left back, centre half Reece Burke operating on the right and Mark McGuinness partnering Teden Mengi in the middle.
Left-footed Alfie Doughty then began on the right side of Town’s midfield, never looking particularly at home in his new surroundings and often cutting a confused figure when clearly unsure just what his role was, constantly overlapped by the rampaging Burke, who put in a superhuman effort, somehow popping up alongside Elijah Adebayo in the first half when Luton went long, even finding himself in the central striking position at one point during the second period, unable to turn and get a shot off.
With Marvelous Nakamba and Tom Krauss in midfield, the right footed Victor Moses was moved to the left, while Jordan Clark was promoted to playing off an increasingly isolated Adebayo, despite someone like Cauley Woodrow on the bench, who has he proved later on, would have been far better suited to the role. It didn’t work out Edwards planned either, as although he wanted to be more compact and tough to beat, at one point the Blades had 85 percent possession in the first half, as they eased to what will be one of their most comprehensive victories all season.
Asked if the players were comfortable and understood the system that the Hatters pitched up with, speaking afterwards, Edwards said: “Yes, I think it was pretty clear that they did. It was 4-4-2, everyone’s brought up with that since they’re seven years old and playing football, that wasn’t an issue. In this job you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. I’m getting asked yesterday why haven’t you changed it?
“We do change it, it doesn’t work, it’s difficult at the moment. We want to try and stick to our principles and stick to our beliefs, but we want to make sure we try and help the players and make sure we didn’t open up too much at Bramall Lane as well. (They’re) Low, but again it’s only us that can fix it.”
The first goal arrived when McGuinness didn’t challenge for a high ball thinking Walters was going to step in, only for the ex-Arsenal youngster to dally, with Jesus Rak-Sakyi nipping in to beat McGuinness’s weak challenge and fire beyond Thomas Kaminski. It was 2-0 after the break when Walters, whose senior career is still very much in its infancy, was up against the dangerous Rak-Sakyi, the on-loan Crystal Palace youngster easing past him on the outside to score. Asked about his efforts specifically, Edwards continued: “Yes, it was (difficult). He stuck at it, it was tough.”
Meanwhile on the display of Burke, who was here, there and everywhere throughout, he added: “He was obviously right back but then in possession we wanted to use him higher up. Build in our normal back three, try and get Burkey higher and we wanted to try and cause them problems down the side with Alfie and Burkey, whether it be from a diag (diagonal) and Burkey highest, then Burkey was allowed to come in and keep Alfie wide, so that was some of the thinking there. You know Burkey, you don’t have to tell Burkey twice to run or work hard. I thought he stuck at his task very well.”
Town did eventually look better with an hour gone and the game appearing a lost cause, as Woodrow and Jacob Brown came on to play, Woodrow in particular getting on the ball and causing some issues, while Shandon Baptiste impressed too during his late cameo. On the efforts of those coming off the bench, Edwards added: “You hope then that when we make some changes to try and bring some fresh impetus into the game that they make an impact and they did. They ran and worked. We probably looked a bit more threatening then but the damage was already done.”
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