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Town chief points to absentees as the reason behind opposition dominating the ball
Town boss Rob Edwards insisted he isn’t overly concerned by his side’s problems on the ball which has led to an alarming lack of possession from the Hatters in recent matches.
Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Swansea City at Kenilworth Road saw an impressive visiting side dominate their opponents with 64.9 percent of the ball, only failing to win due to an excellent display from home keeper Thomas Kaminski, who made four high-class saves. It was the sixth game in a row that Luton have been second best in that stat, failing to better an opposition since the 1-1 draw with West Bromwich Albion on November 1.
In fact, those fixtures have seen Town average just over 36 percent possession, but asked if it was becoming a worry, Edwards said: “No, you look at the make-up of our players and I think some people who are missing are a little bit more technical and some of the lads that are playing are maybe a little bit more, go and regain and win the ball back and not necessarily going to be the same with the ball.
"Everybody’s got different qualities, we’ve got to try and play to everyone’s strengths. When we got promoted a couple of years ago we never had more possession than anyone, so I think people just need to be a little bit more realistic, have a look at who’s playing, who we’ve lost and realise that we’re not going to completely dominate teams with the ball.
Town’s issues in holding on to the ball has seen both Carlton Morris and Elijah Adebayo have to come deep at times in recent games, Morris in particular, which means there is little upfield when the Hatters do try and get it up there. More often than not the pair have been crowded out, left isolated, or forced into chasing lost causes, meaning Luton’s opponents have little trouble in winning the ball back and starting an attack of their own.
It was particularly noticeable during the draw against Swansea, the visitors’ pair of Matt Grimes and Josh Tymon having over 100 touches of the ball each, as Hatters’ attacking duo didn’t even reach three figures between them. Discussing his striking partnership, Edwards continued: “We’ve got to try and play to people’s strengths, we can’t have people doing things they're not comfortable doing.
"It was a difficult night the other night, Matt Grimes is a sensational footballer who is happy to take the ball anywhere and under pressure. We haven't necessarily got that right now with the people we’ve got missing, so we want to try and play to our strengths, we want to try and find a balance. Of course it needs to try and stick when we do go into the front, but we want to have a little more of whether it’s around, whether it’s through, as it’s not necessarily everyone’s strengths to be able to receive in tight spaces on a horrible pitch and the wind when you're under high pressure.
"Some of the lads for them have got that as that’s what they’ve always done for the last 20 years and what they've always recruited for. We were maybe able to do something a little bit earlier in the season, play a certain way with certain players but then you’ve got to be a little bit different without some.”
Edwards also pointed out the kind of success that Town got with back in his first season in the Championship, when they won the play-off final at Wembley, which was achieved when Town were very much an out of possession side. They did the same in the early part of the Premier League campaign, before with the likes of Ross Barkley and Sambi Lokonga to the fore, were able to dominate proceedings against even the likes of Manchester United.
With that pair gone though, and replacements Liam Walsh and Shandon Baptiste both struggling with persistent injuries, Edwards knows his team have had to adapt to their absentees, adding: “Looking back at some of those games from a couple of years ago, we’d be happy and everyone would be going bananas if we’d won the game 1-0 but only had 30 percent of the ball.
"That happened quite a lot, but then things change, we became a different team, we were able to have 60 percent of the ball against Man United. We’re not that at the moment, we’ve lost some of those players and that’s not quite where we’re at, so we’re having to just find a different way again and with seven or eight injuries to key players, it’s very difficult.”
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