Added expectancy is not bringing out Town's best but Edwards insists Luton aren't 'shrinking violets'
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Luton boss Rob Edwards has conceded that the added expectation on his Hatters side this season isn’t bringing out the best in his players just yet.
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Hide AdAfter Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw against Oxford United at Kenilworth Road, it means Town have now picked up a mere eight points from their opening eight matches, suffering defeats to Burnley, Preston, QPR and Plymouth Argyle. It wasn’t supposed to be this way either, Luton one of the favourites to achieve promotion in the Championship following a season in the Premier League, but that hasn’t materialised so far.
Discussing whether that added pressure has got to the players, Edwards said: “Let’s be really honest, everyone would want us and expected us to be higher up. It’s early days, but everyone would have expected better results, including the boys. I think it’s something we have to be able to deal with and at the moment it’s not quite bringing the best out of us, but I haven’t seen a team that’s looked scared, I haven’t seen a team that’s not run.
"I’ve seen a team that’s maybe made a few mistakes and been punished, and at the top end of the pitch, haven’t quite capitalised when we’ve forced the opposition into mistakes, or got into really good positions. There’s no-one else, that’s down to me, down to us. We’ve got to own that, there’s no doubt about that, but I don’t think it’s making us fearful.
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Hide Ad"I’m not seeing a team of shrinking violets, I’m not seeing the team hide or anything like that, but I also do know there’s more to come from the group. Whether that’s because of expectation or a little bit more pressure, I don’t know, I can’t answer that, because I can’t get tapped into everybody’s heads and know for sure. What it has got to do, it has got to get our juices flowing, and however it is, it’s got to bring out that intensity from us in all moments of the game.
"Not just in that pressing bit, not just in that middle part of the pitch, it’s got to be everywhere. I know it’s in there, I see it every day in training, I see a group that’s absolutely with it and work incredibly hard to win games of football. It was only the other night (Friday) we could have gone three wins in a row and we’d have been feeling a lot different about ourselves.
Edwards did also see elements of Town’s efforts in the top flight last term when they just weren’t able to string a run of results together, admittedly against some of the best teams in world football, adding: “It was almost like last year, we weren’t winning games but we could see good performances, we could see us trying to do the right things, causing teams problems and competing.
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Hide Ad"I can see a team now that’s running really hard, that is creating chances, it's just that last little bit is lacking. Now if that isn’t there, if that dries up, then yes I can understand then I’d be having to answer maybe even more difficult questions, but that’s not the case. So it’s continue to work on those things and show the boys what we did really well. When we get there can we be a little bit more ruthless, but we’re not at that stage where it’s completely debilitating the players and not cohesive. I can see everyone with it and I can see a lot of aspects of a really good team, we’ve got to back that up now with results.”
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