'Attacking' Bloomfield on what he will change at Luton as new boss vows to make Town 'exciting' to watch
Hatters chief targets work without the ball as key for his new side
New Luton manager Matt Bloomfield has highlighted what he feels needs to be done to help the Hatters arrest their worrying slump of form and begin to achieve his immediate aim of securing their Championship status for another season.
The 40-year-old opted to swap a promotion battle with League One Wycombe Wanderers for the challenge of keeping Town in the second tier this week, as he replaced Rob Edwards at the helm, with his first match just a day away now when Preston North visit Kenilworth Road tomorrow afternoon. With Luton having lost their last four games in a row, and possessing the joint second worst defensive record in the division, shopping an alarming 44 goals from their 26 games, the stats don’t get much better at the other end, with just 27 going into the opposition’s net, putting them as the sixth lowest scorers too.
It all means Bloomfield has his work cut out to turn things around having had less than a week’s training with his players, but going into more detail on what he will address and having looked at just why he feels the Hatters are in the position they are in, he said: “First and foremost we need to do some work on the out of possession shape. Our identity that we’ve been playing with at Wycombe this year is slightly different and the boys have had an incredible success going up to the Premier League, being out of possession the way they have been, but we want to do it slightly differently.
"So we’re just trying to imprint that with the boys, trying to create some more chances. It’s not rocket science, we want to try and create some more chances and try and tighten up a little bit. I’m really respectful of the job that Rob has done here previously. I think he’s an incredible man, a fantastic manager, got a really good group together, there’s been a lot going on at the football club on and off the pitch in terms of the emotional toll that that’s taken on the group and for Rob, and I’m really hoping that we can bring some fresh energy and I’m really looking forward to do a good job here.”
One thing that his previous club were known for under Bloomfield was their ability to score goals, already notching 50 this term, nine more than their nearest rivals Birmingham City and Peterborough United. Away from home it had been particularly impressive for the Chairboys, as hitting five at Stockport, four at Shrewsbury, with three at Burton, Lincoln and Stevenage, meant they had managed a mighty 32 goals, some 10 more than their closest rivals in Birmingham once more.
On why Wanderers have been so prolific, Bloomfield continued: “A couple of things have probably played into that. I played for John Gorman at Wycombe for a number of years and that period of time, although we didn’t get promoted, is the period of time that Wycombe fans remember with such fondness. If I’m a football fan I want to go and watch my team score and be exciting to watch.
"It’s not going to be an overnight fix, we’re going to have to do a lot of work with the boys, but they seem like a great group. I really want to play attacking football, we all do. I want to stop goals and score goals, it’s the game, but there’s loads of work to do and I can’t wait to get cracking. The group’s been fantastic, they want to go about their work and they seem like a very good group to work with.”
Meanwhile, a lot was made of previous manager Edwards’ insistence to stick with his favoured three at the back formation, deploying wingbacks on either side, a system he went with for the majority of his time in the dug-out. He did actually change it for his last game in charge, the 2-1 defeat at QPR, Town also sticking with it during the FA Cup exit to Premier League Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
On whether he has a personal preference, Bloomfield added: “We used them both at Wycombe and Colchester, three at the back and four. I really enjoyed playing four for the last calendar year, so if we can implement that then we absolutely will. But my philosophy on football is the formation should suit the group. You shouldn’t imprint a formation on a group if it doesn’t fit them, so it’s more principles of play that we believe in and the formation should fit the group. We have to analyse that very, very quickly and try and play with a formation that really suits and complements the group.”