Butterfield wishes he had been given a real chance to sink his teeth into the holding role with Luton

Former Luton player Jacob Butterfield wished he had been given a real run at making the holding midfield position his own last season.

The 30-year-old was signed in the summer by ex-chief Graeme Jones, and started seven out of Town’s first 10 Championship games.

However, after the 1-1 draw with Millwall on October 10, Butterfield, who was released last month, only began another three league clashes before the campaign was suspended due to the coronavirus, not even making the squad at times following the 1-0 home defeat to Swansea in December.

When Martin Cranie was available, he was often preferred in his place, as Jones himself stated that the experienced pro was never a natural fit for the position.

Although the one-time Derby player agreed, on trying to learn the new role during the rigours of the second tier, he said: “It is difficult, I’m naturally a number eight, so I see a number eight as someone who needs to do a bit of both.

“You need to defend and you need to attack, you need to contribute in the teams attacking play and also the defensive play and that’s something I can do.

“That shows when the two positions I played was a number four and a number 10, so you can defend and you can attack, but somehow you can’t do both?

“It’s really my skill-set, I’m a number eight, I just didn’t get a chance to do that.

“In the last couple of years I’ve played more deep because I think managers see me as someone who can get on the ball and link the play, keep possession for the team.

“Defensively it’s a lot more responsibility and that was the biggest difference to sit in there rather than going and joining in the attacks.

“You have to have your defensive head on at all times and take that responsibility to be in the right position to either recycle the play or stop a counter attack.

“So that was different, my mind-set had to change a little bit.

“I feel like I embraced it and feel like I was getting better and better as the weeks went on in that defensive role.

“I felt like I would have gone from strength to strength as the season went on in that position, but I just never really had the chance to get my legs with it and really get my teeth sunk into it, which was disappointing because I felt like I could have contributed more and more but that’s my disappointment.

“Ultimately for the club it was about staying up and we did that. It was such a strange season, but the club achieved what it set out to do, so I can’t have too many complaints.”

Butterfield played just the once under returning boss Nathan Jones, that in a more advanced role than utilised previously.

It further emphasised how he never quite got the opportunity to settle into the side, adding: “I didn’t play as much as I would have liked to and if you look at it and try to figure it out, which I’ve tried to do this season, I’ve always played as a number eight, that's naturally is my best position, and it’s the only position that I never featured for Luton.

“I was brought in by Graeme Jones, he wanted me to play a bit deeper and get us playing and dictate the play and be that kind of player, which I think I did.

“At some point, he decided to take the team in a slightly different direction and the diamond that Luton play, which has been a feature for the club for the last three, four years, ultimately, the problem was that there was no optimal position in that for me.

“If you speak to both managers and I spoke to them personally, publicly they’ve come out and said really good things about me, how good of a footballer they think I am.

“If I tried to just summarise and simplify why I haven’t featured as much as I’d have liked, I just think the diamond and the way the team was set up, I just didn’t find that right position for me within that.

“The way I play the game, just didn’t quite fit into the shape of the team, that’s just one of those things really.”