Edwards might be forced into taking some risks as under-fire Luton boss knows he needs a result
Hatters chief possibly missing up to eight first teamers against Albion
Hatters boss Rob Edwards conceded he might have to take some risks with his team tomorrow evening when facing West Bromwich Albion as he knows the pressure is firmly on his shoulders to get a result.
After a torrid start to the campaign, the Luton chief thought he had finally turned the corner when thumping fierce rivals Watford 3-0 at Kenilworth Road earlier this month. However, the Hatters were then harshly beaten 2-1 by Sunderland a few days later, before travelling to Coventry City and suffering a 3-2 defeat in a game they had led 2-0 just before the hour mark.
It was Luton’s seventh loss of a thoroughly disappointing season so far and sees them languishing in the relegation zone ahead of facing a Baggies side who currently occupy the final top six berth. As he had after the 2-0 reverse at Sheffield United, Edwards came in for criticism once more from the travelling supporters at the CBS Arena last weekend, and knows he now has to try and manufacture result despite potentially being without eight first team players on Friday night, seven of those being defenders.
Speaking during today’s press conference, asked if he might have to push the likes of Teden Mengi, Amari’i Bell and Shandon Baptiste who have been missing through injury recently, Edwards said: “We’ll see, we’ll give them as much time as possible to see. At the moment we’re still thinking about shapes, still thinking about personnel, which isn’t an ideal situation. If we do (push them) then it’s a danger (they could get reinjured) so we might have to look at other things, whether there’s a different way or someone else gets an opportunity.
"We’ll see where we have to go, we will as always try and field a team that we think can win the game. We’ve conceded goals and I don’t want to bang on about it, but we didn’t bring in Hashi (Daiki Hashioka) to play centre back. He’s been great for us but he has had to go and play centre back. We didn't bring Vic (Victor Moses) in necessarily to play wingback and play 97 minutes every game. He’s probably played more minutes this season than he has in any season over the last four years, and credit to him.
"There’s been loads of different challenges and when you’ve got six centre backs missing, it’s inevitable you’re going to concede goals, that’s just the nature of it at the moment. But today and tomorrow we’ll give people as much time as possible. We’ll try and put a strong team out and if we have to take some risks with people then we will do because obviously with the position that we’re in, we will need and I need a result.”
Asked if he might have to put players in different positions for the contest due to his lack of numbers, Edwards continued: “Maybe, we’ll see. Ideally you don’t want to do that, I want to always put square pegs in square holes if we can, so that’s certainly our aim whichever way we go about it.”
With Tom Holmes suspended due to his red card against the Sky Blues, while Alfie Doughty, who picked up five bookings, is also out, it means Edwards will have to look at Town’s set-piece options, considering the wingback takes them from both sides of the pitch. He added: “We’ve done that as well. We have to make sure there’s a plan, we don’t just go ‘off you go lads,’ we’ll try and have a plan.”