Ex-Liverpool centre half will get his chance to shine at Luton

The ex-Liverpool centre half was restricted to just one substitute appearance after arriving from Anfield in the January transfer window.

However, boss Nathan Jones believes the 22-year-old will be a far better player from his six months spent at Kenilworth Road so far, as he said: “That’s not his fault that he hasn’t featured to be honest, that’s my choice in terms of things we did.

“The way we were in, the stage we were in last season, I went for slightly more experience.

“But I wanted to bring him in so he was in our environment, similar to Luke Gambin, when he came in and what we’ve done with Jake Jervis as well.

“We could have waited until the summer and then got certain people, but what we did was we strengthened at that time.

“They then, one added competition to the squad for the second half of the season, but they’re in our environment for three, four months, so they get to see how we work.

“Now Lloyd Jones will be far better player for having that.

“Yes he’s missed a couple of games, he probably could have gone elsewhere and played games, but now he’s seeing, not so much his chance, but his time and this is why we signed him.

“We spoke constantly about that, he totally understood it, he made the conscious effort to come in and he’s one for the long term.

“He’s young, he’s excellent in possession, he’s a massive presence, so we’ve got real competition, got real size to us now.

“We brought Lloyd Jones in for this time, so we’ve got some fantastic competition, but we want that.”

The Luton chief will face a big selection headache over who plays at centre half now, with options galore, as including Frankie Musonda and Akin Famewo, he could play any two of seven players in the role.

He added: “We like two people in every position to compete and to graft, to push each other and drive each other on.

“If you look all four centre halves played last year, in terms of Johnny Mullins played games, Scott Cuthbert did, (Alan) Sheehan played games, so did Glen Rea, so we’re going to need that.

“Especially as you go up a division, the competition’s a lot healthier and we had both Alan Sheehan and Matty Pearson that can play in a number of positions, so can Glen Rea, so we have that versatility, as well as specialists in the area and we’re adding year by year.

“We’re delighted we’ve got all four of those plus Glen who performs admirably in any position we play him.”