Hatters boss confirms his 'end goal' is to switch to a back four
Lack of wingers has prevented Bloomfield from adopting his favoured formation
Luton boss Matt Bloomfield has stated definitively that his ‘end goal’ will be getting to a back four on a permanent basis for the Hatters.
The Town chief was appointed eight months ago in January having been so successful when going with a 4-2-3-1 system at Wycombe Wanderers that saw him take the Chairboys to second in the table, named as Rob Edwards’ successor after the now Middlesbrough manager departed Kenilworth Road. However, he then went with three centre halves for the majority of his time last term, which saw Luton get relegated back to League One on the final day of the campaign after a 5-3 defeat at West Bromwich Albion.
This term, Bloomfield has continued to persist with the formation, which has included playing players out of positions at wingback, including summer signing from Wolverhampton Wanderers Nigel Lonwijk, and with three defeats in their last four matches, dropping to 11th in the table, it has led to a number of supporters questioning the system that was being deployed even further.
However, asked about it again during his pre-Doncaster Rovers press conference this afternoon, Bloomfield finally left fans know in no uncertain terms about what he was looking to do in the future, saying: “I got this job by playing four at the back, two points and two goals a game we averaged. For the first four or five games here we played four at the back, the first game in pre-season at Boreham Wood in the first half we played four at the back, it’s where I want to get to, absolutely it’s where I want to get to.
“We discussed going to it in the last international break and then we went to Burton and scored three, and played Barnet on the Tuesday night and scored four, so would it have been the right time to change then? It’s where I want to get to. We didn't have enough wingers in the building in pre-season to get there, so we stuck with the three, and we’re slowly trying to get to that point. It’s our end goal and I think all the evidence would suggest it was always going to be.”
Asked what steps are being taken to move to the new formation, and just why he hasn’t felt confident enough to switch to it already, Bloomfield added: “It depends how long you’ve got, we can discuss it all day. Alfie Doughty in my opinion was one of the best wingbacks in the Championship let alone League One, he didn’t leave until the start of the season.
"Izzy Jones was one of the best wingbacks in the Championship last year, he got a stress fracture in his back. Milli (Alli) was here pre-season but Gideon (Kodua) didn’t come until late, Shayden (Morris) came on deadline day so therefore we had one winger we felt in the way we want to play. With four at the back you need to have pace out wide, we didn't feel we had that, so that was the first point. We didn't have enough wingers in the building to go and play in the manner we felt we could go and play.”