Hatters boss Edwards names five debutants as Luton go up against 'outstanding' Brighton

Luton boss Rob Edwards has named his first ever Premier League side as the Hatters face Brighton & Hove Albion at the Amex Stadium this afternoon, with five of his summer signings all starting.

Thomas Kaminski, Mads Andersen, Issa Kabore, Tahith Chong and Ryan Giles make their debuts for Town, with Marvelous Nakamba also in after making his move permanent from Aston Villa over the summer.

Jacob Brown is on the bench along with John McAtee and youngster Aidan Francis-Clarke, as the visitors are playing a top flight game for the first time since May 1992.

The hosts give debuts to James Milner, Mahmoud Dahoud and Joao Pedro, as going up against the side managed by Italian Roberto De Zerbi, who led the Seagulls to sixth place and the Europa League last term, Edwards said: “He looks like he’s going to go on and be a coach that will work at the very highest, highest, highest level.

"The impact that he’s made very, very quickly, they’ve got a great team, they’ve been building well for a long, long time.

“Joao’s a top player but they’ve also lost a couple as well and one or two are still maybe leaving, so we’ll have to see what happens, but everyone of their players are good and they’re very well coached, they know what their job is, so a difficult test.

“There’s potentially more difficult games, but it’s a very complicated game this.”

Edwards also stated that his team might have to alter their tactics against a higher standard of opposition, adding: “We all know how Brighton play, they’re outstanding with the ball, so we’ve got to be really intelligent and that goes for this year.

"I think everyone’s got to understand that we always want to be an aggressive team, we always want to try and press, but we’re not going to be able to do that at every moment all the time now.

"Everyone’s got to understand that, it’s really important that we stress it.

"You watch every big team, they won’t go and press everything.

"Last year I think you could probably get away with opening up a little bit more space.

"We’ve got to be careful how much space we open up from a tactical point of view but really looking forward to the challenge.”

Seagulls: Jason Steele, Lewis Dunk (C), James Milner, Solly March, Mahmoud Dahoud, Joao Pedro, Pascal Gross, Danny Welbeck, Kaoru Mitoma, Jan Paul van Hecke, Pervis Estupinan.

Subs: Bart Verbruggen, Igor Julio, Julio Enciso, Billy Gilmour, Steven Alzate, Simon Adingra, Evan Ferguson, Joel Veltman, Facundo Buonanotte.

Hatters: Thomas Kaminski, Mads Andersen, Tom Lockyer (C), Amari'i Bell, Issa Kabore, Marvelous Nakamba, Tahith Chong, Ryan Giles, Elijah Adebayo, Carlton Morris.

Subs: James Shea, Chiedozie Ogbene, Luke Berry, Cauley Woodrow, Jacob Brown, John McAtee, Allan Campbell, Aidan Francis-Clarke, Alfie Doughty.