Hatters boss not expecting to make 'radical changes' despite calling out his players after Norwich loss

Hatters boss Rob Edwards doesn’t expect to be making ‘radical changes’ to his side when facing Swansea City at Kenilworth Road tomorrow, despite calling his players out for their individual errors against Norwich City last weekend.

The Luton chief had been the angriest he has ever been since taking over at Kenilworth Road just over two years ago when speaking to the press at Carrow Road almost seven days ago, refusing to accept the responsibility for the defeat, preferring to lay the blame firmly at the feet of those on the field instead. With Teden Mengi and Thomas Kaminski failing to clear for the Canaries’ first goal, there was then a huge mistake by Tahith Chong for the second, before Mark McGuinnees and Amari’i Bell both should have done far better in the remaining 10 minutes as a 2-2 scoreline quickly became 4-2 in the hosts’ favour.

It was Town once more leave empty-handed on their travels, with Edwards stating afterwards that certain members of his team could face the chop for their ‘appalling defending’, when he said: “There’s one or two that are around a lot of goals and we’ve got to make sure we’re looking at that and then pick the right ones.”

Asked whether that would translate into major surgery tomorrow, then after revealing some unnamed players will be out having picked up ‘freakish’ injuries in training, the Luton manager said: “There can’t be radical changes anyway, the performance in the main was good. There were some individual errors, so it’s not going to be one where there’s going to be 10 changes, that would be ridiculous. It’s one where we want to try and build on a lot of stuff that we actually did, but cut out the errors, so no, not wholesale changes. We might be forced into one or two and there might be one or two others, but it won’t be huge.”

Asked just how the week has gone with his squad since those comments were aired, Edwards, who has seen the Hatters win four and draw two of their last seven on home soil, continued: “We had good meeting earlier in the week, backed up really what I said, went through some stuff, a few bits that, this obviously has to improve, but also there was some good stuff that we can take forward as well. So a good response from the players as I would expect.

“The week then has gone well, apart from losing a couple of people, so going into the game we’re looking forward to it. We keep the consistency and the strong performances at home and try and make it as difficult a game as we can for Swansea as we have done really for most teams who have come here, so a really good opportunity for us to bounce back.”

Striker Jacob Brown conceded it wasn’t Edwards who should carry the can for Luton’s woeful away form, Town now losing six in a row outside of Bedfordshire, but in fact the players who had been selected instead. On hearing that, the boss added: “That’s right and it is a collective, we’re all in this together. Ultimately when the lads go over that white line then we want them to go and perform and make good decisions and if we do that then we know we can pick up results. We were so close to doing that last week, that’s why I was so frustrated.”