Hatters boss thrilled to see attacker Kodua thrive in his central role
Forward was in stellar form during O’s draw at the weekend
Hatters boss Jack Wilshere feels the work Gideon Kodua has been doing to make one of the number 10 roles his own is paying off after a starring role during Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Leyton Orient.
The 21-year-old, who scored 10 goals during his first campaign at Kenilworth Road last term, found himself shunted out wide, or even playing as a wingback from January onwards, which saw him fail to find the net again. With Wilshere not having his squad in place over the summer, the ex-West Ham youngster had to play on the left wing in pre-season due to a lack of numbers, something that was finally rectified with Emilio Lawrence’s addition, and teenager Benny Benagr’s breakthrough from the academy.
When the real stuff began, Kodua was finally moved inside, as he scored a last-gasp winner at Reading on the opening day, while with Wilshere switching formations, and Luton in a never-ending run of games, took over from the rested Kasey Palmer at the weekend, going to produce his best performance in some while. Receiving the ball in deep areas, Kodua was able to collect it, brush off his first man and then set off on a rampaging run into enemy territory time and time again, setting up Jamie Donley for the opening goal.
He should have had a hat-trick of assists too, Nahki Wells not making the most of his opportunities when played in, while Kodua himself ought to have been on target as well, denied by a brave goal-line block. Asked about his display, Wilshere said: “Credit to Gids because Gids for a lot of pre-season has been on the left. We’ve worked with him in training inside and we’ve done a lot of individual drills.
"We have IDPs, individual development plans and certain players get designated to certain coaches and Kevin Foley is Gideon’s. We wanted to work with him a lot in that position, about his receiving, about where his next pass is, about knowing where his next pass is, and his awareness. He’ll have been frustrated at times because in games he had to play left wing, we didn’t have a left winger in the building, but his attitude is always spot on.
"Gids is a great guy to have around the place, the players love him, the staff love him, he brings a lot of energy in the environment and he works hard. I think he’ll be disappointed when he cut in on his right foot and went to bend one in. I’ve seen him do that in training, he works on that a lot. There’s more to come, so he needs to keep going with that same attitude to improve.
“He was outstanding, he’s grown so much in that position. Technically he’s clean, he knows where his touch is going, he knows where the next pass is going which is really, really important for a midfielder. He understands the spaces, I thought he started really well and even got better as the game went on. I’m happy for Gids and happy for the team as we want competition for places in there, we’ve got some really good players in there, but Gids got his opportunity and he took it."
With Palmer and Donley both vying for the shirt in Kodua’s clearly favoured position, plus Jordan Clark on the mend from a broken jaw, then Wilshere will be faced with a tough decision over who starts when everyone is fit and firing. It’s something he is looking forward to having, stating: “Clicker hopefully won’t be too long and that’s what we want, we want competition for places, but we also want the ability in the 60th minute if something’s not working, to be able to bring one of them on.”
One aspect that Wilshere feels Kodua definitely needs to improve is his ability to be on the field for the full contest, something he hasn't done since March 17, and only managed three times in total during 2026 so far, going off with cramp ahead of the final whistle. The boss added: “He also needs to work on that. He needs to last 90 and he knows that that’s his challenge, because I remember last year we were thinking we can’t take him off the pitch as he’s such a goal threat. We don’t want to take him off the pitch as I still feel he is like that, especially when he’s playing like that, but he had cramp.”