Hatters boss understands question marks over performances despite three wins from four

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield understands the question marks that he is currently facing about his side’s performances in League One this term despite ultimately being impressed by Town’s points tally of nine points out of a possible 12.

With the Hatters having picked up three wins from four matches so far, they are still yet to really hit the heights that are both wanted and expected from the club’s supporters, edging past AFC Wimbledon on the opening night and then needing a good second half display to beat Peterborough United 2-0 at the Weston Homes Stadium.

Town were then given a wake-up call at Bradford City last weekend, falling to a disappointing 2-1 loss against a buoyant home side, before they then improved in midweek, seeing off Wigan Athletic 1-0 to register a third victory. With Bloomfield having opted for a three at the back system in all his games so far, it means he is also operating with wingbacks, despite not always having the right personnel to play there.

Having sold Alfie Doughty to Millwall and seeing Izzy Jones suffer a stress fracture to his back, Tuesday evening was the first time they had able to start with genuine wingbacks on both sides, with Gideon Kodua and Cohen Bramall occupying the flanks, often having to push Nigel Lonwijk, Reuell Walters and Milli Alli out of position to do job there. It has led to a number of fans call for a return to a flat back four to aid Town’s attacking play, with just five goals scored so far and one of them an own goal.

It’s an area Bloomfield is fully aware needs improving, but after back-to-back relegations out of the Premier League and Championship, then changing that losing mentality and putting points on the board despite not being at their best and having to put almost an entire new squad together and get them up to speed over the summer, was something he was eager to talk up, saying: “I think it's (victories) crucial as its been a tough couple of seasons.

"We had to try and pick up some results early in the season to build confidence and start to build some belief. I know there are still some question marks about the performances, I’ve been told all about that and that’s fine, no problem. It’s up to us to keep going after the work. We have to be very single-minded in the way that we want to work, we have to keep going after parts of the performance that are going to help us improve and for that’s where my job begins and ends, whilst we’re at the training ground, going after the bits with the lads where we need to improve.

“I’m very pleased though (with the points tally), as one thing we have to say is that we’ve got a really good group of men together. I’m really pleased with the character and the personalities we’ve got within the squad. We know that because of the turnover in the summer it’s not going to feel and look perfect straight away, but that’s not taking anything away from the lads.

"They’re taking on board the information and they’re putting it into place so well, I’m so pleased with them, but there’s no getting away from the fact that a few of the lads have missed pre-season, or skipped pre-season, or had disjointed pre-seasons and we’re still trying to piece the minutes together. We’re obviously missing a few personnel within key areas that we’re having to now juggle minutes around and that’s just fact.

"But in terms of the intent of the boys and the way they’ve gone to do the work, I’ve been so pleased with that. To be able to pick up points whilst we’re not feeling where we want to be and that’s where we’re at, we have to be pleased. Three wins out of four in the first four league games, I think anyone would have taken that if we were offered that before the season started.”

Being able to select Bramall, who joined as a free agent without having a pre-season under his belt, and Kodua, the youngster getting an extended break due to West Ham’s later return to training, for the first time on Tuesday night was something that Bloomfield was thankful for too. Having worked extensively on the formation when Doughty and Jones were available, it was something he didn’t want to ditch when the pair then weren’t, continuing: “We’re trying to get there, genuinely trying to get there, but if the players aren’t fit or aren’t available or not ready then we have to try to be patient with it.

"I know it’s caused a lot of discussion, but it was nice to have a little bit of attacking intent in those areas. Gids ran out of juice a bit as he had not played a minute for West Ham when he came here, so he’s building himself up. It’s a tough role wingback, there’s lots of distance to cover, so there were some more steps in the right direction for those two.

"It’s been quite a challenge these first few weeks to try and piece together who’s available to play what minutes in what positions and try and get a team that we want to look like the team we want to look like. But having so many injuries and not having that balance until Cohen’s fit to play on the left hand side, it’s been trying to pick a team that’s available.

"It doesn’t always look like we want it to look like, so we’re still in the process of getting to that stage, but Cohen gave us a nice balance. He ran out of legs quite early which was to be expected, but we knew we were going to have to change it at some point, with them playing Jensen Weir at right wingback it meant we could now move Milli back and have some space to run into.

"It was the best I think we’ve seen Mills, fair play, I said to him at the end, that felt like the Milli we love. He’s been searching for his game a little bit, again, left wingback, right wingback, upfront, one of the 10s, we’ve had to move him around and it would be nice to get a little bit more consistency with our selection when the opportunity presents. But he was a real threat, him and Jerry (Yates) as a front two, I really enjoyed that, but when he went wide left, we know that he loves having space to run into, the crowd love him, it’s nice for them to really back him in those moments.”

One thing that Town have managed to do so far is keep a tight back-line, with three clean sheets, which was much needed after the manner they conceded 69 goals last season, including five at West Bromwich Albion on the final day that ultimately saw them drop out of the division. They did need some heroics from new keeper Josh Keeley to ensure they weren’t breached during Tuesday night’s victory though, the summer signing with a string of fine saves, as Bloomfield added: “I think it’s crucial for us to be a solid outfit this season, I think that’s got to be one of our identities.

"We’ve got to be solid and hard to beat and that’s why we were so disappointed at Bradford on Saturday as we didn’t feel we were as hard to beat as we needed to be. You can’t just rely on trying to find the result, it’s got to come from a performance. I’m always one who does really say, we’ve got to go after the performances first, so we’ve got to be really pleased. It’s not easy to win football matches, at any level, and we can’t take it for granted.

"This league is really tough, so to win three out of four, full credit to the lads, absolutely full credit to them, because winning football matches is not easy and they’ve found a way in three games. You can see that there’s certain identity elements that are coming out and they’re really trying to put into play what we’ve been practicing for a few weeks now, again disjointedly. But it’s starting to come out slowly and we want to go after more of that as I want to attack, I want our fans to enjoy watching us. We want to play with some energy and attacking intent, so there’s plenty that we’re going after.”