Hatters still looking to sign a forward but Wilshere plays down Beesley links

Luton manager Jack Wilshere has confirmed that he is still looking to bolster his forward line before the transfer window closes on Monday, although denied that would be with the addition of Burton Albion striker Jake Beesley.

The 29-year-old, who has nine goals from 26 League One outings to his name so far this term, was one of two strikers linked with a move to Kenilworth Road earlier this week, as well as Port Vale’s leading marksman Devante Cole. While bringing in the Valiants attacker wasn’t ruled out by Wilshere when asked after the 1-0 defeat to Huddersfield Town on Tuesday night, then speaking this afternoon, he stated Beesley wasn’t someone he could see heading to Kenilworth Road, saying: “He’s Burton’s player and I don’t think there’s anything in that.

“I think that’s fair (about bringing in a forward). We are looking to improve in that area, to have more variation in that area, but I’m sure if any head coach sat here or manager sat here, they would say the same thing. Everyone’s looking for a number nine, we are, but we’re looking for the right one, I think that’s really important. We don’t want to be rushed into taking a gamble where we don’t need to take a gamble, so we are looking in that area, but we need to take the right one.”

Having seen Jerry Yates join Derby County on loan, Jacob Brown also potentially moving on and Elijah Adebayo still working his way back from a long-term knee injury, then with Nahki Wells dropping to the bench, Luton went with Jordan Clark as a makeshift number nine when suffering a fourth successive away defeat in midweek.

Wilshere did bring Wells on in the second period, as he was soon joined by on-loan Ipswich attacker Ali Al-Hamadi, another who has spent large chunks of the campaign sidelined by calf and quad problems. Even though he only had around 15 minutes, it was clear just what the Iraqi international could bring to the table in that role, as the Hatters boss continued: “I think you saw Ali when he came on, not only as a player, but as a character as well, that he’s someone who leads and drives people forward, demands of others. We want him for the rest of the season so as tough as that can be at times we still need to be careful with him.”

Having tried him in a slightly wider role back in November when attempting to up his minutes, Wilshere has been left in no uncertain terms just where his best position is, saying: “I learnt that in those games, I wanted to get him on the pitch, wanted to give him some confidence, wanted to give him a little bit fitness and I wanted to see what he could do on the left, but he is clearly to me a number nine, and a different number nine to what we’ve got.

“He wants to get in behind, he wants to stretch, wants to be aggressive and use his body and a different nine to Nahki Wells for example. We need that variety and I think you can see in the 20 minutes he was on the other day, he was always on the shoulder, he was always trying to drop the line. He nearly got in a couple of times, which probably in a couple of weeks, he’s a little bit cleaner with his touch, and he does get in those moments, so he’s a number nine.”

Whoever does end up playing there, one thing Wilshere knows for sure, is that they will need to receive a far better supply than what was on offer at the Accu Stadium a few days ago, as the visitors had just one shot on target throughout the 90 minutes, despite playing against 10 men for over an hour.

Discussing Town’s lack of creativity, the boss added: “It was an issue on Tuesday for sure, we didn’t create enough moments. When we did we didn’t have enough players in the box, which we don’t want. Even if Jordan Clark plays as a nine and is a different type of nine, who’s going to come and show and try and link up, you still need players who are going to run behind and stretch their line.

"I didn’t feel at the time that we had enough of that, but when I watched it back, Gids (Gideon Kodua) in particular was giving us that threat and he was making those runs, we just didn’t look for him. We didn’t threaten enough and as much as we want to play, don’t think that if we have a good run in behind and a threat in behind, that we’re not going to play that. I encourage the players to play that, I think we have.

"We’ve been through that, I think Rotherham at home where we had nowhere near enough threat. We changed a little bit of the structure to try and get more players on the last line, but you can also see that’s probably when I say we’re looking for a nine that will give us something different, it probably is that.

"The ability to play into him, the ability to play behind. You know that he’s not going to give you much by coming to the ball and showing and linking, but if we put the ball wide, he’s going to be in the box ready to attack the ball. It’s not just the nine, we want midfielders who can be in the box, we want the opposing winger to lock in the back post and we certainly didn’t have that on Tuesday.”