Luton chief knows attacking balance is needed to avoid a 'long day' against Liverpool

Luton boss Rob Edwards knows his side have to get the balance of their play spot on against Liverpool at Kenilworth Road on Sunday to avoid what could be a ‘long day’ if they fail to do so.

The Hatters lined up with a more defensive approach at in-form Aston Villa last weekend, as they understandably set out to try and stay in the contest against a side who had been scoring goals for fun on home soil this season, and were hunting a 12th successive win in front of their own fans.

Town’s efforts to contain were undone after just 17 minutes though when the visitors failed to mark John McGinn from a short free kick routine, with the hosts adding two more early in the second period to run out comfortable 3-1 winners.

Luton now step up to a level even higher this weekend when they face Jurgen Klopp’s high-flying Reds, who have the Premier League’s joint second top scorer in their ranks, a certain Mohamed Salah with eight to his name so far this term, 10 in all competitions.

Throw in club record £85m signing Darwin Nunez plus Diego Jota and Cody Gakpo, Liverpool have goals all over the pitch, while midfield duo Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai have made excellent starts to their careers at Anfield too.

While Edwards knows that on home soil his side will be expected to try and land some more punches than they did at Villa Park, he still has to approach the game with a certain level of caution, given the quality of opposition Town find themselves up against, saying: “At home we want to try and make sure we engage the fans and be seen as trying to win the game, but there’s also a balance there that we’ve got to find.

"As if you leave any spaces, they can expose you and hurt you really quickly.

"We want to turn up the heat and press at the right moments, we want to be more aggressive than we were last week, but at the same time we can’t open up too many spaces too soon either, so balance is the key.

"Our job is trying to find a way to get a result in the game.

“There’s ways to lose games, but I don’t want to then be opening up against teams like this as you can be exposed to some big scorelines as well, and that’s not what we want at all.

"We want to make sure we’re in the game come the latter stages, to be able to have a right go as well, so balance is the important message there.

“We want to try and enjoy it but again you only enjoy it when you compete and play well.

"There’s elements that we did well last week, there were things that we were poor in as well, which I want us to improve on that very, very quickly, because it will be similar against this team who are arguably, arguably, better, than Aston Villa and if we don’t, then it could be a very long day for us.

"So we’ve got to learn and learn quickly.”

Luton do have the threats in their side who can cause the visitors problems, forward Carlton Morris on three goals so far, while Chiedozie Ogbene has been one of the Town’s stand-out performers in recent weeks.

England midfielder Ross Barkley is starting to find some rhythm, with new signing Andros Townsend impressing in his two cameos so far as well, as Edwards continued: “We’ve spoken about how we can try and hurt them as well and the spaces they might leave.

"Clearly we’ve got to be good at that, we’ve got to be clinical at the right times.

"It’s quick and kill, or be calm and composed and try to play away from that press that’s going to come, but like any team they’re always going to give something away, it’s just whether we can expose that on the day.

"There’ll be a plan there, we’ll try and use certain players in certain areas to try and hurt them as well.”

Luton’s players will also be involved in the plan that Edwards eventually decides to go with as the boss revealed he often speaks to his squad about the tactics put in place ahead of matches, adding: “We try to involve the players all the time.

"I had a meeting with five of the lads who are maybe a little bit more senior to maybe try and get their buy-in as well from certain situations and ask their thoughts.

"It can be from me, this is what needs to happen, but they’ve got to go over the white line, they’ve got to play as well.

"So if we can work together on that, get some real clarity between coaching staff and players, I think it’s a good way of doing it.”