New Hatters boss Wilshere insists clarity will help boost Luton's confidence

New Hatters boss Jack Wilshere believes that by adding some clarity to the Luton players can help restore the confidence that had been drained away from them prior to his arrival this week.

After relegation to League One last term, Town had started with four wins from six, but they then went on a run of three defeats from five matches, with woeful outings at Lincoln City and Stevenage, which saw former manager Matt Bloomfield lose his job after a 2-0 defeat to the latter. Long-serving goalkeeper James Shea then gave a searingly honest interview after the 3-1 Vertu Trophy loss against Cambridge United that followed, stating that with morale and spirits on the floor, it almost felt like they were playing against 13 players at times.

Charged with turning fortunes around this term, with promotion still very much the aim, former Arsenal and England star Wilshere, in his first managerial role, was asked if he had noticed a lack of confidence amongst the squad he had inherited. Speaking this afternoon, he said: “Not since I’ve been here. Since the beginning of the process, looking from the inside out, I felt that (confidence being low), I thought that. Of course when you lose games it affects your confidence and when you try things on the pitch or you feel like you’re really dominating a game and you lose it or you concede a cheap goal, that can really affect your confidence and then momentum builds, you keep losing and fans start to get a little bit annoyed.

"I think it was clear looking from the inside out, but my first message to the players was I’m here because I believe in you and that is genuinely the truth. We’ve got a great squad in my opinion, so many different options. You look at the number nines, look at the wingers, the midfielders, some of the legs we have in there, some of the ability we have in there. My job is to build their confidence and I think a way of doing that is by giving the players clarity, simplifying things a bit more and just explaining to them that in the moment we are now, there are just certain things that we have to do that are non-negotiable and I believe that will get the confidence back.

"Football is crazy, especially in this league, there are a lot of random moments that happen. You can find yourself dominating the game and be one-nil down and there seems to be a little bit of chaos, a bit of panic. We need to be calm in those moments and trust that we’ve got a good squad. I think we can put players in better positions and get them doing more of the things that they're good at more often. When I look at the wingers I think wow, we’ve got a real threat in those areas, so it’s just trying to help them have more of an opportunity to show what they can do.”

When Wilshere was in charge of the Arsenal U18s, one thing he spoke often about was the unity that was needed if they were to achieve anything, and it’s something he will look to keep building while at Kenilworth Road, as he continued: “It’s something I’ve tried to bring in, but it’s always something I felt right from the start. I’m a believer of that in team environments, in football clubs, that you need a real deep unity as there are tough moments, there are moments on the pitch when the fans are going to be annoyed, but you have to stick together, you have to be together.

"It’s something I feel like I can bring, but it’s something that slapped me in the face when I walked in here. I was speaking about finding out what that really is and when you go on a journey from League One to the Premier League, there is something in that and something special in that. In my opinion you don’t lose that. Your confidence can be affected and you can lose games, but that’s something I will try and bring, although just adding to what is already here.”

When he realised there would be a vacancy at Kenilworth Road, then Wilshere made sure he watched as many games as possible from the season so far to try and piece together where they have been lacking and what improvements he could make, as he said: “The last two weeks it’s probably all I’ve watched and even still because I think the important thing this week that we saw was trying to add a few things that I’ve seen in training and just putting it on and seeing if the players understand it, see if they could do it. It’s almost like you add something and go, ‘okay the players can do that, they’re starting to understand it, what more can we add?’ The footage helped me, but being here is more important.”

Having played with James Shea before in Arsenal’s youth team, the goalkeeper wasn’t the only recognisable face to Wilshere when he came in for training on Monday, having been invited back during Nathan Jones’ second spell in charge, although a permanent deal never materialised. On how beneficial that was, and being on the grass with everyone this week, the 33-year-old added: “When I came back here, Kal Naismith was here, Jordan Clark was here, so I kind of stayed in touch with those guys a little bit, followed their journeys as you do when you meet someone, and you try to keep in contact, especially if they're good guys which these guys are.

"Then the work I did to be able to get this job, was probably only 60 or 70 percent of what I can find out about a player by just watching them, you have to get in the building, you have to talk to them, have to find out how they’re feeling, which we’ve had a good week of doing. The staff around who were here already have been massive for me, have helped me. Kevin Foley has been very important, helping me with the players, the small things, like if we need something in training, we might try to look at a player in a different position, he knows, maybe he can play there.

“So I’ve got the support of everyone around here and my job is to build relationships to actually get to know them. I feel like you don’t quite know that (how good they are) and my job is and was to put on sessions that kind of asked the players questions, give them some detail before, to see if they understand it and there’s been some real good moments this week. Of course there’s still some work to do and we’ll continue to try and work out what is best for them, what is the best system for the players, who’s fit and we have to keep working that way, but we have to find a consistent way of working to have a consistent way of performing.”