Town boss insists skipper Naismith has responded well to missing out
Club captain left on the bench against Stockport
Hatters boss Jack Wilshere has stated that club captain Kal Naismith has responded in exactly the manner he always thought he would after being dropped for Wednesday night’s 2-0 victory over Stockport County.
The 34-year-old had started the campaign as Town’s first choice left back, but made two costly errors in the opening League One encounter at Reading, with his weak backpass pounced on by ex-Hatter Jack Marriott to score, although it should have been disallowed for an offside beforehand, while he then lost out to Royals winger Kyreece Lisbie to set up Marriott for his third goal, replays showing he was clearly shoved to the floor.
Naismith kept his place for the 2-2 draw against Notts County the following weekend, before then being an unused substitute in the 2-0 Carabao Cup second round defeat to Chelsea, but was back in from the start against Mansfield on Sunday. A poor opening 45 minutes saw Town trailing 3-0 at the interval, with Naismith given little, if any, protection from winger Emilio Lawrence, which allowed winger Nathan Moriah-Welsh to score twice, meaning both were hooked at half time, along with Izzy Jones, the captain then on the bench in midweek, not called upon as Town bounced back immediately.
Asked how he had reacted to the decision, Wilshere said: “The reason why he is club captain is because he is exceptional. I’m in constant conversations with Kal, Kal knows what I think of him and how important he is to the group. Kal feels it as well, I think sometimes people think maybe because he’s a little bit older, he’s a little bit more experienced, but Kal really cares. He cares about this club, he cares about his team-mates and he wants what’s best for them.
"He’s responded really well. I think about the Reading game and I said it before, the two goals that people look at and will put Kal to, in my opinion, one’s offside and one’s a foul, but that then creates something, some adversity around him, when it wasn’t needed. It was a foul, but Kal will also know that, he’s got high standards of himself, he holds himself accountable a lot. We had a conversation on the phone after that Reading game and he knew, he knew straight away that he needs to deal with those situations better.
"But that’s why I love Kal, that’s why we love Kal. Kal was out of the team, he will be back in the team at some point. He’ll be in and around the squad and his leadership qualities are there, and this group needs them. We changed the age profile of the squad, we lost some older, more experienced players and Kal in training, he drives it. He drives training around the environment. Can he perform better at times? Yes, but he’s important to me.”
With Naismith out and Jordan Clark missing with a broken jaw, it was Liam Walsh who wore the captain’s armband at Stamford Bridge, while striker Nahki Wells was made skipper in the week. Although Luton have Hakeem Odoffin, who is clearly a born leader, and George Johnston, who led Bolton Wanderers to promotion via the League One play-offs last term, asked for the reasoning behind his choices, Wilshere added: “There’s a lot that goes into that.
"There’s a lot of conversations we have as a group, the staff, a lot of conversations that I’ll have with people around the club that have been here for a while and really understand what it means to be a Luton captain. The two, in terms of Walshy and Nahki, are really clear captains in my opinion. I think different types, Nahki is probably a little bit more vocal than Walshy and Walshy is one that leads by example, but is starting to develop different leadership skills, so it’s an important conversation, an important debate, but I’m really happy with Nahki, with Walshy.
“George can easily do it, George has just come into the club, so he needs to understand us a little bit more. Haks doesn’t wear the armband, but he’s one of the best leaders we have and just takes that responsibility on anyway. He’s always the one in the changing room that’s driving things. At half time, he’s the loudest, so I like the mix we’ve got.”