Wilshere happy with Lonwijk's display after 'awkward' chat with Wolves loanee
Centre back got to play in his preferred role for the first time
Hatters boss Jack Wilshere hailed the manner in which defender Nigel Lonwijk performed on Tuesday night against Huddersfield Town after having to have an ‘awkward' conversation with the Wolverhampton Wanderers loanee when he didn’t make the squad for Saturday’s thumping at the hands of Barnsley.
The 23-year-old had started just once in the league since the former Arsenal and England star was appointed, that in the 1-0 triumph over Northampton Town, but was still on the bench for the clashes with Stockport County and Rotherham United without getting on. He then travelled to Oakwell with the rest of the Town squad at the weekend, only to end up taking his place in the stands on this occasion, not included in the match-day 18.
Lonwijk, who under previous manager Matt Bloomfield, was often played out of position, asked to fill in as either the right or left wingback at times, while his only prior start for Wilshere, saw him moved to a more traditional right back berth. However, restored to the starting XI in midweek, the former Dutch U16s international got his first chance in what is his preferred role, the central defender in Town’s back three and responded with an excellent display, winning three tackles, two interceptions and eight clearances on the night, as he made 14 defensive contributions, the most from any home player, before making way for Mads Andersen with 15 minutes to go.
On his performance, and making the call to leave him out in South Yorkshire, Wilshere said: “He was excellent and the thing is for the players and I’ve said this, it’s important how you train and how you work because if and when someone comes out of the team, whether it be injury, loss of form, which can happen, we don’t want it to be any different. We want the players to come in and deliver the same physical numbers, the same technical numbers and just give everything they can.
"You saw Nigel do that as then in the 65th, 70th minute, naturally he hasn’t played in a while, he was a bit fatigued and then the next one (Andersen) comes in, so I’m really happy with Nigel. It’s nice as well as I had a conversation with him in Barnsley on the morning of the game, to tell him that he wasn’t in the squad and the look in his eyes, he wanted to kill me! But it’s going to be like that. I said to the lads, they all have to be ready. I don’t want to be killed, but it’s natural and they’re awkward conversations for me.
"I’ve said it before, I’ve worked with managers who didn’t say anything, so I always want to be able to have that conversation, be as honest as I can, as honest as they want me to be. It was a conversation where I said look, it was between you and Haks (Hakeem Odoffin) who was going to be on the bench, I just feel Haks can play on the right hand side, can play right back a little bit, but also you can only have six outfield and one goalie, so seven on the bench. Sometimes it will be that I want them in the squad, but we just can’t find a space as we need cover there or we need cover there. So awkward conversations, but also good as I know the next game is going to change.”