Wilshere urges Luton to have possession with a 'purpose' against Leicester

Luton boss Jack Wilshere wants his side to continue having possession with a ‘purpose’ when facing Leicester City at Kenilworth Road this afternoon.

The Hatters go into the match on the back of a 2-1 victory over Barnsley on Tuesday night, a game where they had 48.3 percent of the ball, although still managed 23 shots at goal in total, Mads Andersen and Nahki Wells finding the net to ensure the points remained in Bedfordshire. Before that, Luton had 62.7 percent of the ball against MK Dons last weekend, with 25 shots, but ended up losing 2-1, as the 4-1 triumph against Wycombe in the game prior to that, came with an even lower time spent in possession, just 41.8 percent throughout the 90 minutes.

It demonstrates to Wilshere that despite being a manager who wants his team to spend more time with the ball than without it, he is willing to alter things in order to achieve the most important outcome, which is ultimately claim the three points on offer, as he said: “That’s what I mean about being adaptable. Each game we’ve sat here and spoken about other games where I feel like we do have to take the ball, but against Barnsley, we knew that as soon as we took the ball, you might be able to make one or two chances, but as soon as you make a pass centrally, they’re going to jump and be aggressive, which then opens up a different side of the game.

"I’ve said it so many times, we’re principle-based, we want possession, but we want possession with a purpose. If that takes five passes to get into the opposition’s half, if that takes one pass, which we did on Tuesday, and we get into the opposition half with stable possession and it doesn’t become a transitional game, then fine, let’s do it.The MK Dons game was another good example when we dominated the ball and had 25 shots at goal.

"We had to do that in that game, we also had to be better when attacking the box and being more clinical with our finishing. So my job, which is the side of the job that I absolutely love, is the last 48 hours and watching four or five games of Leicester and working out what type of game I think it’s going to be, working with the coaches and getting their opinion, then coming up with gameplan we think is best to win the game.

"You only win games by scoring goals, so that is always, always my first intention. I need Tim (Corcoran) and I need Powelly (Chris Powell) with me to work on the defensive side and we work on that really hard together as well, but just the way I am as a person, as I was a player, is how can we attack? How can we score goals? Sometimes that might take a few extra passes to get there, sometimes we might be able to be a little bit more direct. I want the team and the players to know that and also be able to execute that and we’re getting closer to that definitely.”

It could well be the case this afternoon that Luton spend far more time looking to win the ball back, as under Russell Martin, Leicester are comfortably top of the possession stats in the division, averaging 67.6 percent from their 10 games, Luton in fifth on 55.3 percent.

Knowing that might be the case, it’s something Wilshere is preparing for, as he doesn’t think whoever has the ball the most will automatically come out on top, continuing: “We prepare the game in the same way that we prepare every game, but of course, when you look at a team like Leicester, you see all the stuff that they’re trying to do with the ball, how they like to dominate the ball.

“It’s important we get our high press right as we’re a team that also spends as much time as we do in possession, as we do with a high press and out of possession, so it’s an interesting game. I don’t think it’s necessarily a game that whoever has the most possession wins the game. We know that at this level it’s not necessarily the most important thing, but we want to be a team that can impose ourselves.

"The last two games have been a really good example of what we’re trying to be. On Tuesday the game gave us different situations, different pictures where we didn't have to have that much of the ball. We landed on second balls, we played with real purpose, we played into the last line a lot of times, and we ended with 23 shots and the game before 25 shots, so our aim is to keep that purpose. We have to be ready for how good they are at trying to take control of the game, and let's see who gets the better of that.

"Both teams want to take the ball, both teams want to attack, both teams have a certain way of playing the game and probably slightly different to anything we’ve experienced this season. We like these games, I like these, I think the players do as well. They give the players something to think about. We always have to stay focused as they can play through you at any time. It’s a challenge for us, but one we’re looking forward to.”

Leicester’s style under Martin, who was appointed in the summer, hasn’t exactly gone down a storm with the club’s fans, who have called for the manager to be sacked following a poor start to the season. The Foxes have managed to win their last two games to climb up to 10th in the table, as the pressure that the ex-Rangers and Southampton manager is under from supporters, wasn’t a concern to Wilshere, who added: “I’ve watched a lot of Leicester’s games over the last 48 hours and in every single game they’ve had moments.

"Also games where they’ve dominated the ball, they’ve created chances and there’s definitely stuff we can use in that when it goes slightly against them. I don’t think necessarily any time in my prep did I think about Russell Martin being under pressure or not being under pressure.

"When you’re in this job you quickly learn that there’s so much going on that you have to focus on, that you have to deal with, players, teams that we’re going to come up against, injury problems, over the last 48 hours that has taken up my time while watching Leicester. I don’t think we’ll be using is Russell Martin under pressure or not, we just want to prepare the game as we would any other game and be ready for it.”