Luton Town's Welsh defender #04 Tom Lockyer and Luton Town's English midfielder #45 Alfie Doughty applauds the fans following the English Premier League football match between Brighton and Hove Albion and Luton Town at the American Express Community Stadium in Brighton, southern England on August 12, 2023. Brighton won the match 4-1. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. / (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
According to Lockyer, Luton’s players discussed making adjustments to stay in the top division over the international break.
Town’s manager is aware that the Hatters must change to stay in the top division.
Tom Lockyer, the captain for Luton, claimed that during the most recent international break, the players and coaching staff had a meeting where they talked about how to be more flexible in order to stay in the Premier League this season.
Since Nathan Jones, the previous manager, and Rob Edwards, who came over in November of last year, introduced the 3-5-2 configuration, the Hatters have grown accustomed to playing in it.
With a stunning 6-5 penalty shootout victory over Coventry City at Wembley, it allowed Luton to enter a golden time in their history and make it to the top division via the play-offs.
Now at the top table though, the Hatters attempted to start in the manner that had got them so much success, only to lose out 4-1 to Brighton on the opening day, 3-0 at Chelsea and 2-1 at home to West Ham.
With that in mind, Edwards set up his side differently at Fulham on Saturday, with one upfront when out of possession, as although they were beaten 1-0 by the Cottagers, it was their best performance in the top flight so far.
In the game for the entire 90 minutes, and having the better of the chances created, the visitors could feel hard done by that they eventually left West London empty handed, Jacob Brown, Amari’i Bell and Lockyer all missing presentable chances.
Edwards himself has come out and told supporters to expect some changes this year, and it’s something that Lockyer insisted the players discussed during their recent fortnight off.
He said: “I think we’ve improved in every one, there was a gameplan (at Fulham) and I think it worked.
“There’ll be a different gameplan next week and moving forward.
“Last year we were strictly 3-5-2, but we had a meeting over the international break and we said we’re going to have to be adaptable this year.
It’s not just about us; we have to adapt and show respect for the opposition, which is exactly what we did.
“We’re disappointed that we couldn’t come away with anything from the game,” said the coach. “I thought we had some great opportunities on the counter attack, restricted them to very little.”
