The Luton manager is adamant that his Town team is ‘on the right track’ to end their Premier League hoodoo.
Hatters’ CEO firmly believes that results will improve.
When Town hosts Wolves at Kenilworth Road this afternoon, manager Rob Edwards insists his team is firmly on the “right track” as they attempt to earn their first Premier League points of the year.
Having traveled to Brighton & Hove Albion and Chelsea in their first two games of the season, Luton was given a baptism of fire. They were defeated 4-1 and 3-0 as a result of the opposition’s 46 total shots, 20 of which were on goal.
The Hatters then looked more solid during the 2-1 loss to West Ham, going on to adopt a new defensive shape without the ball in the 1-0 defeat to Fulham on Saturday, cutting the number of shots the faced down to 20, with keeper Thomas Kaminski troubled by just five of them.
Unfortunately, three of them went in, but despite the fact that it hasn’t changed Town’s fortunes in terms of results, Edwards believes it will only help them in their quest to move off the bottom. He said: “We’re improving in every game, and we’re not giving away nearly as many significant opportunities.
“Defensively we’ve improved; in the matches against West Ham and Fulham, we were much more stable, and we’re still producing quality chances as well.
I can keep saying it, but they’ve been extremely close and on the line. We need to take care to take ours and keep it out the other end.
“But if our performances keep improving, which they will do, we’re on the right track.
“We’re a new team, 12 new players.
“There was a lot of change in the summer, in a new league and we’re allowed to learn, we’re allowed to be working it out as we’re going.
“I think we’ve worked it out pretty quickly, we need results, I get that, but I know the results are around the corner because we’re working the right way.”
It’s not just Edwards who believes that either, as the manager is confident his players can see the positive signs that have happened in the last month, as he continued: “If you walk around the training ground on a daily basis this week, you wouldn’t think we’d have lost four games in a row.
“Coming away from that game last week we were flat, the players were flat, because the players knew there was something there for us.
“We were disappointed because we limited them to very little and created some big chances and moments ourselves, so it was a good disappointment last week.
“We’ve got a great environment, the players are in, they’re bouncing in, they’re on board with everything we’re saying.
“They can see it, they can recognise the improvement as well, they can feel that it’s close, they can see the improvement that we’ve made in the games so far.
“That’s why they’ll be confident that it is coming and the belief is there.
“Just because we’re at home against Wolves doesn’t mean, right, it’s coming and we shouldn’t panic if it doesn’t either, but we’re certainly on the right track and I know the players can feel that as well.”
With Luton starting to look more a far more difficult proposition to break down, one thing Edwards is well aware of is the need to marry that up by being more prolific and ruthless at the top end of the pitch.
So far the Hatters have had 43 attempts, but crucially just seven of them on target, scoring twice, only one coming from open play.
They did create four excellent opportunities at Craven Cottage last time out, Carlton Morris volleying wide, Jacob Brown heading against the post, with Amari’i Bell denied by Bernd Leno and Tom Lockyer off target in stoppage time.
Edwards stated it is an area they have doubled down on in training this week, as he added: “It’s really difficult as when you’re creating chances and that’s the big thing, that’s good, that’s a real positive.
“Other than show it, talk about it, practice it out there (training ground), it’s hard then to do too much else.
“There’s obviously the psychology of it as well where we want to try and relax and be ice cold in those moments, but it’s easier said than done at times.
“The big thing for us is we created some good chances in the last couple of games.
“We want to continue to do that and if we keep doing the right things, keep practising and talking about it, showing it, then hopefully they start going in.
“As long as we keep creating the chances, I’m not going to worry too much.
“I would be panicking a little bit more if we didn’t look like scoring, if we weren’t in those positions, if we hadn’t created decent chances over the last few games, then I’d be a little bit more concerned.
“Don’t get me wrong, we are talking about it, the players understand the importance of valuing it, especially when we’re training.
“It’s like any part of training, practise hopefully makes you better, and we’ve done that this week.
“Sometimes the more you talk about it, the more you put pressure on and it can make people panic as well.
“I’ve got to try and find balance at the moment, without going overboard on it and then people freezing when they get those opportunities as well, so we’ve got to try and get that balance right.”
