Luton Town suffered their most agonising Premier League loss yet when they went down 1-0 to Fulham at Craven Cottage on a roasting hot afternoon in which the Hatters were much the better side overall. Here are our takeaways from the defeat.
Captain Tom back to his best
On what was a 100th start for the club, Tom Lockyer was back to the dominant, commanding leader of the defence that he was when spearheading the promotion charge last season.
That isn’t to say that the Wales international had been particularly bad in the stop-start beginning to the campaign, but understandably he took a game or two just to find his feet in the heart of the defence after the tragic way his Wembley experience ended last term.
Lockyer missed the defeat to West Ham earlier this month due to injury but he was back in the centre of a back three at Craven Cottage and kept Raul Jimenez – the focal point of the Fulham attack – very quiet, to the point that the Mexican wasn’t an influence on the game whatsoever. But for missing the target with a gilt-edged chance in injury time, this was the perfect display from the Player of the Season from last term, one which Luton fans will hope is the norm now if they are to pick up from the position they are in.
Lokonga looks a class act already
Much was made in the lead-up to the game in the capital about the deadline day signing of Albert Sambi Lokonga and what this would mean to the Town XI and specifically the nuances his availability could do for the formation. The Arsenal loanee made his full debut at the Cottage, sat in the heart of the Luton midfield alongside fellow ‘pivot’ Marvelous Nakamba.
It is always risky expecting too much of a player who has missed a month of action at the beginning of the season, so this was always going to be a ‘work in progress’ outing for the Belgium international, but the early signs are very good.
His ability and acceptance to receive the ball in tricky areas and have the composure to move it on efficiently are what you would expect of a player with his experience at top clubs, but the way he got about the pitch, playing key roles in the moves for the Carlton Morris and Jacob Brown chances, was also noticeable.
The latter attribute is only going to improve the more he plays. If there is one thing Luton have very obviously lacked so far this term it is a central midfielder who can pick the ball up from deep, carry it forward and have an end product on it. Lokonga looks like he has filled the void and could be a lot of fun to watch, moving forward.
Jacob jumps at his starting chance
Among the four changes to the team which lost at home to West Ham was the inclusion from the start of Jacob Brown, for what was his first Premier League match from the outset and the former Stoke City man showed exactly why he was included by Rob Edwards.
Clearly, his primary role was his attacking threat, something he displayed when he agonisingly hit the post with a header from point-blank range, but also when he clipped a lovely ball over for Amari’i Bell to test the keeper with.
But he was also in for his work-rate and defending from the front. Brown won three tackles over the course of the time that he was on the pitch, including sliding in to stop a probing Harrison Reed pass breaking the lines into the Fulham attackers in the second half.
Don’t be surprised if we see Brown starting a lot more, particularly away from home where the defensive work and attacking ability both need to be on show.
Issa is a real top talent
Another man coming into the Town starting line-up for the trip to Fulham was Burkina Faso international Issa Kaboré, whose start to his Luton career has been very good in the main despite him sitting out the West Ham game from the beginning.
In his outings in a Luton shirt so far we have seen that he is full of pace, gets up and down that right flank with ease and can get his foot in and win the ball. The one thing that had been missing in his early appearances was quality delivery when he got into the dangerous areas.
But he definitely had that in his locker at Craven Cottage, putting over two pinpoint crosses which Brown and Lockyer probably should have done better with, and only a last-ditch block denied him potentially getting his first goal for the club in the second half too. If Kaboré keeps improving game-on-game he is going to be some asset this term.
Football has improved but the refereeing hasn’t!
The immediately obvious thing in the opening month of the season has been how quite clearly the standard of football that we are coming up against has dramatically improved from our Championship days. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of the level of refereeing as for the second game in succession the Town were left ruing poor decision-making from the man in the middle and his video friends watching on in their bunker in the arse end of nowhere.
After somehow not getting a penalty when James Ward-Prowse fancied swapping football for volleyball at the end of the West Ham game, Luton were denied another blatantly obvious spot-kick at Fulham by Michael Salisbury, who failed to tell the difference between football and rugby when Carlton Morris was hauled down in the box towards the end of first half.
If that wasn’t enough, football was allowed to become basketball by the out-of-his-depth official in the second period when Alex Iwobi pretty much bounced the ball on the way to turning into the heart of the pitch before being allowed to continue to set Willian on his way to cross for the only goal.
Luton have been the victim of some terrible refereeing performances through the years. This one makes its way right towards the top of the list, potentially top of the lot when you consider he’s supposed to be getting help from those watching elsewhere.
It is not doom and gloom just yet!
The league table doesn’t paint the prettiest of pictures at the minute but we were always going to be a work in progress this season. Not only are we adjusting to a level so few of the players have trodden before, but we are having to do it with new players getting up to speed as well, so a slow start could be expected.
This is nothing new. Think back a season and Luton were winless in four in the Championship but we all know how that ended up. Nobody is suggesting that Luton are going to go on the sort of run in the Premier League that we did in the Championship but we are still at that stage of the season where a couple of positive results heavily change the landscape.
The big takeaway from the Fulham game was that the performance level, both physically and tactically was of the level required. It just needs a ruthless, clinical edge added to it and the points still start to come. As a famous manager once said – Keep the faith!
