Jack Wilshere says the belief shown by his Luton Town players has pleased him most about their recent run of results, insisting they must continue to show courage and humility as they look to build on three successive victories.
The Hatters beat Doncaster Rovers 3-1 at Kenilworth Road last night to make it nine points from nine in their three home games in seven days, following victories over Barnsley and Leicester City.
Wilshere also pointed to the performances in the games immediately before that winning run, including the 4-1 victory at Wycombe Wanderers and the 2-1 defeat at MK Dons, where he felt Luton had done enough to take at least a point.
Reflecting on the turnaround in performances since returning from the international break, and asked what has pleased him the most during that period, the Town manager said: “Probably the belief from the players.
“I’ll mention it again on my 5K run today, which we’re doing every day in October [to raise money for Prostate UK], I ran to Harpenden. I was with Tim [Corcoran – coach] and I said to him, ‘this time last week we were running here with Barnsley in our mind and coming off the back of the MK game’ and, yeah, we were low after the MK game.
“The players were low, but there was also so many good things we’d done and I’ve said it before, you’ve got a decision as a coach after a game. What you highlight and what you show and you have to highlight the things where we need to improve and there were some goals we considered in that game, which we weren’t happy with, clearly.
“But we also had something like 25 shots and created so many opportunities, so many touches in the final third and we were aggressive in duels and we ran more than we’d run all season.
“To highlight that to the players was really important and for the players to keep believing because we’ve been here, we’ve been in a situation last season where we knew the importance going into every game. We did it our way and that’s really, really important as a coach, as players that we have that connection, which we do, and I love working with the players.”
The manager also discussed the importance of players being able to accept feedback, even when it highlights shortcomings in their performances.
“There comes a point where, if the players feel a little bit of fear or there’s been some question marks of standards, they then get into a position where the feedback that we’re trying to give – and that’s all it always is, we have high standards, players have high standards – but when we sit in the room and we show them things, feedback, you’re trying to improve, if you’re in a position where you can’t take that and there’s a bit of judgement, that’s hard to then develop the team, develop individual within the team.
“So, I’ll probably be most proud of that, the players’ belief. I can’t sit there and say, ‘boys, play with confidence,’ because that’s not the way it works, but the courage that they’ve shown has been really good.
“And it also sort of sets the bar for that because we’re in October. I don’t even think we’re a third of a way through a season and there’s a long, long way to go and we have to keep going this way. We have to keep going with a lot of humility because we know the demands at this level.
“We’ve done a lot of good things this season. We’re disappointed with certain things and how many goals we conceded, but we’ve also done a lot of good things. So the players need to keep believing in that, keep working on the things we need to improve and yet keep having humility.”
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