Nathan Jones says the James Collins can “absolutely” partner new striker Elijah Adebayo as Luton aim to evolve their successful lower league diamond formation, to return to using two up top.
Top scorer Collins was restored to the starting line-up for Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Norwich, having had to make do with a rare place on the substitutes’ bench for the previous three Championship games.
In his place, young hotshot Adebayo was given his first starts since signing from Walsall in January and made an instant impact with goals in consecutive games, alongside impressive line-leading performances.
The frontmen are yet to share a pitch together, but in the remarkable second half against Sheffield Wednesday, where Adebayo completed a fightback from two goals down, there was a return to the devastating diamond formation that earned Town back-to-back promotions. And that has given rise to the possibility that Luton can begin to operate in the Championship with more goal threat.
Asked if Collins and Adebayo can play together, boss Jones said: “Of course, absolutely. We tried to implement something other day against Forest, and second half against Sheffield Wednesday we went to a diamond which is a shape we know very well.
“We continued that for 60 minutes against Forest, because we would like to evolve back into that side that we were in League Two and League One, into the Championship, so playing two up front is something that eventually we’d like to go to.”
Collins’ last goal – his tenth of the campaign – came in the 1-1 draw with Huddersfield at the start of February and he has had to lead Luton on that front, with Jordan Clark and George Moncur joint second top scorers, on three.
The Republic of Ireland international has been a regular starter while at Kenilworth Road, so asked how he’s reacted to spending more time on the bench, Jones said: “He’s taken it as he would. He’s an excellent professional, James, in terms of that and we are really happy.
“James had bore the brunt of the goals for a long time and sometimes that takes its toll. I’ve spoken to him and I’ve felt, at the minute, that he’s not quite looked as sharp, not because it’s loss of form or anything.
“I think he’s just worked so hard for so long, and then suddenly the game opens up on 70-80 minutes, and somebody else gets a chance that maybe he would have benefitted from.
“So, we’ve just turned things around. We’ve brought Elijah in to give us something different, so we have good competition there now with, obviously, (Danny) Hylton, (Harry) Cornick and (Sam) Nombe, and we’ve tried to demand from them all so they are all competing.
“But James has been brilliant for this club. He’s still going to be brilliant for this club. It’s just he’s played so many games and put in so many big shifts, sometimes it takes its toll and I think he needs the freshening up, if I’m honest.”
