Rob Edwards insists Luton have to find the balance between defending and attacking against Liverpool with more onus on the Hatters to be positive as the home side compared to the plan at Villa Park last week.
Town went down 3-1 to Aston Villa last weekend where they were without the ball for large parts of the clash, ending with just 29 per cent of possession.
Luton are also experiencing a defensive injury problem with four of their backline out injured with hamstring issues.
While Edwards has said he won’t moan or complain about his injury list, he will have to devise a way to stop Mohamed Salah and the rest of his high-flying Liverpool team-mates.
Asked about whether he’ll have to be more defensive, the Town boss said: “It’s understandable. The plan last week, I believe, was the right one. We reflected on it. If we hadn’t got done with some of those easy, basic things, then it would’ve been very difficult for Villa to break us down away from home.
“I understand the question. At home, we want to make sure we engage the fans and be seen as trying to win the game, but there’s also a balance there that we’ve got to find.
“If you leave any spaces, they (Liverpool) can expose you and hurt you very quickly. They’ve got a players that even if you’ve got an overload against then, they can find a way of hurting you.
“It’s about trying to find a balance, turning up the heat and pressing at the right moments. We want to be more aggressive than we were last week, of course, but at the same time we can’t open up too many spaces too soon either.
“Balance is the key. Our job is to try to find a way of getting a result in the game. There’s obviously ways to lose games but I don’t want to be opening up and against teams like this you can be exposed to some big scorelines as well, and that’s not what we want at all.
“We want to make sure we’re in the game come the latter stages to have a right go as well. Balance is the message.”
Salah is a Premier League goalscoring record breaker and he has eight goals already this term. Asked how he plans to stop the Egyptian attacker Edwards said: “It’s difficult because most people don’t (stop them). We’ve got to be really, really good, defend well as a team and then, at the right moments, we’ve got to be really good with the ball and try to attack at the right moments, at the right speed.
“That is difficult against a team that are so good at counter pressing and winning the ball back, so it is a very, very difficult challenge for us, but also very clear as well, because we know what’s coming.
“Liverpool won’t change for us. So it’s a good one to prepare for and one we’re really looking forward to as well.”
The last time Liverpool visited Kenilworth Road in the league was in 1991, which was the fourth Bedfordshire battle in a row that the Reds failed to win. They’ve not done so since 1987.
The two clubs have only faced each other twice since then at Kenilworth Road in FA Cup clashes at 2006 and 2008, so when the fixtures were released earlier the summer, this was one of the marquee matches for Town supporters.
“It’s a really good occasion, and these are the moments, the times, the games that we wanted to have here. This is why we got promoted,” said Edwards.
“The next thing is to prepare well and to equip ourselves well in the games. It’s a brilliant occasion and I want everyone to try to enjoy it but at the same time I want us to try to find a result.”
