The return of the Elijah Adebayo and Carlton Morris strike partnership was inspired by a toothless display at Sunderland, with boss Matt Bloomfield backing the pair to cause problems for defences and spearhead Luton’s fight against relegation from the Championship.
Last term in the Premier League, the pair proved fairly formidable and won admirers as they both shot themselves to double figure goal tallies in the top-flight. But this season in the Championship, they’ve managed just 12 between them and none for either this calendar year.
Town’s alarming slump to the foot of the division, was highlighted last week as they drew blanks at Sunderland – where they managed just one shot on target – and at home to Sheffield United, despite a much-improved performance.
Tonight, at Kenilworth Road against relegation rivals Plymouth, who haven’t won away from home all season, Bloomfield knows his side have to rediscover where the net it.
“We haven’t scored enough over the last four games. but it’s something we want to improve on. We’re working hard to improve on it. but at the same time, we have to remember that performance level [against Sheffield United],” said Bloomfield who admitted he felt “encouraged” by the number of chances his men created at the weekend against the Blades.
He added: “The front two will cause problems for any defence in the league, I absolutely believe that, as a pairing.
“They’ll cause problems. They’ve proven it in the past. And I’m sure they’ll prove it between now and the end of the season. I have no doubt about that.”
Before the weekend, Adebayo had only started once under Bloomfield but the change in approach came from what the manager had seen, or perhaps not seen, in the north-east a week ago.
He made seven changes for Saturday’s visit of Sheffield United and, among those, back into the starting line-up came Adebayo, to play alongside Morris – who had that header at the Stadium of Light – who had been previously playing a lone striker role.
The changes inspired one of Town’s best performances of the season, though they still got hit with a late sucker punch and lost 1-0, which might have been different if Adebayo had converted two glorious chances and ended his two-month goal drought.
He didn’t saw and it saw the Hatters set a new club record of four home games without scoring, but Bloomfield said: “I’m never going to criticise my players, especially goalscoring. It’s a confidence and a belief thing.
“The last thing you want is someone speaking about you in those terms. It doesn’t help, in my mind. We don’t want people to become anxious and in front of goal.
“I believe in the forwards we’ve got. I believe in all the players that we’ve got, and it’s about us going and believing that and proving it on the pitch.”
Tonight Town host relegation rivals Plymouth and the manager added: “We believe that things will improve. And Saturday’s performance showed that. On several other occasions, you can play worse than that and win the game. It wasn’t to be, but it’s been and gone. And we have to believe in what we’re going to do [against Argyle].”
But there’s a case to say that, against Sheffield United, at least Luton were creating chances, having found it so difficult days earlier on Wearside.
Talking of playing Morris and Adebayo together, Bloomfield said: “It’s something I thought about post Sunderland. We spoke after that game and I said I’d learnt a lot that night and in the previous weeks and it felt like Saturday was the right time to put the pairing back together.
“I think it had been obviously a four at the back before I came and that continued when we walked through the door.
“I’m not obsessed with formations. I’m obsessed with winning football matches and doing what’s right for the group that you have.
“We all have our ideals in our mind and how we want our team to play and all the rest of it, but the situation isn’t about me. It’s about the football club and it’s about the squad.
“And that played a huge part in my thinking, leading into Saturday, about having players in positions that they were comfortable with, were familiar with and having pairings. Try and get pairings on the pitch that were comfortable with each other and familiar with each other.
‘Obviously, with players coming and going, that wasn’t possible on every position, but it felt like we had good, experienced combinations in positions that we needed and we’re going to need that between now and the end of the season.”
Town are also trying to get transfer deadline day striker signing Lasse Nordås up to speed as he arrived at Kenilworth Road two months after the Norwegian top-flight finished.
The former Tromsø man was not used on Saturday, when Luton were in need of a goal late on and Bloomfield explained: “It’s about trying to expose him to minutes as much as we can, but understanding where he is, where he’s at, obviously adapting to the new country and the new level and the intensity.
“Within the team environment and the squad environment, everyone has their own little individual plan that you have to try and act accordingly for them.
“Lasse’s fine. He can you can finish. He’s shown us that in training and I think he can contribute for us moving forward.”
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