Rob Edwards says fans would not tolerate Luton changing their approach and dropping their intensity against Cardiff tonight just because it’s in the middle of the three game week.
With a long trip to Middlesbrough up next on Saturday lunchtime, the Town boss has a conundrum to solve in how to manage a congested week of fixtures. That’s after the Hatters spectacularly stole defeat from the jaws of victory at Coventry last month, having played two relentless games in the days before it.
In Edwards’ favour is the successful return of Amari’i Bell, Teden Mengi and Shandon Baptiste, who all came through their first minutes since injury in Friday’s 1-1 draw with West Bromwich Albion. Alfie Doughty and Tom Holmes will also return from suspension, so the manager does have options to freshen up his starting 11.
But ahead of hosting the Championship’s form team Cardiff tonight, Edwards knows that nothing less than the full throttle performances of the last three home games will do.
The Hatters boss said: “We can’t change how we play in our set-up, because that’s got to be us. If we turned up and decided to sit off the opposition, I think the fans would come and kill me. They wouldn’t be that happy anyway, so we’ve got to make sure we play with the right intensity. That’s really important, so that can’t change.
“We’ve got to get this game out of the way first, and then we can try and make the right decisions going into Saturday, so we can’t take our eye off the ball and lose focus, but we’re obviously aware that there’s a quick turnaround and we’ve got to make sure that we make the right decisions.
“And hopefully, touch wood, at the moment, with people coming back and returning, then we’ve got a little bit more depth there to be able to choose from.
“And whether that’s changes tomorrow night, earlier, if we have to have impact, then we can do like we did the other day, or changes going into Saturday, we’ll see.
“But, at the moment, we seem to have a few more options going into this week, which is helpful.”
One of those options will be the returning Doughty who will resume his set-piece duties, which are part of the reason he leads the Championship in chance creation.
“There’s not loads broken with our set pieces,” said Edwards, adding: “There’s always constant tweaks for every opposition that people won’t pick up on because there’s subtle differences and changes depending on how the opposition defend.
“But, obviously, Alfie’s got such consistency. I think he’s created the most chances in the league this season. A big part of that will be from his set pieces, so we don’t need to change loads but, obviously, we’ve got some good options there as well now. We know that Shandon’s got that quality.”
All of those abilities will be needed to topple the division’s in-form side in Cardiff who are unbeaten in six, with four wins. That has been achieved under interim manager Omer Riza who was handed the reins after Erol Bulut was sacked six games into City’s eight-match winless start to their Championship campaign.
Edwards said: “That’s the Championship, isn’t it? It’s a mad league. Omer has obviously come in and done great. He’s a really good coach and know him a little bit from time at the FA and at Watford as well. It’s good to see him doing well.
“They’ll be a really a really difficult test now. They play with a lot of confidence. They’ve got really good individual players, a nice way of playing as well now with and without the ball. Good identity. So yeah, it’ll be a really tough game.”
