New Luton boss Matt Bloomfield says he’s a “football romantic” who wants Hatters fans to enjoy watching his side and he’s already toured Kenilworth Road to get a sense of the stadium’s history.
Tomorrow, he’ll lead his first Town team out at the famous old ground, aiming to get off to a good start in his new job, with Preston North End the visitors.
Bloomfield takes over a side that has lost five games on the spin in all competitions to leave them just two points above the Championship relegation zone.
Within that run, there had been some signs of encouragement with a change of system in Rob Edwards’ last game in charge at Queens Park Rangers, and also last week under caretaker control in the FA Cup at Nottingham Forest.
Edwards’ much criticised back five became a back four and that saw more attacking impetus, though they still ended in defeats.
The new incumbent, Bloomfield, has already said that he’ll adapt formations to fit what suits his Hatters players, though he had largely found success with a back four at League One high-flyers Wycombe.
With just four days in the role to prepare for his first-ever game in charge of a Championship side, the 40-year-old is planning “subtle” changes, but is just hoping to bring the fun back for a set of supporters that have witnessed a division-highest 15 defeats already this season.
“I really want our supporters to enjoy watching their team. I’ve spoken about that a lot in my managerial career,” Bloomfield said.
“Supporters of football clubs spend a lot of money and a lot of time supporting their clubs and we want them, I want them, to enjoy their Saturday afternoons, watching their team.
“We want to win, of course, but we want them to enjoy coming to watch their team as well. So we’re trying to put all that in.”
Bloomfield has played at Kenilworth Road before, during his 19 years as a Wycombe midfielder, but the stadium has changed since his last visit.
A £13million refurbishment to replace the old executive boxes with a brand-new Bobbers’ Stand was necessary to ensure Luton could fulfil the stadia requirements of the Premier League last season.
If all goes well, having signed a three-and-a-half year deal, Bloomfield could be the last ever Luton manager inside the Kenilworth Road dugouts, with a move to the club’s new stadium at Power Court expected in 2027.
For now, he’ll be tasked with bringing the good times back to a stadium which celebrates its 120th anniversary this term and, until relegation from the top flight last year, had enjoyed an unprecedented and history-making decade-long rise from the non-league to the pinnacle of English football.
“I went to a Kenilworth Road yesterday afternoon, went down to Kenny and had a walk around, try to feel it, as a club man, rather than an opposition player, which I had before,” said Bloomfield.
“I went into a couple of the stands and really tried to feel the history. I really could sense and feel the history.
“The new stand, which I hadn’t seen yet, that was put up last year for the Premier League. Went in the change rooms and the office and just tried to acclimatise, because I’m really looking forward to tomorrow and I wanted to make sure that I’d felt it once, so tomorrow can be worked on.
“I’m a bit of a football romantic. I am. I love old football grounds. I love the history that they bring and the heritage. And, I’ve really enjoyed going to those older grounds in my career. I really kind of feel that enjoyment.
“I’m a football fan at heart, so I really enjoyed seeing it yesterday and seeing the different parts of the grounds, when they’ve been put together and sensing that history and seeing the development that’s been.
“So, absolutely, it’s a special place and somewhere I’m really looking forward to working.”
When he was unveiled as new Hatters boss on Tuesday, Bloomfield said some of the things he’d aim to change were Luton’s out-of-possession play and expanding on that ahead of the first test against Preston, he said: “We do feel like we’ve conceded too many goals this year for where we want to be, so that needed to have some attention.
“But being in possession and being able to dominate the ball and try and play with an identity that we want to do, it’s going to take time, but we want to implement some things right now. Of course we do.
“There’s some short term goals that we’re going after. And the boys have been taken on those messages incredibly well. So I’m really excited and looking forward to seeing the outcome of their work tomorrow afternoon.”
In steering his Wycombe side to the automatic promotion places in League One this season, Bloomfield had, more often than not, favoured a back four.
Talking about his plans for the Hatters, the 40-year-old said: “We have our ideas about how we want to work and I’ve used both formations in the past. But we need a formation that complements our group and we believe that we’ve picked formation for that tomorrow. And we really believe in the group that’s going out to perform tomorrow afternoon.”
Trying to stop them will be a Preston side that has already beaten Luton this term, at Deepdale, but on their travels have only won once in the Championship this season, against struggling Cardiff. And, as much as he’s been getting to know his new Luton players, Bloomfield has had to assess the threats presented by North End.
“We’ve been really fortunate to have two analysts who already, Chloe (Golding, performance analysis assistant) and Dunney (Simon Dunn, first team analyst), who have already really helped in a big way with Ben Cirne (senior analyst) joining us as well, someone who I’ve worked with closely for a couple of years now.
“It’s really important that we prepare for the opposition. We want to be very good at ourselves, of course we do, but any team you come up against has their own nuances, their own positives and negatives, and we have to be ready to, to mitigate those factors tomorrow afternoon.
“Every different formation and every squad will have their real strengths and have their weaknesses. So it’s about trying to exploit that in our opposition, whilst we’re doing us, so the best we can be.”
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