Kal Naismith has been considered as a makeshift Luton striker, manager Matt Bloomfield has revealed as he tries to solve Town’s goalscoring problems.
A blank in the 1-0 defeat to Blackburn last weekend was the eighth in his 15 games in charge of the Hatters, though it has been a problem all season for the Championship’s lowest scorers
Luton have scored just 37 in 42 games and now they’re without forwards Elijah Adebayo and Jacob Brown who suffered season ending injuries, which has led to the recall from a loan spell at Hemel for academy graduate hotshot Oli Lynch.
Naismith was turned into a centre half during his first period at Kenilworth Road, under Nathan Jones, but he arrived as an attacker and did play as a striker for Portsmouth, scoring 15 goals in the 2016-17 season.
Asked if he’s considered Naismith for a position in the frontline, Bloomfield said: “I considered it. Yeah, we discussed it. Obviously, he’s played up front in the past, so it’s something that that we’ve discussed and we know about.”
Naismith’s game time has been limited to a five minute cameo since his red card at Burnley on March 8, largely due to improved performances of Christ Makosso, Mark McGuinness and Amari’i Bell.
Bloomfield said: “Yeah, we’re not conceding. Touchwood, we’ve been conceding goals and Amari’i, Macca and Christ have been in really good form. So, unfortunately for Kal, he’s been a victim of circumstance.
“Those boys have had a little bit of continuity and togetherness and have had a bit of momentum as a back three. So he’s just been a victim of circumstance.”
Though Luton had an interest in Wycombe striker Richard Kone, four bids were reportedly turned down and Town could only sign Lasse Nordås from Tromso, who were in their off-season.
Asked if he regretted not signing more strikers in the January transfer window, Bloomfield said: “I’m not sure many people could foresee losing Brownie and Elijah both to sort of innocuous injuries. Muscle-wise, we’ve improved a huge amount in terms of not suffering muscle injury since we’ve been in the building. That’s reduced, hugely.
“Obviously, Alf [Doughty] was the disappointing one, but we’ve changed training programs, we’ve increased the physicality and the fitness of the group we’ve got.
“It’s not perfect yet. In my mind, we’re not where we need to be and we’ve spoken before about the robustness and the the physicality of the group needs to improve and the fitness needs to improve.
“We had Carlton [Morris], Eli, Brownie and Lasse and you’ve got to be pretty unfortunate to lose two out of your front four striking options to have a fifth and not use them.
“And probably would have wouldn’t have been the right option to do within a group that we’ve already brought in, and Thelo [Aasgaard].
“So, at that point we’re also playing 4-2-3-1 with the idea that we might go back to a two up front. I think four [strikers], ordinarily, is usually plenty. We’ve obviously been really unfortunate to lose two of those good, experienced strikers.”
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