Nathan Jones wants to restore the attacking prowess that shot Luton to consecutive promotions and put them on par with free-scoring Manchester City, but admits that evolution in the Championship takes time.
Town have so far gone from having the leakiest defence for much of last term, to conceding only 11 times this season, which sees them sitting in tenth position.
But they’re sitting in that comfortable position have scored only nine and winning.
Three years ago the Hatters were the most prolific team in England’s professional divisions but this afternoon they host Blackburn Rovers, the most free-scoring side in the Championship this term.
Jones said: “We built up a reputation of being highest scores apart from Manchester City and Paris Saint Germain, we were as high scorers as anyone in Europe.
“We have to adapt to levels, we have to make sure we get points because at the end of the day, being as high up the league as possible is the big thing.
“We’re trying to evolve into a top Championship side but that takes time. It either takes a big budget or it takes time so ours is going to take time.
“We have a wonderful competitive edge, a great team spirit and we’re trying to evolve into an even better Championship side than we were last year. All those things take time and work, we’ve been able to put a couple of weeks work into them now, that isn’t always the case because of Saturday, Tuesday – Wednesday, Saturday.
“That means you can’t put work into them because it’s just recovery and maintenance so if that means we have to be defensively sound, we work hard and take the points, we will do that but if anything, we would like to be very, very sound defensively and very, very fluent attacking. Let’s see where we can go, but it’s all part of the journey.”
But despite being the joint lowest scorers in the top half of the table, 12 less than Rovers, they sit in tenth, two places higher than the former Premier League champions, who they beat on the final day of last season to secure a memorable great escape from relegation.
Town have also not had a full complement of players, but full-backs Dan Potts and James Bree are now available and Jones said: “There will 100 per cent be more to come because it’s how we work here. We don’t just rest on our laurels and hope to nick stuff. We want to be better.
“Yes, we’ve got a good defensive record at the minute. We work hard, but we want to keep that defensive record, maintain one and develop the other, then we become the type of side that we were at League One and League Two level and that’s a work in progress.
“It’s not really easy to do. You either spend a monster amount of money and buy the best already, or you develop the ones you have and we’re a very good club at developing and we enjoy that side of it.
“So, we have players that are really getting to grips with the Championship and the more work you give them, the better the environment and the better the results.”
Town got to grips with Blackburn last term, doing the double of the Lancashire side, but boasting the Championship’s top scorer in Adam Armstrong, Jones believes Rovers should have lofty ambitions.
They’re an ex-Premier League side that are established at Championship level, they’ve been at that level and are probably one of the favourites to get promoted, not automatically but definitely think that they are high on the betting to be top six.
“They are a very good side, some real good players and look, we want to be similar to those in terms of the competitive levels, what they are able to do and who they are able to attract and so on.
“But we’re competing on a good level, just above them in the league so we’re showing that we are competing at this point in, that we are able to maintain our levels against teams like this, week-in, week-out.
“They’re a fantastic side, real good footballers, fluent side, they can hurt you. We saw that in terms of at the end of the season but look, we have strengths of our own that we have to make sure are right at it, if they are right at it, it should be a good game.”
