A new manager bounce, that’s the often quoted benefit of changing boss, bandied around by pundits and fans alike, but Matt Bloomfield says that’s what his Luton side will go after, against Preston today.
Luton supporters had watched as most of the teams around them – in the Championship relegation battle that they’re now embroiled in – had made the change with the bottom three clubs closing the gap on the Hatters as they lost four in a row.
The last of those, at Queens Park Rangers, was actually a division-highest 15th defeat of a desperately disappointing campaign, which finally urged Town’s board to part ways with Rob Edwards.
They replaced him on Tuesday with Bloomfield, after paying a compensation package to take the 40-year-old from a Wycombe side that is riding high in the League One automatic promotion places.
Now, Hatters will hope he can spark an upturn in their club’s fortunes, and prove the theory about new managers correct.
“The bounce is probably a fresh energy,” said Bloomfield, adding: “There’s going to be players that a change of manager works out for because, they’ve maybe not played too much and they’ll play more. Players who have played lots, play less. It’s just the game and everyone has their own individual opinions on formations, players, et cetera.
“Of course, we would love to get off to a very good start, and we’d love there to be a perception of a bounce and all the rest of it. That’s what we’re going after, of course.
“But for me, it’s about the identity and the way we’re going about our work. How are the boys receiving that information? How are we going about our work? How do we improve what we want to do?
“It’s about putting those things in place. We’d love to get short term goals and short term points, absolutely. But it’s about balancing that with the longer term as well.”
Points against a Preston side that have won just once on their travels in the Championship side, should be the order of the day, though they’ve already beaten Luton this season.
“We know that Preston have got their threats, physically, up front and they’ve got a couple of nice dribblers. They’ll look to build with their wing backs, so that’s absolutely fine, we’re aware of what they bring,” said Bloomfield.
“Any formation has its strengths and weaknesses and we feel like we’ve found some ways that which we want to play, to try and imprint ourselves in the game.
“You’ll hear me talk about this a lot. I respect our opposition, and we have to be very mindful of what they’re going to bring to the game, and we prepare for that.
“But also, we’re always looking to imprint ourselves on the game and bring our strengths and our players at the top of the pitch. We want them to be at the forefront of the game and imprinting themselves and looking to create chances, and that’s what we’re looking to go and do tomorrow.”
That’s what Bloomfield’s Wycombe have done across last season and this. Currently they’re sandwiched between Birmingham City and Wrexham who are backed by NFL and Hollywood money.
The Chairboys have outscored both with 50 goals already this season, while Luton have found the net increasingly hard to make bulge.
Bloomfield said: “Preston are a real tough opposition. Lots of boys with loads of know-how. Know how to get results, know how to defend particularly well, so, yeah, it’s not gonna be easy to break them down. Absolutely, we understand that. But, we’re looking for our identity to start coming out.
“We’re looking to excite our crowd. We want them to enjoy their afternoon. And if we do that, we believe we can get the win.”
With only four days to work with the Luton players, Bloomfield has teased “subtle” changes to the side, as he goes about picking his first-ever Championship team.
He said: “I’ve tried to build up a knowledge base. I had quite a big knowledge base already on the group. We’ve now seen how we’re trying to work and who can take that forward. And we try and put a team out.
“Plus, the team needs to complement each other. The different elements of what makes a successful team, successful, needs to come into your team selection as well.
“So, it’s not just about picking what you perceive to be the best players at that moment, because the team needs to have the right ingredients to win the football match.
“All those things go in the melting pot. It’s been fantastic to have, big Mick (Harford), Deardo (Kevin Dearden), Foles (Kevin Foley), Pilks (Kevin Pilkington) to lean on their experience and their knowledge of the football club, as well as our ideas, coming in with fresh eyes. So (we’ll) try to put all that in and pick a team that we can believe that can go win the game.”
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