Matt Bloomfield hailed Lasse Nordås’ contribution after the striker helped Luton take control to see out a 1-0 victory over Wigan Athletic.
Introduced in the second half, the Norwegian forward helped hand the Hatters assert more dominance after living dangerously in the first period, where keeper Josh Keeley kept the Latics out.
He struck the post and produced one turn and driving run that got fans excited, while linking play and providing players with a target man.
Bloomfield has previously said they’re trying to get the tall frontman up to speeed with English football after his switch from Tromso in January.
While Nordås is still searching for his first Hatters goal, his manager believes the striker is edging closer to his breakthrough.
“It would have been lovely for him to get his first goal for us,” Bloomfield said. “He’s searching for that moment. It would have been great under the lights here for him to have that moment with our supporters, but it feels like he’s getting closer and it’s not too far away.
“[I’m] eally pleased with Lasse. He’s still adapting to the English game. We’ve spoken about that a number of times. But again, it feels like he’s better with a partner and Jerry [Yates] was alongside him tonight until the very late stages. But yeah, it was really good for him. The game opened up and he was able to turn a couple of really nice times and, yeah, it would have been lovely for him to get a goal.”
Nordås’ link-up with fellow forward Yates offered a different dimension to Town’s attack after a first half in which Bloomfield felt his front men were too isolated.
“In the first half, we felt like they weren’t close enough together, so we spoke about that at half-time,” he explained. “They weren’t playing as a pair enough, second half, we felt they did play as a pair a lot more. We’re still evolving into the team for the end finished product. We’re not there yet.”
Bloomfield revealed that a change in approach was key to unlocking Wigan’s defence, as Luton shifted to a front two in a bid to show greater attacking intent at home.
“We have a lot of midfield players, so we felt like utilising four of them on the pitch within our three at the back was the way to go in pre-season and early season. I’m not sure it’s looked and felt like the team we want it to be,” he admitted. “So we’ve obviously always evolving, you’re always thinking about what’s the next move, where do we go with it?
“So yeah, it means that we went to a front two tonight. We wanted to show some attacking intent at home. It’s the team we want to be. We want to be that attacking unit. Lots of centre backs, so we’re still a three right now. So yeah, it’s a way of trying to show some attacking intent as much as we possibly can.”
