Rob Edwards said Luton’s continued poor form is “on me” and up to him to fix after a 2-0 Championship defeat at Sheffield United.
Last season, both teams suffered relegation from the Premier League, but it was Town that earned the plaudits while the Blades conceded a record 104 goals.
But this term, the Hatters have now lost five of their nine games and only four teams have a poorer defensive record that their 15 goals conceded. Three of those are the only reason that Town are not in the relegation zone, but instead just one point above.
On the other hand, United had started the season on fire and remain the only side in the second tier yet to win, conceding only three times. That record was never tested by Luton.
The visitors had won their last two trips to Bramall Lane, but a hat-trick was all but out of the question as early as the 12th minute when Jesurun Rak-Sakyi scored the first of a brace. It was too easy for the Crystal Palace loanee who was linked with a move to Kenilworth Road in the summer.
Luton failed to challenge for two aerial balls and when the ball landed to the Sheffield winger Reuell Walters and Mark McGuinness failed to even get close to him.
Birthday boy Rak-Sakyi, 22, then doubled his tally on 52 minutes when a stopover left Walters for dead and he slammed beyond Thomas Kaminski in Town’s goal.
The former Arsenal full back, was exposed time and again by the goalscorer, having been asked to play on the left instead of his usual right side. But it was one of a string of baffling decisions, as the much-called change to a defensive back four was delivered, but with Reece Burke playing as a right back, and at times, acting as Luton’s furthest forward player, while Alfie Doughty was asked to play in front of him rather than his usual left side.
And with Jordan Clark supporting striker Elijah Adebayo, who is still without a goal this term, it was a confusing line-up, and a gamble that did not work.
“It’s on me. I’ve got to fix it,” said Edwards, adding that fortunes will only change if players and staff:“Work hard on the training pitch. We’ll try and support the players. We can do what we always try to do, which is give clarity. Work hard on and off the pitch to make sure we fix certain areas that we’re not doing well at the moment.
“Today, obviously, we didn’t want to open up as much, so we changed the shape.We played the back four, we kept things more compact. We went to press from a bit of a deeper shape, so we had more bodies behind the ball. But we still wanted to then jump out and try and press at the right moments. In theory, it looked good, and then when we were actually out there, they didn’t open us up loads unless it was a few mistakes or, right towards the end, when we were beginning to open up more, there was, there was one or two moments then.
“But yeah, we’ve got to work hard. We’ve got to stick together and turn this around.”
And Edwards insisted his men understood the instructions, having played for much of the season with a back three and two covering wing backs.
“Everyone was brought up with that (4-4-2) since they’re seven years old when they start playing football. That wasn’t an issue. And, you know, in this job, you’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t.
“I’m getting asked yesterday (in the pre-match press conference). ‘Why don’t you change it?’ We do change it. It doesn’t work.
“It’s difficult at the moment. We want to try and stick to our principles and our beliefs, but we want to make sure we try and help the players and make sure we didn’t open up too much away at Bramall Lane as well.”
There was a lot wrong with the performance which, at one point saw them conceded 85 per cent possession, but it was the meek way in which Town conceded the goals. It was a continuation of hugely avoidable defensive mistakes that have dogged them in a 2024 where they’ve won just four games in 32 games across two different divisions.
“Look, you can lose here (Sheffield United) at the moment in the form that they’re in and probably the form that we’re in at the moment, but there’s ways to do it,” Edwards told the BBC.
“Obviously, we changed things. We wanted to give us a little bit more solidity, but the way we conceded the two goals, which ultimately have cost us the game, were really, really disappointing.
“The ball pops up near to the box. We don’t challenge. The ball landed. We didn’t challenge. Indecisiveness. Before you know, it’s in the back of the net. Really frustrating when we got good numbers there and people to be able to deal with it.
“It was a different goal, the second one. But again, we’re in a decent shape. We’ve got numbers there to be able to deal with it. Once it got to Rak-Sakyi, it’s a dangerous moment in a one-v-one in the box.
“The ball went inside us, which was frustrating. We had the numbers there to be able to deal with it.”
The defeat sends Luton into their second international break of the season licking their wounds with plenty to ponder, not least because of the return fixture in two weeks’ time is at home to arch-rivals Watford.
Edwards said: “I see it (the derby) as an opportunity for us. You know, there’s there’s no excuse than that one there to to not win challenges, not compete, not win duels, you know, and, so we can go after that over these next couple of weeks.”
And on how he can help lift the low morale, the manager said: “We’re going to need to come together, stick together, work hard. And, really, it’ll be results that will that will determine that.
“It’s only us that can fix it. So, you know, now we’ve got quite a while to think about it as well. which is yeah, it’s horrible. But when we next get back out on the pitch and get around them again, you know, we can start to try and, hopefully start to try and feel better about the situation because there’ll be some good work going on. That’s all we can do now, right now.
“There’ll be a lot of people feeling like me up and down the country over these next couple of weeks, but we’ve all got what we’ve got now is some time to work and fix some of the issues.”
