Jack Wilshere has sought to explain to fans that sterile control is not what he is coaching, after his Luton side were booed 97 seconds into Saturday’s 1-1 League One draw with Burton Albion.
“Sideways and backwards everywhere we go” has become a deprecating chant for some Hatters supporters in recent weeks, built on the perception that their team play unadventurous football, while the lack of chances created, particularly against bottom of the league sides, has given those beliefs oxygen.
Back-to-back games against relegation-threatened Wigan and Burton have yielded a grand total of seven shots on target – five of which came in one added time fruitless flurry in Lancashire – one goal and one point. It’s a pattern that has repeated with possession dominance, but not points, across a run of winless away days that have stretched back to early November.
And when George Saville passed back to centre half Mads Andersen in the extremely early stages of game against the Brewers, it was the first sign of boos that would grow louder and more emphatic at the end of the game after Luton let a one-goal lead slip in injury time.
After the final whistle they were aimed at the manager, his players and the board, and Wilshere has admitted it’s “tough for the players,” adding: “It definitely doesn’t help.”
But the boos at the beginning set the scene and Wilshere addressed fans’ perception and their frustrations, saying: “We don’t want to pass the ball around the back just to pass it around the back.
“We never talk about that. I don’t want to be that coach who says that. We want to pass it to find the right solution to find the right passing lane and then go forward and you can see that with the goal. It’s two passes and we cut through them. So, if the spaces are there, let’s go. Sometimes you have to create the space.”
Wilshere believes the principles are sound, even if the execution has lacked conviction at key moments outside of Joe Johnson’s sublime pass for Nahki Wells’ opener.
“As the first five, 10 minutes of the first half went on, I felt like this is going to be a game where we can take the ball and we can dominate the ball. But once we scored, we didn’t do that. We tried to protect the lead too early.
“And maybe that is because the players feel – and it wasn’t the whole crowd either, t was certain bits in the crowd – that they don’t want us to be that team that dominates the ball. We’re trying to create a style and I think we’ve been quite good at it in certain moments.
“I think back to the Bradford game, which everyone loved. That was with the ball. That was us playing with purpose. That was us dominating the ball.”
The challenge, as Wilshere sees it, is not abandoning the method but refining it and showing greater courage within it.
“We will keep building and keep trying to work to this way to try and build an identity and get better at it,” he said, adding: “I know the players believe in it. It’s just in a tough environment sometimes to have that courage to have that confidence to do it, it’s difficult.”
Wilshere played most of his career for an Arsenal team that was also expected to win, while he was part of the England generation that had difficult periods which led to a fraught relationship at times with fans of the national side.
Asked if he can draw on those experiences, he said: “I played at West Ham as well and [Manuel] Pellegrini brought me in and we lost the first four games, which was tough. And the most important thing is that we all stick together.
“I know all the [Luton] players are together. I know the staff are together and I know it is our job, it is our responsibility to give the fans something to cheer about.
“I ask them [fans] to please stick with us, stick with the players because it’s not through want of trying. They’re giving everything for this club, and I promise you that they are. The way we train, the way we work, how much responsibility the players are asked to take and they take it on and try and deliver it.
“So, yes, stick with them because we will give everything we can to try and get out of this division, to try and win games and they are giving everything. At the minute, it’s not quite enough, and we have to find why that is and try and turn that around.”
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