Matt Bloomfield believes Luton’s summer transfer business has handed him greater tactical flexibility, with the option to evolve from the three-man defence that has been a much-talked of feature of the early season.
The summer window saw 14 of last term’s first-team squad depart Kenilworth Road with 14 new faces coming in.
Adding defensive depth was an early priority which proved wise due to Mark McGuinness’ surprise transfer to Sheffield United a week ago, having only signed for Luton from Cardiff last summer in a move understood to be around the £6million mark. Though officially undisclosed, that figure would have made the Republic of Ireland centre half the Hatters’ record signing.
Fellow central defender Tom Holmes also left on loan to Rotherham, but even with four clean sheets in their opening League One games – equalling Town’s best ever defensive start to a Football League campaign – there has been much debate about employing a three-man defence, with wing-backs either side, though it had largely ben Luton’s attacking output that had struggled to click until last weekend’s 3-0 win at Burton.
Then on transfer deadline day the Hatters made their marquee signings with the loan capture of Ipswich striker Ali Al-Hamadi and Aberdeen’s pacey winger Shayden Morris. The latter made an instant impact in a Vertu Trophy cameo, where he won a penalty against Barnet and converted for a debut goal as Bloomfield’s boys won 4-1, could have doubled that tally ad showed plenty of examples of where the evolution of his new-look team to take them.
Asked if the club’s summer business now gave him scope to alter formations, the Luton boss said: “Possibly. And I know there is a lot of talk around it. But we’ve got four very good strikers, five including Joe [Gbodé]. And we want to have as many of them on the pitch as we possibly can. So, it’s about making our formation fit the players that we have available and trying to get as many in the right position as we possibly can.”
Asked if he’s got the attacking thrust that will now move his Town team towards the style of football he wants to play, Bloomfield said: “Yeah, absolutely, but they are only words unless it’s out there on the pitch, so we have to show that.
“Because of the summer we’ve had, and because of the amount of turnover we’ve had, Cohen [Bramall] has not been up to speed, properly because he missed pre-season. Gideon [Kodua] missed pre-season. [Jerry] Yates missed pre-season. Shayden we’ve just got in.
“We’ve had to be patient and try and piece it together a bit by bit over the first [few games], and we knew that was going to be the case because of the window not closing until [on Monday] night.
“So we had to get through six league games, whilst we’re getting the group up to speed in the minute we want and there’s lots more work to be done, we’re starting to come to a position that we want it and we just want to keep working forward as much as we possibly can.”
But Bloomfield stressed that he will not sacrifice defensive solidity, pointing to the strides made since he took charge in January.
“It’s important that we get the balance right, because we certainly don’t want to be kamikaze either,” he said, adding: “We’ve had a good number of clean sheets already, and we want to stay solid. If you remember, when we came in the building in January, I think it was 44 goals against in 25 games, 26 games. And the most important thing for us was to try and stop that. And we feel like we’ve done a lot of work in that area, and now it’s about trying to get the team performing and attacking in the manner that we always believe we want to do.
“So, it’s not an overnight process. We’re still a team in evolution. We’ve still got to be patient with certain elements. But there’s been shoots of optimism and we hope they continue.”
