Jack Wilshere says he has to help his Hatters to defend “as a team” but believes they have already begun to show greater resilience after their dramatic 4-3 FA Cup victory over Forest Green Rovers.
The victory – a third on the spin – earned Luton a second round tie away at League Two Fleetwood, where they’ll hope to have an easier time of it than throwing away a three-goal lead in 20 chaotic, second half minutes, before Gideon Kodua’s stoppage-time winner finally settled the tie.
There were echoes of the three-goal collapse in the Premier League against Bournemouth, which set the tone for some notable capitulations in the 17 months since. But, on this occasion, though they rode their luck, Luton held out. And while pleased to progress in the cup, Wilshere admitted his side made life far harder for themselves than it should have been against the non-league Rovers,
“Defending is a team thing, right?” he said. “People say, ‘oh, look at the defenders and blah, blah, blah’. It’s really, really important that we defend with 11 players. Of course we don’t want to concede goals.
“They were very similar, where we didn’t defend our box well enough, or we made one mistake and then we tried to fix it and it led to another one [goal]. We have to look at that and help the players get better. But I’m happy that we’re through. That was the main thing.”
Wilshere said the challenge of managing the game against lower-league opposition came down to “matching their effort” first and foremost, which Town did for a comfortable hour – but then the panic set in.
“When you play against opposition like this, ultimately how you win the game is by showing your quality,” he said. “We spoke about that before – matching their effort and then trying to kill their spirit by being good on the ball. In the first half you saw that. But then the second half changed, we lost our rhythm and they created a bit of momentum.
“It just felt like one of them where every time they were going in our box, it wasn’t like a nice bit of play, it was a bit of carnage and it would fall to someone,” he said. “Sometimes you need to ride your luck and we certainly did then.”
Wilshere said his players must learn to embrace those moments and show “resilience and suffering” – qualities he believes define successful teams.
“When I talk about suffering, that’s probably the main skill you need – resilience, especially against teams that commit so many numbers forward,” he said. “They put players on your last line, compete for second balls, one goal goes in, two goals go in, and you have to stay resilient. You have to find something else, find a way.”
The 33-year-old said his squad are open to learning from such moments, saying: “When we’re in the auditorium [at The Brache] and having meetings, they are outspoken, they want to be coached, they want to be held accountable. That’s important – that we have a group of players who want to grow. I think we know the way that we have to.”
Wilshere added that even though football marvels at the likes of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola and his former Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, even for them, the fundamentals of the game remain unchanged.
“Some things, they don’t leave football,” the Hatters boss said, adding: “You look at Pep, Mikel, and people say, ‘oh, this is amazing’. But I’ve seen the way Mikel works – the standards he demands out of possession and winning your duels and earning the right. That doesn’t leave the game. We have to make sure we’re still doing that.”
Despite the scare, Wilshere said the victory showed the character within the squad.
“We’ve got a good group of lads, we’ve got leaders and characters in there,” he said. “You saw that at the end. I know at times it’s felt like it’s been missing this season, but since I’ve been here it’s been there – and we have to keep it that way.”
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