Luton Town manager Jack Wilshere says the Hatters must become more “clinical” and consistent next season and he’ll make scoring goals a focus of Town’s pre-season after they ultimately “fell short” in their late push for the League One play-offs.
The first two thirds of the campaign were frustrating, not least in front of goal as, ultimately, only Nahki Wells from the striking department reached double figures for the campaign, with 10 goals. Instead, it was midfielder Jordan Clark who finished as top scorer with a career best 13 for the term.
But the Hatters went on a remarkable run that saw them lose just one of their final 17 games, which included nine victories in their final 11 games in all competitions. And all throughout April and the final game at the start of May, Luton scored two or more goals in every game.
Wilshere, reflecting on his first senior managerial campaign after taking over in October, said a detailed review had already begun at The Brache as the club looks to build on that dramatic turnaround in fortunes, despite finishing one point outside the top six.
“The biggest thing that we were missing was consistency,” the Hatters boss told the club’s YouTube channel.
“Being able to consistently do what we want, but then also understanding that you can’t always do that and finding different ways within games, whether that would be playing a little bit more direct, whether that would be accepting at times we’re going to have to defend against the better teams.
“The team has developed so much within all them different aspects of the game, which we have to do.
“We have to be able to adapt to all the different ways of playing in this league and we were close. It always felt like we were close.
“There was a time when I first came in where we weren’t getting the chances. We were trying to develop a style that we wanted to dominate the ball, but then dominate the ball with purpose.
“We went through that process of, OK, now we can dominate the ball but we actually need to turn that control and dominance into opportunities.
“We done that and then it was like, OK, we keep creating opportunities but we can’t seem to put them in.
“I think we can still be more clinical and that has to be an area we look at in pre-season and turning that into more goals.
“To create the opportunities we did towards the end of the season, different ways, I spoke from day one about having variation in the way we attack. I’m proud of where the team are but we have to take that next step now.”
Pre-season preparations have already begun as Town will swap their regular training camp in Slovenia for Spain, with Wilshere saying “I want to make sure that we’ve got as much of the squad together” for that trip, to help build unity so that his side are ready from “day one” of the new season.
But, looking back on the campaign which ended two weeks ago, Wilshere said: “I think important that we do reflect. We had a really good review day with all the staff, all the departments on what went well, what we need to keep and what we need to change to try and help improve the team.
“I’m proud of what we achieved. This is what I said to the staff, ‘we made big steps but ultimately we fell short’.
“That’s why it’s really important that we do reflect and review everything because next year we want to improve and an improvement next year is really important, points-wise, because we know our ambition.
“I’m proud of the players because I spoke a lot about the adversity they had to face and we have to have players that can deal with that. It was a little bit too little too late but we’ve got an exciting future ahead of us.”
Wilshere admitted his biggest lesson from his first season in management was the importance of sticking to a clear footballing identity, even when results were poor, such as during their 11-game winless streak on the road.
He said: “My biggest learning from this year, and I always thought of this going into coaching into management, is that you have to have a process. You have to have an identity, a way of playing that you keep reflecting to, that you keep reviewing.
“There were some times where it clearly wasn’t working, what we were trying to do consistently enough to get the results we needed. Then there’s a decision we have to make as a group. Do we change everything or do we just adapt a few things that are based around the style we want?
“We done that really well. Even when I think about the away run that we went on which wasn’t good enough and the different things we tried to do, we kept always being adaptable as coaches.
“That’s really important at this level because you come up against so many different styles, different ways of playing and you have to understand them and understand what’s going to work against them.”
Wilshere already expects a “busy summer” as Town look to strengthen their squad.
He added: “There are some things we need to recruit and different types of players, but there are some areas where we can improve the players and make sure they’re more prepared going into certain games next season.
“That’s started and that’s a process that I’m looking forward to, [that] I’m enjoying at the moment.”
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