Jones wants even more from much-loved Pelly at Kenilworth Road

Town boss Nathan Jones insists that midfielder Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu can still get better and better for the Hatters.

The 26-year-old is now in his eighth season at Kenilworth Road after signing from West Ham on loan in December 2013 and then permanently a month later.

Saturday's 1-0 win at Barnsley was the 254th appearance of Mpanzu's career, while he has scored 17 goals in that time.

After completing 44 games in the second tier last term, he has proved more than capable of playing in the Championship, but Jones now wants to see even more, saying: “I hope plenty because he’s still nowhere near the finished article.

"He started at West Ham where he was a centre half and a real defensive player.

"He came here, couldn’t stay fit and, now, suddenly, he’s this machine that churns out training and games.

"Trust me, he exerts as much energy through his vocal chords as he does his muscles, so he’s a real key member to the squad, but there’s so much more.

"One, can he get more goals? Can he get more assists? Can he do more in games?

"We still demand from him constantly, but we’re delighted with the level he’s at and he’s a key member to us.

"I don’t overstate this, we love having Pelly around, we love working with him.

"He wants to learn, he wants to get better, but he’s a giver, Pelly, and we’re so pleased he’s one of ours.

"There’s plenty more to come, there really is."

According to whoscored.com, Mpanzu didn’t register a single assist in the league for Town last season, something he rectified at the first attempt on Saturday with a flick header to put James Collins through for his match-winning strike.

He also set up the forward for the second of his hat-trick last weekend in the 3-1 Carabao Cup win over Norwich City, while had a big hand in the other two goals, fouled for the penalty and then dinking over the top for Jordan Clark to tee up Town’s top scorer.

It’s something that Jones is looking for not just Mpanzu, but others to add to their games this season.

He added: “We want all of our midfield players to get in the box and to add assists and goals, we do demand that, we did that throughout our previous time here.

"At the end of last season we wanted to make sure that we were more solid, now we’re trying to evolve as a side, to be a little bit more front-footed, proactive team and we’re on our way to doing that.

"Part of that is asking midfield players to get goals, get into the box and we've had a good record with that.

"People like Cameron McGeehan, Luke Berry, Andrew Shinnie have scored, Elliot Lee from attacking midfield positions, so we’ve had that and we want to encourage that.”