Luton boss admits he had considered making more changes for Chelsea clash

Town boss Rob Edwards admitted he had considered making more changes ahead of the Hatters’ 3-2 defeat against Chelsea yesterday afternoon.

With Luton going again for their third game in the space of a week, the Town chief resisted the urge to freshen things up dramatically for the visit of Mauricio Pochettino’s side, instead just bringing back the fit-against on-loan Manchester City wingback Issa Kabore for Ryan Giles. It meant that 10 of the 11 chosen had started all three matches during the festive period, having beaten Newcastle United 1-0 last Saturday and 3-2 at Sheffield United on Boxing Day.

Town then fell 2-0 behind in the first period, as it wasn’t until Tahith Chong and Chiedozie Ogbene were introduced at the break that they really started to pick up as an attacking force. With Carlton Morris then replacing Andros Townsend just after the hour mark, Chelsea soon going on to score a third, Luton had a first shot on target with 15 minutes left, Ross Barkley’s tame effort easy for Djordje Petrovic

From then on the hosts were rampant though, Elijah Adebayo having a goal disallowed for offside, before the forward, along with Barkley, were both on target to make it 3-2, with Adebayo and Morris also denied by the woodwork as well.

Asked if he had considered making more changes prior to kick-off, Edwards said: “Yes, I thought about that. I felt the energy and the pressing the front three had been giving us has been remarkable, we felt they’ve got it into to do it again and they have, they did. So I don’t think we needed to tweak too much.

"I think it’s important that I don't try and be too clever and think oh right, I can make too many changes, because we’re in a rhythm, but of course, I think about that all the time.”

With Luton looking to press the Chelsea back-line whenever possible, it meant the visitors went a bit longer at times, attempting to hit forward Armand Broja, who was well marshalled by Gabe Osho during what was only the Albanian’s fifth league start of the campaign.

Edwards felt that would be the case, adding: “Most teams, when you look at the bigger clubs and the teams that will be possession dominant, they’ve all had to do that because we’ll be so aggressive in that press. I think that’s why Broja would have started today, to be able to go in to him, as he’s a bigger number nine type so he can get hold of it.

"It was pretty clear that’s why he was playing, because they thought they would try and miss it (the press) and go in, and that’s what everyone will do these days now. Teams will press now and opposition teams can’t get through it, they try and miss that press. It becomes a bit more of a second ball game, becomes a bit more chaotic, which suits us.

"But that’s down to the players’ quality in one v one duels. If Broja was having a field day and bringing it down and being able to go and play, they can continue to do that and get control, but they couldn’t really get consistent control in doing that.”