Ogbene wants Luton to be 'ultra aggressive' when facing the Red Devils at Kenilworth Road

​Luton attacker Chiedozie Ogbene has called on his side to be both ‘high intense’ and ‘ultra aggressive’ when they welcome Premier League giants Manchester United to Kenilworth Road this afternoon.

The Hatters go into the game on the back of a dispiriting defeat to basement side Sheffield United last time out, turning in a subdued performance on home soil to hand the visitors their first away victory of the campaign. Rob Edwards’ side have impressed when welcoming the big six clubs to Bedfordshire this term though, drawing 1-1 with Liverpool and only going down by a single goal to Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Spurs.

Having lost 1-0 at Old Trafford back in November, Ogbene now wants to show the in-form Red Devils, whose 2-1 victory at Aston Villa last weekend was their fourth straight win in all competitions, just what they are capable of three months on, as he said: “The time we lost against United, we were still learning the system. Maybe we were sitting off teams, this time now we know what we want to do, especially at home. So we’re going to be ultra aggressive, we’re going to be high intense and see how they cope with it."

Despite seeing their own unbeaten sequence ended in timid fashion by the struggling Blades, Ogbene didn’t want that to puncture the optimism around Kenilworth Road, which had been sky high following a 4-0 victory against Brighton & Hove Albion in their previous encounter, saying: “We’re upset with ourselves, but we can’t be too down with ourselves as it’s just one game. It's our first loss in the last six so we have to pick ourselves up as quickly as we can.

"If we lost to Man City, people will just say, we expect to lose to Man City. I try not to think too much about the loss as we lost a football match, that’s how I see it. We’re devastated, but we just have to look forward. We have Man United and we want to win that game as well. Naturally we’re going to be down from losing any football match, especially in the way we lost it, but we’ve just got to pick ourselves up.

"The manager made a big point of saying we didn’t play our best, we had chances to get back into it, and we didn’t take our chances. So even though we weren’t at our best, we had some chances to get back into it, which is a positive for us, but we look at our clips and we’ll be ready for next week.”

The manner of the defeat to a fellow relegation rival didn’t alter Ogbene’s belief that the Hatters have what it takes to remain above the dotted line this season either, as he said: “Even if we lost against Man City we’d be feeling the same way, even if we lost against Liverpool, it just happens that we lost to people in and around us. The confidence is still there, we still think we’re capable in this division. We just have to go out and find some sort of result to show that, that’s the only way, but I don’t think this will change our mind about how we feel playing in this division.”

Team-mate Albert Sambi Lokonga was of the same opinion as Luton's Republic of Ireland international, adding: “We’re playing at home so it’s going to be a big one for our supporters. We know how we like the games at home, so it’s up to us to show a good result and a good mentality.”