It’s never nice to witness a Hatters defeat, especially when you face a long journey home, but these things do happen.
As we begin the inquest into what went wrong, the first topic of conversation is, naturally, the team selection.
When the starting XI was revealed, my first reaction concerned the absence of Elijah Adebayo and Jordan Clark, two of the best performers in our recent victory over Bournemouth.
It was a view shared by some posters on social media, as the post below illustrates:
Second half was rubbish. Jones tinkering again! Bell and Muskwe not good enough
— medsuk (@medsuk1) January 22, 2022
But the perpetrator of that post was soon shot down by another Hatter keen to put his point across:
You do realise how many games we've got coming up and to expect your favourites to play all of them without rest is unrealistic and could result in more injuries right? Managers have to "tinker".
— Craig (@DiamondHatter) January 22, 2022
And it is hard to argue against that point of view.
Luton Town face a period of severe fixture congestion, as we pointed out in a previous article – danger-lies-ahead-as-fixture-congestion-bites.
During this period, Nathan Jones will have to do his utmost to keep the squad fresh and if that means chopping and changing when it comes to individuals, then so be it.
Besides, it seems Adebayo was carrying a slight injury yesterday, therefore it made sense not to start with our main striker, a slight injury could soon have developed into something far more serious.
Trust in Nathan Jones is what we ask of you!
COYH’s
Luton Town v Bristol City?
Luton Town to Win!
Bristol City to Win!
A Draw!
Previous article by Mad Hatter
Luton – How And Why Is This Happening?
Morning MH i was a little surprised Nathan did not play a 4-4-1-1 against Sheffield as four in midlfield continuing the high press might have kept their £20K strikers short of supply. Now with Burke out for one game who will play alongside Bradley. Bell had a poor game and Naismith may continue at left back or possibly a return for Potts? So will it be Osho or what has happened to our hIghest paid defender Rae or is he injured or out of favour?/
COYH
We were in the pub chatting to some United fans before the match who thought we could probably win as they’re poor at home. Then we saw the team sheet and new we’d travelled up with Jones adamant the best we could achieve was 0-0. The first half went to plan but we were terrible at the start of the second half. And Jones confirmed he was only ever playing for a draw by bringing on Adebayo – “yes I got it totally wrong and Adebayo is fit”.
That said, we don’t need to get too down. We haven’t played Sheff U regularly in years and we competed twice this season with them and should have comfortably won at ours. And if we win on Tuesday then it was probably the right call to sack off yesterday.
But…
Bell is in such poor form it’s ridiculous he keeps his place in the team. It was a relief when he got taken off. He had a decent debut against Peterborough but has been consistently lazy in defence since then. He doesn’t stop crosses and he doesn’t defend enough. He walks back from attack. He needs a rest. Give Potts a go. Or even Onyedinma. Give Bell a chance to find some form out of the firing line.
And I’d like to see sluga back now. Shea is a very good keeper. But his distribution isn’t as good as Sluga’s he’s slipped twice now when kicking out and we’ve luckily got away with it. We won’t keep getting away with it.
The team selection for Tuesday night is eagerly awaited 🙂
i like osho,but not sure about muskwe. i think the left midfield has been weak all season long. hope we get back to winning ways soon.COYH.
What about Fred, his chances have been very limited considering how he performed against Peterborough