Luton – Solving That Quality Dilemma

Mad Hatter

2 years ago

Categories: News

Tags: Championship, City Ground, Luton Town, Nottingham Forest

For the second consecutive Championship match, the travelling Hatters support has watched their side squander chances.

Last Friday night, 2,452 saw Luton fail to score at Loftus Road while last night 1,418 saw the Hatters create chances but fail to score at the City Ground.

But it is not as if we are failing to create chances, just failing to take them.

Against Forest, their keeper had an inspired game, saving a penalty, albeit with his trailing leg, and then producing a decent late save to deny Kal Naismith.

But, as we are finding out, when it comes to the Championship, lacking quality and composure in front of goal can prove to be costly.

It is something Nathan Jones has talked about in his post-match interview and last night was no exception with, as reported by The BBC, Nathan remarking:

“We are a good side and we’ve shown that here. Before the sending-off we were comfortable, our shape was good and we were good defensively.

“We just needed to show a bit of quality but, being realistic, we haven’t got the budget for a Mitrovic, Solanke or a Harry Wilson.

“The stats show that we’re creating enough chances and keeping the ball well enough, but I’m sick of looking at the numbers.

“The players are giving me everything, but certain moments are stopping us being a top-six team with a bottom-three budget.”

But what is the answer?

One poster on social media, makes a succinct point:

Jones needs to swallow his pride & go get some decent loan players in January if we can’t get anyone on a permanent deal..

— LU3 Beatz (@Lu3Beatz) November 23, 2021

But that in itself is a challenge.

Whilst players are available, even bringing in an up-and-coming youngster, from a Premier League club, can be a costly business unless the parent club are wiling to subsidise their wages.

Perhaps the answer is to discover an uncut diamond but then again polishing such a player can be a time-consuming process.

Or is there, somewhere, a veteran striker who is yearning for regular game time?

It really is a catch-22 situation and one with no easy answer.

But what are your views on the above subject matter?

Please feel free to have your say in the comment facility beneath this article.

COYH’s