Luton Town – The Thoughts Of Honest Rob – Gillingham (h)

Being drawn against sides from a lower league is always a difficult experience, even more so last night.

After losing the opening two games of the 2023/2024 Premier League season, against Brighton and Chelsea, Rob Edwards had a difficult decision to make with regards to his team selection, something we pointed out, in an article, ahead of the game – edwards-faces-selection-dilemma-for-gillingham-carabao-cup-tie.

As it happens, Rob chose to make a raft of changes to the XI that started the last match, at Stamford Bridge.

In his post-match interview, as reported by the BBC, Rob discussed the dangers of facing a lower league side and the changes he opted to make, commenting:

“We could only win by winning the game. The expectancy was obviously on us – it’s a little bit different to the past couple of games we’ve had, so I feel very pleased.

“We had quite a lot of changes, tweaked the shape a little bit, and I liked a lot of what I saw. It was a good start and I thought we built on it as well.”

Indeed, everything looked rosy with the Hatters leading 2-0, but that is often a score line that presents the most danger, with Rob admitting:

“We controlled pretty much all of the first half – going 2-0 up was great – and we spoke at half-time about the next goal as the game could really hinge on that.

“They got it, they probably had five or ten minutes when we had to deal with it, but we still looked OK.”

Indeed, we did but there were moments when, with sharper finishing, it could quite easily have been 2-2.

Continuing, Rob spoke about the manner in which Luton slipped in and out of the game, further adding:

“There’s probably a reason we lacked a bit of fluency, but there were a lot of good things I saw.”

There were, but was it the right decision to make so many changes?

You could say yes, as the game was won, but you could argue no, implying it may have been better to stick with a settled XI to get more cohesion in our play ahead of the forthcoming home fixture against high flying West Ham United.

But what are your views on the quantity of changes Rob made?

Please feel free to air your views in the comment facility beneath this article.

COYH

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