Midfielder impresses during 1-0 victory at Millwall
Luton manager Rob Edwards is certain that midfielder Liam Walsh’s stubborn streak will make the summer addition popular with the Hatters’ fan base.
The former Everton prospect, who had also spent a brief loan period with Hull City, departed Swansea City last month on a free transfer after an injury-plagued three-year career in which he featured just 34 times. Walsh recently played a superb 45 minutes in Town’s Carabao Cup loss to QPR. He then made a late appearance in the Hatters’ 2-1 league loss at home to the same team before starting on Saturday against Millwall.
Completing 89 minutes in the 1-0 victory at the Den, Walsh’s ability on the ball was quite clear from the start, although as the contest wore on, it was his battling nature that shone through the most, getting stuck in to his Lions opponents, one particular challenge with George Honeyman earning both players talking to from official Josh Smith.
Having stated he will always try and win every single tackle during his interview when signing for the club, Edwards feels that side of the game is something Luton’s fans will quickly latch on to, as he said: “He’s really tenacious Walshy. People look at him and because he’s not six foot, think he might just be a silky footballer and that’s it, but he’s got a lot to his game.
“He’s very tenacious, he’s aggressive, that’s why the fans will really like him, because he’s someone who’s a good technician, can play with the ball, but he runs hard. His running stats are really good, so he works hard, and he’ll fight and win tackles as well, that’s what you want from everybody in every position on the pitch. So hopefully people are looking at what he does and will really take to him, because we really like Walshy, that’s why we brought him to the club.”
Walsh, a player that Edwards had his eye on during his youth career at Goodison Park, might have opened his account in east London too, as after curving one effort that was comfortably saved by Lukas Jensen, he should have made the home stopper pick the ball out of his net when arriving to meet Jordan Clark’s cross that was dummied by Tahith Chong, only to fire straight at the Danish keeper.
With eight goals in his career so far, including one absolutely stunning solo effort when on loan at Coventry City, Edwards believes it’s an aspect of his game he can also bring to Luton, adding: “I think he’s got that in him. Like we’ve always tried to do really, we’ve always allowed our midfielders to break into the box, we probably need at least one of them to balance off, and give us a little bit of protection, but we never want to rein anyone in.
“We want to arrive in good numbers, we’ve always allowed that throughout the couple of years, whether that’s Allan Campbell, Pelly (Mpanzu), Ross (Barkley), Sambi (Lokonga), Walshy, whoever that might be, go and run and go and get in the box. He’s another one who’s got a really good brain and the timing of his runs are really effective.”
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