Jordan Clark: Luton’s Bright Spark

Watching Luton recently has been a difficult, frustrating and downright tedious experience at times, but amongst poor performances and results one man has not gone missing. Jordan Clark.

Photo Credit: George Dunn/Luton Town FC

Clicker is one of very few players that remain from the pre-Premier League days and it has been abundantly clear that both he and James Shea are not impressed by what they have seen around them at times this season. We are in desperate need of more players to step up and show leadership on the pitch in order to salvage promotion chances this season, which as things stand, look a long way away.

Missing confidence

Saturday’s defeat against Mansfield started with some positive signs. There were indicators that there was a system which had a variety of ways to play and it felt like there was some newfound confidence among the players. Jordan Clark was brought down for a penalty in front of the Oak Road End and Nahki Wells stepped up… and missed, again.

The missed penalty immediately seemed to suck the optimism from the stands and the confidence from the players on the pitch as Nigel Clough’s well-drilled Mansfield side were compact out of possession and efficient with the ball. Nahki Wells’ day went from bad to worse when his misplaced back pass was picked up by Rhys Oates and finished brilliantly with a curved effort that Keeley could not get close to.

After the goal Luton were all over the place. Despite having far more possession; 77 percent in the second half, players were misplacing passes and looked completely bereft of confidence and their mistakes were translating to frustration from the crowd.

Alli’s move to the right wing showed more promise. Photo Credit: George Dunn/Luton Town FC

Jack Wilshere has inherited a side that has undergone back-to-back relegations and constant defeats. The players are clearly lacking in self-belief and confidence, often turning and passing back to an easy option rather than trying to take an opponent on. Milli Alli is the player that seems to be lacking confidence the most, rarely looking to use his pace or cut inside and beat a defender. There were a couple of moments in the latter stages of the second half, after he moved to the right, when he did look to take players on and was able to get into the box, just lacking the end product to find a teammate.

Lack of movement

George Saville has been arguably Luton’s most consistent player apart from Clark this season, but even he was struggling to find teammates with his passes and we again had to sit and watch as players barely moved and Mansfield had no trouble marking their static opposition. When defenders and midfielders had the ball there were no players in front of them trying to find space and when players were trying to take throw-ins they had teammates standing still looking gormless.

The lack of movement is among the most concerning problems for me at the moment and feels like something that should be easily fixed, yet the only match that it has seemingly been solved in was the 3-0 victory at Burton Albion. Sunday league players no they need to find space and with the quality that is in Luton’s squad, although we haven’t seen it recently, it’s hard to understand why it is such a big issue that isn’t being solved.

Jordan CLark carrying passengers

Despite the overall poor performance, Clark still shone and was arguably the best player on the pitch. He was constantly looking to get forward, find teammates and looked technically better than any player on the pitch, but unfortunately for him he was lacking the quality around him to really change the game.

Clicker is a brilliant player and did not look out of place in the Premier League technically. If he was younger, he would likely be playing in the Championship for a possession-based side this season and we are lucky to have him. He has a vast wealth of experience in the EFL and will need to utilise all of it in order to continue carrying the players around him. However, he is now 32-years-old and we simply cannot afford to rely on him as much as we are for too much longer.

Against Premier League sides Jordan Clark fitted in perfectly.

Returning players

We do have good players in the squad, but the combination of absolutely no confidence and an injury list that Florence Nightingale would turn her nose up at means we are constantly seeing players out of position, particularly in the full-back areas, and no consistency in team selection.

The likes of Izzy Jones, Reuell Walters, Hakeem Odoffin and Joe Johnson will be desperately needed when they are fully fit to plug the obvious holes across defensive and wide areas and it has now become even more important that they are able to stay fit.

Odoffin is versatile and can play at centre-back, right-back or in defensive midfield. Whilst we haven’t seen him in a Luton shirt yet, he is very highly rated and won both supporters’ and players’ player of the season awards for 2024/25 for Rotherham last season. If the last player we picked up from Rotherham is anything to go by, he is someone who could help heavily in changing our current fortunes.

Johnson and Walters are both young and relatively inexperienced, but will be playing in their natural positions at full-back. Jones is a talented, pacy wide player who can provide an alternative to our current wingers lacking confidence.

Whilst he has struggled this season, Liam Walsh is someone who Clark benefits from having in the side. Walsh moves the ball forward and allows players like Clark to have more freedom off the ball. A midfield combination of Saville sitting behind Clark and Walsh is more well-balanced and would hopefully be composed in possession and able to better-utilise our wide options.

The striker position is also proving to be a problem. Whilst we have a variety of different forwards, none of them seem to be able to hold down a place in the side or find the back of the net. There is increasing pressure being added to the currently unavailable Al Hamadi to hit the ground running, if not it is hard to see where the goals will come from.

optimism or lunacy?

Despite everything I just mentioned, I am still feeling optimistic about Jack Wilshere and Chris Powell. Their combination of fresh ideas and experience is refreshing and I can’t help but feel it seems like there is an optimism around the club that has been lacking. Things will need to change on the pitch and soon, but with the return of players leading to a more balanced side I am hopeful that will happen.

Perhaps my optimism is entirely misplaced, but for now it remains slightly.