Edwards on FA Cup importance, Giles offer and Barkley
- Published
Josh Lobley, BBC Sport
Rob Edwards has spoken to the media ahead of Luton's FA Cup match with Everton on Saturday.
Here are the main lines from his news conference:
Edwards recognised the balance between the league and the FA Cup: “The league is of course the most important but this game is next and we will prepare right because we want to win and go as far as we can."
Despite accepting the Premier League takes priority, Edwards did not play down the prestige of the FA Cup: "[It] is an amazing competition so we’re taking it very, very seriously. For us, we want to continue building our performances and the feelgood factor because we’ve been in good form. We’re really looking forward to it. Everton are a brilliant football club, it’s a great stadium so the motivation is there for us.”
He said returning to the ground where they got their first Premier League win gives the Hatters more confidence: "It gives you belief knowing you’ve done it [winning] there before. This will be a different occasion. Everton have won a lot of football matches since that game. But like we did at Sheffield United the other week – we knew we had done it before. Maybe there’s something in that but we’ll see.”
Edwards spoke about Marvellous Nakamba, who will be sidelined for several months: "I love his smile around the place and, while he’s still smiling, you can tell he’s desperate to be out on the pitch."
The club have received an "interesting offer" for Ryan Giles, but the "ball is in the player's court". The Luton boss says there may be one or two more departures if he wants it to happen.
On why Ross Barkley has played in a deeper role than usual Luton: "It works for us. He's able to take the ball a little bit deeper and allows us to build and control the game. It felt natural and he's making it his own. We aren't holding him back and stopping him from getting forward because that's a big part of his game and we don't want to rein him in."
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