A REFLECTIVE Nathan Jones revealed he believes he has “compromised in certain principles” during his tenure at Saints, following a 3-0 defeat to Brentford.
Nathan Jones said: “I’ve compromised in certain principles because of personnel and the way people want to play and so on, and I’ve compromised because of fans and so on – it’s a few little things. But no more, I’ve been very successful playing a really fluent style and tried to implement that at Stoke but couldn’t because of certain things. I came back to Luton and was successful playing an aggressive, front-footed side. Statistically, there weren’t many better in Europe in terms of clean sheets, defending your box, balls in the box, XG and all those things. Pound for pound we were the best because we were spending next to nothing and getting results. I’ve gone away from that, maybe because it’s the Premier League, maybe because of certain players and internationals, I’ve had to compromise on certain things but no more.”
Asked if he has listened to outside noise,
Nathan Jones responded: “No, not at all. We’ve thought what have we got, because at the end of the day there are certain players in the building we have to work with. Now we’ve got a little bit more aggression and firepower and so on. We will be able to step that up. There are a few little things but I haven’t listened to outside noise, now I will live and die by my own philosophy. I was recruited to transfer certain things into this football club and I haven’t at the minute, but I will.”
Asked by the Daily Echo what he meant when listing supporters as a reason for compromising,
Nathan Jones answered: “Not just because of fans, I’ve compromised because of certain things. The chants have come after my decisions so it’s nothing to do with fans. Certain things like fans and outside noise have come in afterwards. I’ve gone away from what brought me to this football club and that’s the disappointing thing. One reason has been players and secondly it has probably been you’re in the Premier League and you want to be fluent. You want to make sure that players are in a system which suits them to get the best out of them, now we have a little bit more of what we need to do to be us.”
