Luton Town v Leeds United: It's all about building momentum '“ Monk

Monk’s new-look United side picked up their first Championship win of the season at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday and the Whites are quickly back in cup action at League Two high-flyers Luton just three days later.

The busy Whites then visit Nottingham Forest on Saturday for an important league game in which victory would likely send the 19th-placed Whites into the division’s top half.

But Monk is refusing to downgrade the importance of his club’s second round EFL Cup clash, with the head coach determined to select teams for both the Luton and Forest games that can register two more victories heading into the international break.

Saturday’s clash at Forest will be United’s seventh game in 21 days and Monk admitted: “It’s a lot of games and all these things you have to consider.

“But I want to win games and I want to keep the momentum and the players feel the same.

“That’s our job - to come and win games and try and do our best in every single game.

“We have another training session this afternoon to assess the players and see where they are at physically and mentally and obviously looking at Luton as well, tactically how we can try and hurt them and defend well against them. I will pick the team according to that.”

League Two outfit Luton knocked out Aston Villa in the first round and United have a poor record from sporadic trips to Kenilworth Road where they have won on just two of their last ten visits - in December 1991 and prior to that in August 1959.

Monk admits a tight pitch and hostile ground will lead to a real battle, less than two weeks after the Whites needed penalties to scrape past Uwe Rosler’s League One outfit Fleetwood Town.

“It will be a battle and we have to be ready for that,” said Monk.

“I think we showed that we were ready against Fleetwood who made it a similar game and a very physical game.

“Luton is a difficult little ground, they will have a good atmosphere, a good crowd, a good backing and they will be motivated by playing against a club from a higher league. They will want to try and get through the round like they did the previous one so we have to be ready.

“But we want to try and focus on ourselves and try and keep the momentum we have and keep improving like we have in every game and trying to improve again for this game against Luton.”