Former Arsenal ace 'never seen or worked with a striker' like Northern Ireland star

Former Linfield youngster Marshall made a permanent summer move to the Hatters from West Ham United, where he made his Premier League debut last season.

The 21-year-old, who also spent time on loan in Germany with Bochum last term, is now hoping to enjoy an extended senior run in League One and netted his first goal in Saturday’s 2-2 draw at home to Notts County.

An injury suffered during pre-season has limited Marshall’s Luton involvement to just two substitute appearances at the start of the new season, but Wilshere is thrilled to have the Glengormley youngster in his squad.

“He does that, he does that every single day in training,” Wilshere told Luton Today, the News Letter’s sister title. “When you think there’s not a chance, he creates a chance.

"He shifts it, right foot, left foot, he will grab a coach every single day after training and work on his finishing.

"There’s no surprise for me that when he gets half a yard like that, that he wants to shoot and he wants to score a goal.

"He’s a goalscorer and genuinely I’ve never seen or worked with a striker that wants to do finishing so much after training, different types of finishes, in small-sided games, he scores goals out of nowhere.

"He is a typical number nine, a typical goalscorer that we need.

"With Cal, when he came in, he played the first game and then he got a knock on his ankle that threw him off a bit, killed his momentum that he was building, so we had to build him up again, but he’s definitely getting there.

“You can see when he scored how much it means to him.

"We can develop him and help him with other sides of the game, but sometimes that’s a natural instinct that you can’t coach.

"He practices his craft which I love about him. To be in the right place at the right time, to know the right places to attack and definitely goals help players’ confidence.”

Luton played in the Premier League during the 2023/24 season but then suffered consecutive relegations to England’s third-tier.

Former Arsenal midfielder Wilshere is looking to help them scale the pyramid once again and revealed a move for Marshall came after reviewing last term, where they missed out on the play-offs by one point.

"We wanted to add strength in depth in the forwards position,” he added. “Callum’s a different type of striker, everyone wants that number nine who just knows where the goal is and he’s definitely a number nine.

"He’s going to be an important player for us, he is in my thoughts all the time.

"The little knock, it was just a frustrating kick on the ankle that he was in a lot of pain with and it took a few more days to get him back into training.

"He had a little bit of a stop-start pre-season at West Ham as he didn’t get the minutes that he wanted, or probably needed, so we’ve been working to try and find a way to get him up to speed as quick as possible, but the truth is as well, sometimes you just need to play a game.

"He got a little bit longer than he did last week and he is definitely looking sharper all the time.”