Italian revealed O’s have two solutions to ensure they stop conceding goals from set pieces after Saturday’s loss to Portsmouth

Leyton Orient manager Alberto Cavasin knows he has to put square pegs into round holes at the moment.

With vice-skipper Liam Kelly stretched off early on in the 1-0 defeat to Portsmouth, the Italian played Gavin Massey and Jens Janse in the centre of midfield.

Massey is traditionally a winger and Janse has previously featured at right-back and right midfield since joining O’s.

After the break Alan Dunne, usually a full-back or central defender, played in the middle with Robbie Weir suspended and Nigel Atangana still struggling with a groin/hip flexor injury.

“We will have to make up a midfield against Luton Town,” said Cavasin via a translator last weekend.

“We were really close with Nigel’s total recovery, but before Saturday he was still not moving or training for 15 days. It is likely he will need a bit more time to gradually recover.”

The Italian is happy to have a whole week on the training ground, though, ahead of facing the Hatters next.

And the 60-year-old revealed he’ll be trying to make his team hard to breakdown and beat at Brisbane Road.

Cavasin added: “I have a whole week to work for Luton. We need to be compact to be ready for this important match.

“We need to have a very compact team that can move with its own manoeuvres, but has to be very structured in the way it plays football.”

The former Fiorentina boss will aim to spend more time working on set pieces during training this week.

Portsmouth’s Christian Burgess scored the only goal of the game on Saturday after heading home Carl Baker’s corner.

It is not the first time Orient have conceded from a set piece this season and it was a problem during the 2015/16 campaign.

Cavasin said: “I’ll have to talk with all of my team. There are only two solutions. We try to improve on man-to-man marking or play in a zone.”

Zonal marking failed to work under Fabio Liverani and many O’s fans will hope the current Italian manager decides to stick with marking players from set pieces.