Steve Cotterill backs Julien Dacosta to be a Shrewsbury hit

An energetic wing-back, Dacosta signed for Town on a season-long loan from Coventry back in June.

Cotterill had tried to be bring the Frenchman to Montgomery Waters Meadow 12 months earlier.

But he finally landed his man this summer – with the boss believing it was imperative he strengthened his options at wing-back.

Shrewsbury have Elliott Bennett – who is currently injured – and Rekeil Pyke who will be competing with Dacosta on the right side. On the left, they have George Nurse, Luke Leahy and Jordan Shipley.

But Cotterill says it’s important they have strength in depth at wing-back due to the physical demands of the role.

“Because Julien runs, he’s quick and aggressive, everybody will notice him quickly,” Cotterill said ahead of Shrewsbury’s opening game at Morecambe on Saturday.

“The only thing I wish is we could’ve got him a year ago when we were in for him and he could’ve taken some of the weight off Elliott Bennett.

“It’s quite good we’ve now got two or three who can play in those wing-back areas, with Elliott not being too long out, Julien Dacosta, Rekeil Pyke’s done well there.

“On the other side we’ve got Nursey, Luke Leahy, Ships can play there.

“There’ll be times I’m sure they will all be used in those areas because that wing-back role is very demanding.”

Dacosta was on the end of a bad challenge in the recent friendly against Burnley. Cotterill, though, revealed he is okay.

“Jules had a bad tackle against Burnley, he had to go for an x-ray because we weren’t sure where he was. He couldn’t weight-bear or anything the following day and we thought he might have a fracture but thankfully he didn’t.

“He’s a great lad, we’ve been after him for a little while and thankfully we’ve got him now.”