Michael Appleton’s Shrewsbury Town formation decision and statistical improvement
All is not well at Shrewsbury Town right now - they are second from bottom in the League Two table.
The Town head coach, Michael Appleton, has overseen a challenging start to the football season. They are out of the cup, and they have lost two-thirds of their fourth-tier fixtures with just one win on the board.
The boss has much to ponder as they head into another crunch clash, this time the opponents are the division’s big spenders, MK Dons.
Salop have used two formations, on the whole, this season. The 3-5-2 they played on Saturday, and the 3-4-3 they played and won with against Barnet.
And given the team was recruited to play a back three, that is not something Appleton sees changing in the long term.
“It depends on the opposition,” he said about Salop’s formation. “Obviously, you play a 3-4-3 because you want more boys at the top end of the pitch, because you might think the opposition are quite aggressive with their line, so then there's an opportunity to go in behind.
“You might play a 3-5-2 because you need to be a little bit more patient, get an extra man in the middle of the park to try and break teams down. They might play a little bit deeper, so you can get the 10 on the ball, etc. It's more obviously what the opposition do, what they can bring.
