Shropshire Star

Fluid Shrewsbury Town aim to be less predictable

Fluid Shrewsbury Town have more ways of harming opposition and are less predictable than last season, according to Paul Hurst.

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The boss has been more experimental with formations this summer, edging away from his tried and tested 4-4-2 and accommodating extra options in midfield.

Hurst is a believer in using natural wingers out wide and immediately arranged Town in that style when appointed last October. But now he is searching for more unpredictability with his set-up.

He admits that certain features of that system will remain, but new formations – including a 4-5-1 with a packed midfield – may become more prominent.

"I think we've certainly got, I would argue, three ways of playing in my mind that we're relatively comfortable with now," said Hurst.

"I think we've seen signs of playing a slightly different way but still having wide players involved in the system no matter which way we go.

"It'll be nice for us to have in our armoury, that we're not too predictable, at times I look back at games last season and against certain opposition or styles of play we would benefit from an extra man in that midfield area.

"It's part of me trying to learn and at the same time I don't want to go away from certain principles that brought us a lot of good results last season.

"Some things will remain the same but hopefully we can evolve as well."

Hurst has already revealed that midfield acquisition Jon Nolan will be allowed the freedom of midfield to roam in search of pockets of space.

Last season's top scorer plays generally somewhere between midfield and centre-forward, while Arthur Gnahoua – signed from Kidderminster – can play on the wings or centrally.

Natural wingers are Shaun Whalley, Alex Rodman and Swansea loanee Dan James.

Hurst said: "It's little tweaks with it, you can argue at times it has been 4-4-2 but realistically the job of Arthur, Louis Dodds or Jon Nolan have been asked to drop in there (centrally).

"For a while it was about minutes, it was more about 45 for one striker and the next 45 for the other.

"With Niall (Ennis) coming in, certainly, we have got that option to go to what we had last year."