Paul Hurst: Flexible Shrewsbury Town ready to shape up
Boss Paul Hurst believes an intelligent and flexible Shrewsbury squad will ensure Town do not suffer injury and suspension hangovers.
Town have four first-team regulars missing for today’s visit of AFC Wimbledon, with Abu Ogogo’s suspension and Ben Godfrey’s injury adding to James Bolton’s knock and Dean Henderson’s England under-21 call-up.
With Ogogo and Godfrey sidelined, Hurst could be forced away from his regular three-man central midfield within a 4-1-4-1 or 4-3-3 set-up.
But the Town chief is not concerned about a lack of options despite being down to just 18 available senior players. Hurst instead believes the type of players at his disposal allow for a number of options moving forward.
He said: “What I’ve got with this group is players that are quite intelligent, players who can play quite a few players who can play slightly different roles and I’d be relatively comfortable playing any kind of shape with them.
“There is a flexibility, in some ways. The downside is there’s almost too many things we can do. It’s trying to hone my thoughts and really decide the best way.
“I prefer it when it’s easy – won, played really well and can name the same team. That’s a lot easier!”
“It’s part and parcel of the job. Another element is about seeing if we’re successful going another way.”
Hurst used Tuesday’s draw at Northampton – where he sent on striker Stefan Payne for defender Luke Hendrie while a goal behind – as an example of the flexibility.
He also suggested that the system used in last month’s home draw with Gillingham, with a three-man defence and more advanced wing-backs, worked well.
“We were a goal down the other night (at Northampton) and within 10 minutes of the second half we changed shape and put two up front, going three at the back,” Hurst continued.
“It wasn’t in desperation but we thought ‘if we lose two or three-nil, we’ve still lost, why not? We went really positive.”
“Then we lost Abs, there was just three defensive players on the pitch and that’s it.
“People may feel different but when we changed shape against Gillingham, with the illness absentees, I thought it worked really well in the first half. We couldn’t see the job out and it got fragmented, but I thought it worked really well.”
