‘Don’t have that at other clubs’ - Brad Friedel on his Shrewsbury Town vision

Brad Friedel believes building strong relationships between Shrewsbury Town’s players and the board is vital.

Town’s new sporting director has explained his desire to be around the first-team players and staff on a daily basis at their Sundorne Castle training ground, believing it is crucial to understand how the club operates on a daily basis.

The former United States international goalkeeper will work closely with bossGavin Cowan while also assessing areas such as the medical department, facilities and training ground operations.

He said: “My point about being at the training ground every day, as head of football or as sporting director, it’s really important to know all the players.

“It’s really important to know all the staff. It’s really important to understand what goes on at the training ground every day. It’s important to know that the players have a relationship with members of the board. You don’t have that at other clubs.

“My office will be here at the stadium, but every day I’ll go to the training ground. I think it’s important to be able - because of my years in football - to collaborate and talk to Gavin.

“It’s very similar to my role with Scott. We can talk about something, and then you don’t have to explain football, because it’s just a known.

“Same with Gavin and myself. I don’t think you can be a sporting director and not be around the training ground.

“Also, I can see how the medical staff rehabilitates players, see how the physio staff interacts with people.

“Is it professional? Is it not professional? Do we need to tweak things? Are the facilities large enough? Do they have all the equipment that we need?

“If you’re not there, you wouldn’t know those things.”

Friedel has also brought a bespoke, data-driven recruitment strategy to Shrewsbury, which he believes will help reduce the risks involved in signing players.

He hinted that the system will analyse Town’s own squad, the wider league and potential targets further afield, identifying players who fit the club’s preferred style and long-term direction.

He stressed, however, that data would only form part of the recruitment process.

“It just speeds up the process, and it helps you alleviate the mistakes,” he explained.

“Also, by no means can you ever just sign a player on analytics. That’s not how it works.

“There’s a lot that goes into it with the character of the player, the contract situation of the player, the transfer fee of the player, the loan fee of the player, the injury record of the player.

“There’s a lot that goes into it, but what the data does is it speeds up the process to where you put the click of a button. You can get to the first point relatively quickly, and then you can internally work with your group and myself with Gavin to hopefully sign players that will help us climb up the football pyramid.”