Luca Hoole reveals Shrewsbury Town plan as defender targets more goal involvements

Goals have hardly been a regular feature of Luca Hoole’s game at Shrewsbury Town, but the defender is determined to change that.

Hoole has scored four times in 94 appearances for Salop and is closing in on a century of outings for the club, having emerged as a bright spot during a difficult campaign last season.

The 24-year-old has operated at both centre-back and wing-back, including in recent weeks, and has explained how he and Town are looking to make the most of opportunities from those wide areas.

“Me and Kevin (Berkoe) have been speaking, and the gaffer has been speaking to us about getting on the back post and goals, getting assists.

“Hopefully I can contribute with a lot more goals at wing-back than centre-back. That’s the plan.”

Hoole has been a permanent fixture in Gavin Cowan’s starting XI this season. He suffered a lengthy injury setback during the second half of last season, missing several months of action, but fought his way back and has started all seven League Two games so far this term.

He has featured at both right wing-back and centre-back, while also providing an assist in the victory over Northampton Town, laying the ball off for Kian McMahon-Brown to lash home.

On his differing roles, Hoole added: “It’s funny, in different games you prefer to play in different positions.

“Some games when you get more of the ball at wing-back, you prefer to play there.

“But predominantly in most games you get the ball a lot at centre-back, because it starts from the back. Whatever the team needs on the day is where I will play.”

The past two matches have provided encouragement for Town after a difficult start to the season. Salop conceded 10 goals in their opening five league games but have tightened up defensively since, keeping a clean sheet against Northampton before conceding just once in Saturday’s draw at Crewe Alexandra.

“As defenders we pride ourselves on clean sheets and good defensive performances,” Hoole said.

“They have been few and far between at the moment, so we need to solidify that. We have all been speaking, working hard to put things right, hopefully we can.

“It is stuff we work on, things we speak about, analyse and watch through the games and then speak to other so we can learn the tendencies and what people do and don’t like to do. Hopefully we can stop shipping as many goals in.”

The search for a first away league win of the season continues, with four of Town’s opening seven matches having come on the road.

The draw at Crewe represented a step forward after three successive away defeats, and Hoole is determined for Salop to start delivering on their travels.

“At home we have done well, but you can’t play every game at home,” he said.

“We need to ensure we are not just a home team. We need to be a team who can go away, grind out results, put in good performances and come home with three points.”