Sam Ricketts: Shrewsbury Town have lots of leaders
Sam Ricketts wants a team full of captains as he insists there is no shortage of leaders in his Shrewsbury Town dressing room.
The Town boss is yet to reveal his captain for the season but says the recipient will just be 'wearing the armband' and he expects the job to be carried out by each player.
Ricketts explained that several members of his Town ranks have leadership qualities having captained clubs elsewhere.
Ollie Norburn, injured until later in August, was the manager's stand-in captain in the second part of last season.
Ricketts has also brought in Millwall captain Steve Morison, Northampton and Grenada skipper Aaron Pierre, has the experience of Dave Edwards and Romain Vincelot while even on-loan Chelsea youngster Luke McCormick has captained Chelsea's academy.
"We're full of leaders to be honest. Moro was club captain of Millwall, Aaron Pierre was captain at Northampton," said Ricketts.
"Dave Edwards, Ollie Norburn, Romain Vincelot, we've got an awful lot of captains in the team.
"We've got that many captains – I want 11 captains on the pitch demanding from each other. Whoever wears the armband is literally just doing that, it doesn't mean the others can't talk and bark orders."
Morison caught the eye in last Saturday's 2-1 win over Dundee United, laying on a fine late assist for Fejiri Okenabirhie.
Ricketts added: "Moro not only has a great experience but he's also a real threat as well.
"He might not always score a tremendous amount of goals but the chances are he'll hopefully assist quite a lot as well.
"You can see he gives us a different dimension in terms of our attacking play.
"We can move the ball and play and open teams up that way but if that becomes hard or they sit in then we had a direct ball up to him and he's very good at using his body and bringing others into play."
Edwards, whose Salop return was broken up by injury and suspension last season, completed his first 90 minutes since ankle surgery on Saturday while wearing the armband.
"It's about bringing Dave's qualities as a player," the manager said. "He's having a really good career.
"He wanted to come back and be successful. With that he has to bring everything he's done over his career.
"He has to be extremely fit, good at understanding the game, the basics and knowing where to be.
"He has to be arriving in the box at the right to score goals as well."
