Steve Cotterill: Shrewsbury can adapt style
Steve Cotterill says it is important Shrewsbury adapt between styles of play to avoid becoming too predictable for opponents.
In the first half of Shrewsbury’s FA Cup game against York City at the weekend, his side played some nice football, playing forward and cutting their opposition open.
The week before they sat deep in their shape at Portsmouth and restricted the promotion hopefuls to very little in front of goal.
And the Town boss has stressed how important it is they can play in different ways, ensuring they do not get figured out by teams.
“You have to be able to play both,” Cotterill said when asked about Town’s style of play. “If you play the one way you are very easy to figure out how to play against. So you have got to be able to do both, and that will depend on what the opposition does to you.
“If they do something then we have to do that, and if they do that then we have got to do this and the players get it.
“At times we will get it wrong when the team changes sometimes.
“We made a couple of changes at the weekend, not to take the functionality out of the team but because we have a big week ahead.”
Town have two League One fixtures at Montgomery Waters Meadow this week.
First, they welcome Oxford United, and then they host Barnsley.
But they are up against it as Carl Winchester became the latest player to pick up an injury during Saturday’s game. The Sunderland loanee joined Julien Dacosta and Aiden O’Brien in the treatment room, as well as long-term absentees Dan Udoh and George Nurse.
“It is very difficult to navigate your way through a week when you think about the injuries we have,” Cotterill continued. “They have not been little muscle injuries either.
“They have been proper operations for these guys, no matter what it takes its toll on you.
“And we are trying to navigate our way in and around that.
“But what we have now is a game on Wednesday to look forward to, and everybody will be ready for it and prepared.
“We can shoot right up the league if we win it, and we will still shoot up the league if we draw it.
“So what we have got to do now is say thanks to FA Cup, enjoy it and reflect on some of the moments when we did not do so well, and then try and build on them in training in the lead up to the Oxford game.”
