Shrewsbury 'couldn't afford' January replacements says Steve Cotterill
Shrewsbury Town needed to replace a couple of players in January but they could not afford to, manager Steve Cotterill has said.
Town are ravaged by injuries at the moment and it seems to be catching up with them.
Long-term absentees George Nurse and Dan Udoh have been missing since August Tom Bayliss, while Christian Saydee and Rekeil Pyke have also been sidelined with injuries in recent weeks.
And the boss hinted in his pre-match press conference ahead of the visit of Portsmouth that there may be one or two others missing this weekend.
Salop made one addition in the January transfer window, signing Killian Phillips on loan from Crystal Palace, but they let Julien Dacosta and Aiden O’Brien go on deadline day without bringing anyone else in.
“What we really need to do is we needed to replace a couple in January, but the club could not afford to do that,” Cotterill said when asked about how hard it is having so few players to choose from.
“There is no other way around it other than you have to push the lads as far as you can push them. You can get it back but sometimes that can break. We have probably had the weakest squad available to us in the hardest run of games we have had and have got ahead of us. That is just a fact of what we have ahead of us.”
Town currently sit 11th in the League One table, but have lost their last four games against good opposition.
And when you add in suspensions, it becomes even more challenging for the boss.
Tom Flanagan missed the game against Posh because of the red card he picked up against Charlton.
Now Ryan Bowman will miss the game against Pompey this weekend after being sent off in stoppage time at Barnsley – meaning Shrews are down to the bare bones.
“When you have had two long-termers, what you want to do is try and replace them,” the boss continued. “But we could not afford to replace them we had to get players out, hence why O’Brien (Aiden) and Dacosta (Julien) going out.
“It makes the job even more difficult, it makes it more difficult for the players but I think overall the players have represented the football club really, really, well this year.
“There will be mistakes from time to time but all in all I think they have been great.”
