Shrewsbury boss says key point should come before style
Paul Hurst says his Shrewsbury Town team want to play football and entertain their fans, but that should not be at the cost of winning matches.
Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at home to Cambridge was the Town head coach’s first defeat since he returned to Shropshire – but there were still signs of general improvement within his team.
Salop are trying to get the ball down and play. And while you could see that at the weekend, as they probed against a stubborn Cambridge side, ultimately failed to break them down.
Hurst says there is a change in style, and he wants to entertain the fans, but he is aware football fans will still go home happy if they win.
“I think the lads are enjoying it, I think they are buying into that I think it is probably what they would prefer, but at the same time is about getting results, and I am not going to ever shy away from that,” the boss said. “I would like us to play good football. I want the fans to come and enjoy what they are watching, but it is amazing how a result can still send people home happy.
“I would rather be talking about a 2-1 win and someone saying ‘I did not think you played much football’, I would say ‘I agree but we have won’ whereas Saturday was a little bit opposite. Not total football, but there is a change in style, I think that is pretty obvious – but again that is not a criticism of before as there are many ways to play football, and I have been involved in both styles as a player and a manager.
“We want to play, to try and entertain, but ultimately we want to win games.”
Town now have a difficult run of fixtures coming up as they prepare to take on Derby next weekend before welcoming Barnsley and Wigan to the Meadow.
And while he wants his side to play football and pass the ball forward, he recognises that cannot always be the case.
He continued: “We are playing differently. There is a style that we want to play in, and I said when we can go forward I want us to, but I cannot be constant.
“As otherwise what we will find is we will turn over possession far too much, and I think previously, from what I had watched at least, that was one of the issues that we spent far too long without the ball, and there it is almost inevitable that we get ground down and concede.
“That is something we are trying to improve on but it did not work on Saturday.”
