Paul Hurst happy to have Shrewsbury Town selection headaches
Competition for places does not come without its headaches according to Shrewsbury Town boss Paul Hurst – but it is a challenge he welcomes.
Town have had a difficult start to the League One season as they sit second bottom after six games with just three points.
But from a squad fitness point of view, Shrewsbury find themselves in a relatively healthy position.
Josh Kayode will be out for another four weeks with a calf injury, but aside from that, the boss has a healthy squad to choose from.
Last weekend Aaron Pierre and George Nurse were left out of the 18 and with Jordan Rossiter returning from a knee problem – someone else will miss out.
“You would rather have that headache but it does cause you some potential issues,” Hurst said.
“It does take up some of your potential head-space thinking about who to play and who to maybe leave out.
“Part of it is the training pitch, in some ways I kind of wish it could be more. If you weren’t dictated to by positions at times when it comes to selecting a bench.
“But certainly if people have been really poor in training or shown the wrong attitude you hope that you are in a position where you can almost make an example of that and say, ‘No that is not good enough and someone else is going to take that place.’
“It is competition and what I would say is deadline day was not that long ago and we bought a couple of players in then, Leo (Castledine) joined a bit later, as did Charles (Sagoe Jr).
“We are still, although we seem to have played quite a few games, very early in terms of trying to give people opportunities to be in.”
Leaving out Tommi O’Reilly and Taylor Perry in recent weeks has led to talking points among Shrewsbury fans.
And Hurst said that is something he understands but there will always be good reasons for the selections he makes.
He said: “Naturally, some team selections are going to be questioned, of course, everyone is an expert, and I do it myself with England.
“We would all pick a different team to what the manager picks, or near enough, but there is probably more to it. Whether that is on the training pitch, or just an idea that you have in your mind and you want to give it more than one game or 60 minutes in a game to come to fruition.
“Competition is what we are striving for, again I understand people have their opinions but there are obviously reasons for the decisions you make.”
