Why Shrewsbury squad situation could give youngsters bigger chance to shine

Shropshire Star

Ollie Westbury and Jonny Drury discuss Salop's pre-season opener against Brackley Town on Saturday. Salop open their pre-season campaign against the non-league side - with a handful of new signings set to be on show. But they are still in need of a number of new additions. Ollie and Jonny discuss the positives of the current squad numbers - and whether it will offer youngsters more of a chance to shine.

Transcript

00:00Oli Shrewsby kick off their preseason campaign on Saturday against non-league Brackley Town,

00:13managed by former Salah defender Gavin Cowan. Paul Hurst takes his side to the non-league

00:20outfit with, you know, judging by the amount of senior players on the books, he might have

00:24enough for one or two substitutes of senior players. I'm sure that squad will be bulked

00:28out by young players. Not an ideal situation to be in going to Brackley. I know you're

00:36not going to be there, but what do you think Paul Hurst will be looking for in that opener?

00:42Is it just a case of getting minutes in the legs of the players that are there and maybe

00:46giving a chance to some of these youngsters that might be in there to bulk out the squad?

00:50I had a great chat with Chris Doig about this last week, who basically said that the result

00:58of this game is largely irrelevant. He said, of course, that you want to win because you

01:02don't do anything and want to go there and think, oh no, we'll lose 3-0. But it's not

01:07really what it's about. I think it's about the overall process. It's about the overall

01:13journey that the side is on. It's about getting minutes into their legs. I think the word

01:19that he used to describe it was it's about building up a robustness to enable the players

01:24to cope with heavy workloads when it does come to the start of the football season,

01:28when they are playing on a Saturday and a Tuesday and then on a Saturday again. That's

01:36kind of where I'm coming from. I would have said that the performance, the results, it's

01:44all kind of largely irrelevant. What I do think it's a good opportunity for, it's a

01:48good opportunity for the team to keep evolving. It's a good opportunity for Paul Hurst and

01:54his staff to kind of get some of the coaching points and the bits that they've been looking

01:59to improve and the bits that they've been doing on the training ground to try and put

02:04it into play. Every game now is an opportunity. They've got six games and they've got six

02:10opportunities to learn. They've got six opportunities to practice things in an environment where

02:14if it goes wrong it doesn't really matter. It will be interesting to see formation, players,

02:22but I think overall it's more just about fitness. I was having a chat with a couple of colleagues

02:28about pre-season friendlies and things around it. Fans will probably read into it a lot

02:35more than perhaps they should do based on the results because ultimately the results

02:42is largely irrelevant when it comes to what was the 10th and they make that trip to Stevenage

02:46because that is what it's all about. It's that game of Stevenage.

02:49We've talked about in other videos about squad numbers and obviously that's been a

02:54sort of concern for Shrewsbury fans, the amount of players that have gone out of the door, but

02:58at the moment when the senior squad number is quite low, do you think that gives a chance maybe for

03:05the young academy players? Because they're probably going to get a little bit of a run

03:08out in these opening friendlies given what the numbers are. You never know,

03:12there might be someone that might come in and really catch the eye in these friendlies,

03:15which could be quite unexpected.

03:17Yeah, that's exactly what Dave Edwards said in his most recent column. That was what happened

03:21to him. You get your chance by hook or by crook and then you take it. I think something similar

03:27happened last season with Travis Hearns. We all forget about Travis Hearns because he went so

03:31almost a year ago and he barely played, but he got his opportunity because perhaps Shrewsbury

03:36hadn't finished doing their summer recruitment. So he got his opportunity, he kind of impressed,

03:42he played at Ellen Road and suddenly next thing you know he's going to Newcastle to get a Premier

03:47League move. So yeah, I think whatever happens is that there's opportunity for people out there,

03:53whether it will be for young academy players and perhaps one or two trialists who get the nod on

03:59the weekend and potentially get a game. So who knows whether on the 60th minute we're going to

04:05see 12 changes or not because that's what normally happens in pre-season games and that winds me up.

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