Sam Ricketts has plenty to consider ahead of Shrewsbury's return to action

While Ricketts and the club will be hopeful of springing an upset against their Championship hosts, the tie will serve as the final warm-up act before League One’s curtain-raiser at Portsmouth the following weekend.

Fans can stream tomorrow’s first-round tie, but it is set to be a few weeks before fans are permitted into stadia to catch a first proper glimpse of their side.

There have not been wholesale changes this summer – five new additions following the loan signing of keeper Matija Sarkic yesterday – but Ricketts’ side head into the new campaign with a new formation and style in their armoury.

Here, we discuss different aspects that the Shrews boss will be looking to see in tomorrow’s Carabao Cup clash.

1. A more attack-minded Town

How to make Shrewsbury a more threatening proposition to opposition defences has been top of the agenda for Ricketts throughout lockdown and the close season.

The Town boss is aware his side need to create more chances and be more clinical in the final third, and has amended the way he will set up the team to do so.

Town will have a 4-3-3 look about them this season, a system Ricketts had began to implement shortly before the Covid shutdown. The aim is to get more bodies into the box and into goalscoring positions than a 5-4-1 or 3-5-2 would previously.

Middlesbrough will be stern opposition, so perhaps not the best to judge a new front-footed Shrews side and Town could settle back into a 4-5-1 against Boro, but Ricketts will hope to see elements of the new style.

2. Shore up at the back

Town have been largely watertight in Ricketts’ 18 months in charge, using a back three with defensive wing-backs for the majority of last season.

They will be a body down at the back in the new 4-3-3 system, meaning Shrewsbury could be liable to find themselves more open than in recent years. That could yield more joy for opposition attackers.

While Ricketts is aiming for clean sheets, high-scoring victories mean for entertaining contests.

Onus will be on the defensive duo and a suitable protective shield in front of the back four.

3. A fresh vim and vigour

Ricketts has looked at injecting his team with more pace and energy and the captures of speedsters Rekeil Pyke, Josh Daniels and Marlon Fossey will bring this in abundance. Scott High, the other capture, has a good engine, too. The blueprint is for a side with higher energy levels, pressing opposing defences intelligently and productively. Shaun Whalley’s goal in the friendly win at Burnley last weekend had those hallmarks.

4. Flashes from the new boys

It is unlikely that all of Town’s additions will start at the Riverside, but there is a decent chance a couple will enjoy their full blue and amber bows.

Each arrives with a sense of intrigue and anticipation and while no conclusions should be drawn from a curtain-raiser against Championship opposition, it is always handy to see how the fresh faces bed into a competitive environment.

More is to come in the window, no doubt, with quality required. But the new boys already through the door have a point to prove.

5. What to focus on ahead of Pompey

Set-pieces (attacking and defending), defensive line, pressing trigger, midfield communications, when Jason Cummings should cut in and when to stay wide and who picks up the big man from corners – and plenty more – will all be on Ricketts and his staff’s checklist on Teesside tomorrow.

Boro, like Pompey, are not far along in their summer recruitment drives. It could be a good time for Town to visit both clubs.

Portsmouth made hard work of scraping past Stevenage in the Carabao Cup on penalties last weekend, Ricketts will have taken encouragement from seeing Kenny Jackett’s men stutter.

But the Town boss will want to make sure his own house is in order and can begin to asses that tomorrow.