Avoiding another injury crisis is a top priority for Kevin Nolan as Cobblers players are warned they will 'suffer'
Avoiding another injury crisis in 2025/26 will be a top priority for Kevin Nolan, and he plans to tailor his approach to this summer’s transfer window as a result.
For three successive seasons Northampton have battled injury problems but, having taken over at a time when 15 players were missing, Nolan is determined to change that in his first full campaign in charge.
And given a large part of his managerial philosophy centres around working hard out of possession and pressing aggressively, that means he needs players who can get through a lot of work without breaking down.
Nolan said: "The majority of the subs I made last season, we were having to shuffle around the back three or the back five, however we were playing at the time. At times it looked like 3-4-3 or a 5-4-1 or 4-2-3-1. We wanted to be adaptable and we had to be.
"Losing Jon (Guthrie) when we did was obviously a big blow, especially the way it happened because no one was around him and you can’t really legislate for those sort of injuries. They are accidents and they can happen.
"But the biggest thing for me was lads not being able to finish games and not being able to go Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, so that’s what I need to find now. Pre-season is going to be critical because the lads have to be able to go and then go again. We need to build that robustness within the squad.
"I want a team that typifies what I was as a player and there has to be a willingness to work hard day in, day out and be ready for games on Saturday and then again on Tuesday. We want to instil a toughness that means we can withstand pressure.
"If there’s one thing I learned off David Moyes it’s that, when you’re out of possession, you suffer and you all suffer together to get the ball back and then when you win possession, you have to use it right and that’s what we’ll have to get better at next season.
"Our pressing was really good but I felt we found it quite difficult in transition when trying to break teams down quickly. We could have punished teams a lot more, like we did against Peterborough, but that’s something we will work on.”