Millwall were the comfortable winners at The Den on Saturday with the game done and dusted by the 48th minute and a Jordan Storey consolation meant it finished 3-1. Preston North End looked lost and sloppy, and with just one with from the first seven games, The Lilywhites are set for a very tough season.
Confidence issues
The away record particularly is very poor. It doesn’t look as if the players believe they can get three points away from Deepdale. There have been some promising signs this season under Paul Heckingbottom. The cup win over Fulham, the hard fought draw with Blackburn Rovers with 10 men.
But every time you think we might be able to turn the corner it is followed with a very poor display. We showed great fight against Rovers and Luton but none against Millwall.
Although there are no easy games in the Championship ever, out of the seven teams we have faced in the league so far, you’d say Millwall, Swansea City and Oxford United are the closest to our level. Especially compared to the likes of the recently relegated Sheffield United and Luton Town.
Yet it is against the former three teams that we have looked the most out of our depth, losing and conceding three in each of those games. It’s a very concerning time for this club, as you have to wonder where the wins will come from.
4 goals in the last 12 league games
We ended last season with five defeats to nil in a row. We’ve only scored four goals in seven league games this season. A Will Keane goal gave us the win against Luton, Mads Frokjaer rescued a point against Boro, Emil Riis’ early one against Oxford was just false hope, and Jordan Storey’s today was a consolation.
With Milutin Osmajic set to face a lengthy ban after being charged by the FA, and Emil Riis looking way off the pace this season, I don’t see where the goals will come from at the moment. Keane either scores or goes missing in a game, and it’s usually the latter.
With our defence way below Championship standard this season, we will need to score plenty to get the points. Ben Whiteman and Ali McCann do not have any goals in their locker, so you start turning to the likes of Frokjaer, Sam Greenwood and Josh Bowler.
A squad with no balance
It’s fair to say Heckingbottom has taken the opportunity to rotate the team in his first seven games in charge. Unfortunately he has been left with a squad that is all over the place.
Ryan Lowe was so stubborn with his wing-back formation that we now lack wingers, and full backs. It’s hard to change into another formation. Hecky has attempted to 4-4-2, 4-2-31 and a few others.
He’s no clearer on how he should play going forward, as nothing seems to work at the moment. The passing is appalling throughout the team, and there is a severe lack of pace as shown on Saturday. The goals being scored against us are sloppy ones to concede.
Hecky has a very, very weak defence. For every strong game Andrew Hughes, Liam Lindsay and Jordan Storey have they will follow it with three poor ones. Jack Whatmough doesn’t offer any improvement and Patrick Bauer is on the sidelines for sometime now.
Kian Best simply has to be involved. He is a promising young player, who should be tied down, and could actually represent some value at the club. He is a natural left-back if Heckingbottom wants to play that way, and he has great deliveries from set-pieces. Certainly better than the floated attempts from the abysmal Ben Whiteman, who again it has to be asked how is he continuing to get into this team?
He offers nothing, and when the going gets tough I don’t think anyone looks up to him as the captain. He has to be dropped for the next game, he hasn’t earned his place in this team this season. If Heckingbottom is saying that everyone will get a chance, then Ryan Ledson or Stefan Thordarson have to come in.
£1.7m wasted?
Jeppe Okkels joined the club the day after Ryan Lowe left it. Obviously it was a signing he sanctioned, but for a reported fee of £1.7m it was one Preston simply had to get right. We can’t afford to spend that much money on a player who isn’t going to make a huge difference to this side.
Now I’m not saying he isn’t good enough, but maybe Heckingbottom is? Aside from 90 minutes in the cup against Harrogate Town, Okkels has only played 87 minutes in the other seven matches he has been available for.
He’s a left winger, but Josh Bowler has been occupying that position so where does he fit in? It looks like we have two players for the left side but then none for the right. It’s a lot of money to spend on a player who at best looks to be a back up at the moment. Early days, but the club may have got this badly wrong. Especially when it was so obvious that our defence needed serious investment.
Wins are needed very quickly
1 win all season, three different people leading the team, and collapses away from home. Only the Carabao Cup wins have stopped the first two months of this season being an absolute disaster.
Three of the next four league games are at Deepdale, and North End need to be winning at least two of them. Draws aren’t good enough. The players need to get that winning feeling back. Stretching back to last season, it’s just two wins in the last 15 games.
We play Watford at home on Wednesday before a very tough trip to Burnley next Saturday. After another international break Coventry City and Norwich City come to Deepdale.
If the wins don’t arrive soon, we will find ourselves fully involved in a relegation battle. It’s hard to see that not being the case this season, but I don’t know whether this squad have the backbone for a scrap.