Preston North End started 2024 as many fans would have expected them to. With a wimper. A stroll in the park for Sunderland as the Black Cats eased to a 2-0 victory at the Stadium of Light.
There was no urgency or creativity to get back into the game and it is an incredibly boring and frustrating watch now. Change is needed.
4 wins in 19 games
A stat that apparently Ryan Lowe wasn’t aware of but he’s all too aware of our good run at the start of the season which he regularly brings up. The run of form has been well spoken about, to claim he hasn’t looked that far back is just ignorant.
It’s a run not too dissimilar to Wayne Rooney’s at Birmingham City, and he’s just been sacked.
Two poor goals conceded
Fair play to Alex Pritchard, he hit a wonderful strike for the first goal but why was he afforded so much space? You knew as soon as that went in that we would struggle to get back into the game.
We’ve lost the last five games where we’ve conceded the first goal. In those games we’ve only managed to score one goal ourselves.
The players heads drop and the manager has no plan B. At this stage I’m not even sure he has a plan A. The football is abysmal to watch.
Earlier in December when Preston were 2-0 up at half time at Huddersfield Town, Lowe claimed that it’s a tough scoreline and we knew they’d make changes and have a go.
Yet for this game, when we were 2-0 down at half time his post match analysis was that it’s more or less game over.
He’s so negative and way out of his depth at this level. We give other teams far too much respect. Sunderland weren’t anything special, they didn’t need to be. We’re a very easy team to beat.
What does McCann offer?
Ali McCann is midway through his third season at the club now. 84 appearances for the Lilywhites but right now I’m failing to see what he adds to this team.
He was awful on New Year’s Day. He was at fault for both goals. The first he gave all the space that Pritchard could dream of. For the second he failed to deal with Jack Clarke who had the ball in his own half but galloped past McCann and then Jordan Storey with ease before laying the ball across for Nazariy Rusyn to score his first goal for the club.
McCann gets a nosebleed when over the halfway line. He refuses to shoot, he can only pass sideways and backwards, he doesn’t run with the ball, he has no pace.
He breaks up play now and again with some good tackles and interceptions but time and time again we are cut through straight down the middle. This is despite playing with three or four create midfielders at times.
Ben Whiteman also goes unnoticed in many games and Mads Frøkjær-Jensen will want to quickly but that game behind him.
The Dane sent two decent chances over the bar and couldn’t pass. Perhaps his confidence has been knocked though after being left out of the side for so long and he’s often one of the only players Lowe criticises.
A 35 year-old lone striker
As soon as the team was released you could sense a defeat was on the cards. When Lowe feels like we have no chance and he wants to sit back he’ll play Ched Evans up front on his own.
The Welsh striker recently turned 35, he hasn’t scored a goal this season and he’s not got the legs to run onto to any through balls or to close down effectively all game.
The midfielders couldn’t get close to him and it’s just simply not a plan that would result in goals. All Lowe hopes for is that Evans can maybe win a few free kicks up the pitch. You have to be more intelligent and more creative with your tactics than that. That’s non league tactics.
He left our top scorer in Will Keane on the bench, along with the only player to have scored 20 in a season in recent times in Emil Riis and also Milutin Osmajic who has four this season and is an all round threat. Admittedly Keane and Riis have come back from Covid and a long-term injury respectively.
Even so, the answer is very rarely Ched Evans on his own.
The fans deserve more
Preston fans turn out in their numbers times and time again. A trip to Sunderland on New Year’s Day for an early kick off at an already expensive time of the year is a push for the most hardcore of fans.
But it was a good turnout, and the fans deserved a more pleasing viewing at least.
Preston fans don’t expect wins every week. We understand there are far better squads in this league and teams with much bigger budgets. But we want to have a go. We don’t want to see boring tactics that result in barely any efforts on goal.
We don’t want to see teams set up for a 0-0 and then it’s game over after one goal.
From an outside point of view our league position may seem about right for this season. But the fans have seen the performances gradually get worse over the course of the season. The stats don’t lie.
We are 23rd for shots, chances created and touches in the opposition box. Yet 2nd for conversion rate.
We took our chances at the start of the season. Now we aren’t and we’re creating less each game. That only leads to one direction this team is going.
Nine of the ten clubs below us in the table have changed manager this season. How long will we wait? The fans have made their mind up. What’s the breaking point for Peter Ridsdale and Craig Hemmings?