Preston North End won for the first time in eight league games on Wednesday night as they overcame Coventry City 2-1.
They couldn’t have performed any worse than Saturday and in the first half there were some bright moments. The formation still makes North End look void of attacking ideas though.
This formation doesn’t yield goals
You can never predict where our goals might come from, because there is no identity to our style of play and we just live in hope that we’ll get a lucky break. We have some very talented players in our squad but Frankie McAvoy is restricting them.
The manager insisted he wasn’t going to change the formation before the game and there were collective groans from everyone who read that article. He must see something very different to us.
It makes us look toothless with only two attacking players on the pitch. He hasn’t made us look any less vulnerable in defence and the midfield look lost at times.
My personal favourite quote from him was “When you get wing-backs high it can cause teams who play a back four issues, because when you’ve also got two strikers you are going man-for-man at the top end.”
You would get that same outcome with 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1 and have more natural players attacking as well. Sepp van den Berg and Josh Earl have been great this season but they shouldn’t be relied on as a main attacking threat. Instead, imagine one of them having having space to overlap a more natural winger like Tom Barkhuizen or Scott Sinclair.
Two good bits of play following set–pieces
Our first goal followed shortly after a long Emil Riis throw and then a corner. It was a good ball in by Ben Whiteman and a cracking header from Patrick Bauer. The second goal was from a quick free kick from Alan Browne before Riis took it expertly.
Two good goals, but the full credit goes to the players for those. You can’t really point to open play patterns that created those goals.
Aside from that there weren’t many other chances. Things still need to improve, that could easily have been a defeat on Wednesday and we can’t afford a slack performance against Blackpool.
Josh Earl was superb
What a game he had. He made strong tackles, got himself up the pitch, cut inside a few times and won plenty of duels. That was one of his best games for us. He’s really come on this season in what was a make or break year for him at the club.
He can still look a little isolated in one on one situation further up the pitch and needs support. Unfortunately he is the only on on the left hand side so it does make it difficult. All round though it was a great game for the 23-year-old. Andrew Hughes also had another strong showing at centre-back and looks very accustomed in that role now.
Give Emil Riis a tough chance over a 1-on-1 any day
The Dane can weave and wiggle his way out of tight situations before unleashing a powerful shot on goal, just like he did against The Sky Blues on Wednesday. He seems to relish those moments and quite often delivers.
Whereas on Saturday he was presented with a fairy easy one on one chance with just the ‘keeper to beat. Perhaps he overthinks in these situations and complicated the simple matter. He fluffed his chance on that day but in front of the floodlights this week he ensured he got on the scoresheet and it was the first time he had done so in the league in front of a raucous Town End. And you could tell he enjoyed it.
The big one on Saturday
The form book tends to go out of the window for a derby game. Preston and The Tangerines have had mixed runs of late but both enjoyed comeback wins on Wednesday night.
It means they’ll both have a boost ahead of the game at the weekend. It’s eight years since the previous meeting and every player apart from Paul Huntington will be experiencing this fixture for the first time.
Of course they will have heard all about it and one presumes it was a reason why Ryan Ledson was rested on Wednesday to ensure he didn’t pick up his fifth yellow card of the season, that would have ruled him out of the game. He’s the type of player who will love this game.
It’s a shame more Preston fans won’t be present on the day but it could be a memorable one. Tom Clarke made himself an instant hero with the goal in the last fixture, and someone has the chance to do exactly the same again eight years on.