Preston North End picked up their first pre-season win at Deepdale this summer, after a comfortable 2-0 win over Aberdeen on Saturday. Both goals came in the first half, and both were scored by recent signing Mads Frøkjær.
The Dane arrived from Odense a couple of weeks ago, and looks set to fill the role left by Daniel Johnson, who has moved on to Stoke City linking up with plenty of other Preston alumni.
DJ and Paul Gallagher are probably the only players from recent years who you would back to score from outside of the area. It was frustrating at many times last season when we were in good positions but failed to test the goalkeeper.
Mads Frøkjær scored eight goals in the Danish top flight last season, and a similar tally for Preston this season would mark a great debut season for the 23-year-old.
On Saturday he took two chances very well in the first half. It’s good to see him get in the right positions and have the confidence to try and test the keeper.
Last year we didn’t see enough goals from midfield. In fact we didn’t see enough goals at all. Luckily we kept plenty of clean sheets at the start of the season, but those games could have gone either way, and hugely changed the outlook of our season.
Ched Evans found the net nine times last season whilst Tom Cannon; who was seen at the game yesterday, scored eight goals. The highest scoring midfielder was Brad Potts, although he wasn’t ever really playing in midfield.
With Alan Browne’s goals drying up, just the one last season, an injection of some shooting ability from Frøkjær is much needed.
On top of his scoring, the Dane was also playing some lovely through balls to our strikers. When playing with two up front, we need to ensure the strikers see plenty of the ball, and many times last season they were just too isolated. If we can have better quality on the ground, then we can avoid hopeless long balls upfield as well.
It’s early days, but Frøkjær could prove to be exactly what Preston need this season to encourage a more attacking and pleasing style of play.