Preston North End are embarking on one of the most remarkable campaigns in English football. There may be nothing out of the ordinary about their 14th place standing in the Championship, but their record in front of goal is nothing short of shambolic.
Across 11 league matches this season, they’ve scored just three goals. THREE! That’s the same number that Erling Haaland scores every week. In fact, the Manchester City striker has now scored as many hat-tricks as PNE have goals.
It’s no laughing matter down at Deepdale, but it isn’t miserable. Sure, they may have the worst attack in English football, but they also boast the tightest defence. Their current record reads: played 11, won two, drawn seven, lost two, scored three and conceded four. It’s an insane showing at both ends of the pitch.
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Saturday’s 0-0 draw at Sunderland was their sixth 0-0 of the season. In only one of their eleven games have both teams scored, a 1-1 draw against local rivals Burnley. Preston’s top scorer this season has one league goal. That honour is shared between Brad Potts, Emil Riis and Jordan Storey who are currently front runners in the world’s sh*ttest Golden Boot race.
If you bought your Deepdale season ticket this summer for £300, so far you’ve seen one goal in six matches - and no wins. That means even for the reasonable sum of £13 per match, you’ve now watched over a quarter of the home games this season without a goal. £78 of your season ticket has now gone with absolutely nothing to celebrate.
Well, unless you have a particular fetish for clean sheets.
Freddie Woodman and his defence have been absolutely superb so far this term. He has by far been the standout keeper in the league and his summer arrival from Newcastle United now looks like a stroke of genius. But Preston are a statistical anomaly. According to the xG, they should have conceded 10.9 goals this season based on the chances they have given up. It perhaps speaks of Woodman’s remarkable performances that the real-life goals conceded figure is just four.
This also points to the fact that Ryan Lowe isn’t even known for being a pragmatic manager. His Bury and Plymouth teams were both fairly free-scoring and his 3-1-4-2 system usually gets five or six players into attacking areas. But with PNE this season, it just hasn’t worked out that way.
Statistically, his strikers have underperformed. His whole team have in front of goal. Preston should have scored 10.5 goals this season according to the xG, instead that figure stands at three. Ched Evans has shown little end product this term while Riis has found the net, he is a shadow of the powerful striker that hit 16 in the league last season.
This is where tonight’s game takes on such importance. If you could pick a fixture out of the Championship at the moment, it would be West Brom at home. The Baggies are blundering under Steve Bruce and despite all their talent in their squad, have dramatically underperformed this season and are now under huge pressure.
Bruce’s side sit 21st in the league with ten points from eleven games. They have one of the worst defensive records in the second tier having conceded 17 in that time. Statistically they are performing far worse than they should be, but it is clear that under the much-maligned Bruce, their confidence is absolutely shot.
If Preston can’t get their season going against this lot ahead of a trip to high-flying Norwich this weekend, then the pressure may instead move to Ryan Lowe’s shoulders. Boring, boring PNE need to shake off that tag, sharpish.
