Championship's most creative talents as Preston struggle to keep pace

There’s no denying it - goals have been in short supply for Preston North End this season.

Despite an array of attacking talent brought in to Deepdale over the summer, the Lilywhites have often struggled in front of the posts, and are certainly paying the price for that at the moment.

With five blanks in front of goal from their past 11 Championship games, it’s only natural that Ryan Lowe’s side have found themselves slipping down the table, following their previous high of top spot over the early weeks of the 2023-24 campaign.

Heading into Saturday’s game against Norwich, Preston have the lowest goals-for record among teams in the top half of the division. They are also the joint-ninth lowest goalscorers in the second tier as a whole.

Clearly more needs to be done to get the likes of Milutin Osmajic, Will Keane, Ched Evans and Liam Millar upping their goal-ratios as the season progresses. But without the service that all front men thrive off, that’s a tough battle to win.

Subsequently, that led the LEP to investigate just how prolific are PNE when it comes to chances created? And the findings were startling, with not one Lilywhites in the top 16 when it comes to chances created by a player.

The Championship boasts a wealth of creative forces who can be the difference between success and failure. Unfortunately, it’s another area Preston are falling short in at this present moment, with the 17 chances created by Alan Browne this season way behind others in the division.

He’s quickly followed by Duane Holmes (15) and Brad Potts and Kian Best (10), according to BBC stats. But with others in the Championship boasting figures in the 50s, 40s and 30 for chances created, you can see there’s definitely room for improvement within the PNE ranks here.

Here’s the top 16 creative talents currently operating in the Championship, based on the chances they’ve created so far for their teams.