How Preston North End currently boast the best defence in the Football League – scout report

Scoring goals is far and away the most entertaining and loveable aspect of the beautiful game. Watching supporters leap around in boisterous chaos while the ground of the stadium rumbles beneath their feet is a truly glorious sight to behold.

However, while scoring goals is the aim of football, keeping them out of the other end is the most important element of a successful side. At the risk of sounding blunt and condescendingly obvious, if a team don’t concede goals, they cannot lose.

The prime example of this in the 2022/23 campaign has been Preston North End. Perhaps surprisingly, Ryan Lowe’s side have the best defensive record in England’s top four divisions this season so far, and have yet to concede a single goal in their five league matches.

In fact, goalkeeper Freddie Woodman just became the first ever goalkeeper for the historic club to keep five consecutive clean sheets in the league. Bear in mind that the Lilywhites were founded 142 years ago which makes this all the more impressive.

Furthermore, Preston have perhaps worryingly bagged just one goal over these five games, and while it was a ridiculously eye-watering strike, without their perfect clean sheet record, Lowe’s men could have found themselves down near the foot of the table.

This tactical analysis piece will be a scout report of Preston’s defensive tactics. It will be an analysis, looking at why the Championship side are conceding so few goals in the league and how this intertwines with the lack of goalscoring too.

Preferred formation

During his time with Plymouth Argyle, Lowe was a massive advocate for variations of a back three, interchanging between a 3-4-1-2, a 3-5-2 and even a 3-4-2-1. This suited the players available to him as the Pilgrims rose up the table and performed admirably.

While at Home Park, Preston were being managed by Frankie McAvoy who was with the club from March 2021 to December of the same year. The Scot was dismissed midway through the 2021/22 campaign due to excessively poor results and Lowe was placed in charge.

Throughout the campaign, under both McAvoy and Lowe, Preston primarily set up in the 3-4-1-2, although the Lilywhites were no stranger to its close cousins, the 3-5-2 and 3-4-3. Nevertheless, there was still some use for more conventional back four shapes.

Now, with Lowe into his first full season in charge of the club, the manager has not skewed from his love of back three systems. The only time a four-man defence has been seen at Deepdale, it has been from the opposition.

This campaign, the 3-4-2-1 has been the go-to for the manager. Used by Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League, it provides a wonderful balance to the side in the attacking and defensive phases.