“He was fantastic” – Ryan Lowe provides reasoning behind Preston North End player’s positional switch at Sunderland | OneFootball

Preston North End boss Ryan Lowe has explained the reasoning behind deploying Robbie Brady in the number 10 role against Sunderland on Saturday, whilst in conversation with the Lancashire Post.

The 30-year-old, who has predominantly featured from left-wing-back during the early stages of this campaign, has started all but one of Preston’s league games thus far.

The Lilywhites have struggled for goals all season, with Lowe’s side managing just three in their 11 league games.

Detailing why he opted for Brady to start in a number 10 role against The Black Cats at the weekend, Preston boss Lowe told the Lancashire Post: “We only got Ali back on Thursday, he didn’t train. Robbie didn’t train, Troy didn’t train, DJ definitely didn’t train. But Robbie was still on an emotional high from Tuesday night so I had no choice but to pick him because I felt it could lead into something.

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“We played him in that 10 position where we felt he could get more shots away and be a little more creative which I thought he was fantastic there, so was Emil Riis being a little deeper and coming onto things, and Ched Evans up at the top end getting on the ball for us.”

The verdict

The international break, and the disruptive nature of it, meant that Lowe had to be creative across a number of positions on the pitch.

With Brady proving to be a real creative threat this season, playing him more advanced and in a more central position makes sense.

It will be interesting to see if this is a development that carries on further than just Saturday’s clash, with it being expected that Lowe will have more options available to him when they welcome West Brom to Deepdale on Wednesday.

Brady is a player that will make things happen regardless of where he is on the pitch, but this slight personnel switch upped the likelihood of him getting on the ball and creating.