Football
Ryan Lowe Targets Crucial "Six Per Cent" for Premier League Promotion with Preston
Preston boss Ryan Lowe aims to find an extra crucial "six per cent" for Premier League promotion this season. Focusing on consistency, luck, and squad depth, Lowe is determined to improve on last season's near-miss in the Championship play-offs.
Image Credits: Lee Parker - CameraSport via Getty Images
Preston boss Ryan Lowe is determined to find the extra crucial "six per cent" which could lead to a memorable Premier League promotion this season.
Consistency is Key
The Lilywhites frustratingly missed out on the Championship play-offs last season having been in the promotion mix for much of an impressive campaign.
A blistering start to the season was surprisingly finished with five success defeats which ended their ambitions of securing a coveted play off place.
“You need consistency, but you definitely need that bit of luck in there as well,” Lowe told SportsBoom.com.
“And you need to stick to your principals, that’s really important.”
We’re working on principals in and out of possession which can hopefully help us this season.
Ryan Lowe
The Magic Six Per Cent
“If we can get an extra two per cent, from the back, the middle and the front, that six per cent will make a massive difference. The league is so crazy and so bizarre.”
“[Chairman] Peter [Ribsdale] has spoken about budgets and where we should finish in this league.”
“Where our budget is and where we’ve finished the last three seasons with that budget, it’s good.”
“But obviously we want to get higher (in the league), of course we do.”
“We want to over-achieve each year with what we’re trying to do.”
Image Credit:s Lancashire Evening Post
Lowe’s Track Record
Lowe replaced Alex Neil as Preston boss in December 2021 having previously guided former clubs Plymouth Argyle and Bury to promotion, and the ambitious 45-year-old would love to make it a hat-trick of promotions with Preston, having achieved improved finishes season-on-season since he took charge.
The club finished 13th in his first full season at Deepdale, 12th the next and then 10th last season as the just missed out on a top six place.
“Credit to the players because they over-achieve, we squeeze the lemon dry out of them and they give us everything,” stressed Lowe.
We’ve had lads who have played injured before and have wanted to put their bodies on the line
Ryan Lowe
“To get where you want to get too is not rocket science in terms of what you need, but we probably need a little bit more depth in the squad and a bit more quality.”
“We’ve got quality players, but we need the same quality players to come in and do the business when they drop out.”
“I haven’t got the answer yet for what’s needed because I haven’t done it (win promotion) yet in this league just yet, but that’s what we’re working at.”
Financial Constraints and Parachute Payments
Lowe swooped to sign highly rated Icelandic international midfielder Stefan Thordardson and former Leeds United winger Sam Greenwood ahead of the new season.
But the Preston boss admitted: “It helps if you can go and buy strikers for 6, 7 or £8million, but that’s not always the case.
“You can look at teams who have spent big and never got where they wanted to get too.”
“Parachute payments play a massive part in promotion teams.”
“If you look at the last five years, the teams that have gone up having just come down again.”
“It’s tough, but what we try and do is over-achieve, try and be sustainable as much as we can and have that little bit of know-how of being in the those last 7, 8 or 9 games of the season – knowing what it looks like – and I’ve tried to learn from that so we can be better if we can get in that situation this season.”
“If we do have injuries like we did at the end of last season, do we just try to be hard to beat and pick draws up, or do we stay in the game for 80 minutes and try and win late on.”
"There’s loads of factors that come into, but ultimately you’re up against some monster clubs.”
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Neil has been a journalist for longer than he'd care to remember, having written for national newspapers and respected publications for over 25 years. For the last three years he has worked freelance for BBC Sport, working on the production desk as a sub-editor and also as a writer, covering a whole range of sports.