Verdict - Preston North End boss Ryan Lowe may have to make some big calls to get his side firing again

In the last two games he has dropped his vice captain and his captain respectively, the latter for a Lancashire derby, and has pretty much openly admitted they are not playing well enough at the moment to be selected.

They type of manager that Lowe is, the harmony in the dressing room will be very important to him. He demands a lot and expects them to fall in line when it comes to his style and his system.

It is not a system based around individuality or giving anyone in particular the license to do as they please, instead each players is a cog in a larger machine that should play simple passes and create their chances that way.

That needs everyone on board, and so far in his reign, everyone has been.

On North End’s pre-season training camp in Spain, when I arrived at the hotel I was staying at Lowe wanted to come and speak to the press, we were all staying at the same hotel as the Lilywhites. We waited however as he finished a conversation with Daniel Johnson and Alan Browne, it went on for about 45 minutes.

It could have been a chat about anything, and I wouldn’t blame him if he just wasn’t particularly interested in coming to chat to the local reporters, but it seemed like an important conversation that helps lay the foundations to keeping the dressing room on side.

Those two players are important to him and dropping them is a big step to take, though a correct one as things stand.

It is easy to forget that last season the trio of Johnson, Browne and Ben Whiteman was almost a guarantee at the heart of the midfield with all playing well.

Calls will soon have to be made on Emil Riis and Troy Parrott too as both struggle to find consistency. They have had good games this season, though they have failed to convert and it builds extra pressure.

Riis has clearly had his head turned in the past and this week spoke to me about his confidence problems when not scoring, old issues resurfacing perhaps from his first season. He is a better player now however and I would suggest one goal goes much further psychologically than it used to, but pulling him out may have the opposite effect. The big call to be made may instead to be to persevere with him, and Parrott too potentially, until they can find a working partnership together.

North End are not dealing with the finished article, there will be ups and down for these young forwards still finding their feet.

The last call would be on Robbie Brady and whether the experienced head is replaced by the energetic youth of Alvaro Fernandez. It would be an attacking switch to play both, at the cost of Brad Potts’ fine defensive work in tracking back, but with next to no goals, maybe it is needs must.

The North End boss is going to need to find something that works soon as time goes on with so few goals scored and he may be about to ruffle some feathers.