‘We Have to Look at That’—Phil Parkinson Concerned by Wrexham’s Attacking Woes

Phil Parkinson admits he will need to examine why Wrexham failed to take their chances in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Blackburn Rovers.

The Red Dragons suffered their fourth league defeat of the season, leaving them 17th in the Championship with 14 points from their opening 12 matches. Wrexham had 50% possession at Ewood Park and recorded seven more shots than their opponents, but managed just one on target from 23 attempts.

Wrexham chose not to sign a striker during the summer transfer window, meaning both senior strikers started against Blackburn and leaving Parkinson with limited options to change the game from the bench as his team searched for a goal. Despite their volume of attempts, Wrexham created only a couple of genuinely dangerous chances and rarely troubled the Blackburn backline.

Wrexham in Good Positions Without Meaningful Quality

“I still felt at halftime the game was there for us, but we couldn’t produce the quality we needed,” Parkinson told Sports Illustrated. “We’ve had 23 attempts, but to only have one of those on target, we have to look at that.

“I’ve got to give Blackburn defenders credit because they made nine or 10 blocks, defended crosses and defended set plays. It was a combination of good defending, but we couldn’t find that clinical moment to get us back in the game. The game was separated by two moments. When we analyze the positions we got into, we got into enough good positions today to have gotten something from the game, but we didn’t produce the quality.”

The defeat leaves Wrexham with just three wins in their last 15 matches, dating back to the end of last season, when they finished one point outside the playoffs. Only once in the last seven Championship seasons has a team that finished seventh gone on to finish higher than 17th the following campaign. That is where Wrexham currently stand after their latest loss.

Although there were positives in the number of chances Wrexham created at Ewood Park, they ultimately fell short again because of a lack of quality in attack. Andri Guðjohnsen, son of former Barcelona and Chelsea striker Eiður Guðjohnsen, scored both goals for Blackburn. He now has nine goals this season, three more than Kieffer Moore and Sam Smith have managed combined.

Parkinson added: “We just couldn’t find a kind of moment. The frustrating thing from our point of view is we haven’t tested the keeper enough in the game. When we look at the stats, because the stats don’t lie, 23 shots, one on target. There won’t be many teams this weekend that have had that many attempts and not either got a goal or tested the keeper out more. We’ve got to look at that.

“We’ve got to look at the crosses which came in; we’ve got to look at the movement of the front players. Were they that good defensively, or could we have done more? We need to analyze that, which we will.”

Another key factor is Wrexham’s absence of attacking talisman Josh Windass, who almost single-handedly helped drive the team towards the Championship playoffs last season. Windass finished the campaign with seven goals in his final eight appearances but missed the entire preseason schedule before suffering an ankle injury in the recent away draw with Derby County.

Any club would miss a player of his quality. However, Wrexham spent $48 million during the summer transfer window, knowing about Windass’s injury issues, and perhaps should have been better prepared to cope without him this season.

Parkinson said: “Josh is that player, like Guðjohnsen. The moments come and he takes them. That’s what he did for us time and time again. The division is so tight. You don’t watch games and think one team is so much better than the other on the day. You watch games and think it comes down to a moment of quality. Any team would miss their top scorer, but while we wait for him to come back, others have to step up to the plate.”