Preston North End "should be worried" about £5m Coventry City star | OneFootball

Rudoni has been picked out as the player that the Lilywhites should be most concerned about this weekend

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Jack Rudoni has been identified by our Coventry City fan pundit as the main player that Preston North End should be concerned about when the two teams face off at the CBS Arena in a Championship clash on Saturday afternoon.

The Sky Blues have been in impressive form in the second-tier as of late, with six wins and just one loss in their last seven league outings.

Frank Lampard's men sit in seventh place as they welcome the Lilywhites to CV6 this weekend with the hope of extending their winning streak and keeping up their play-off challenge. Preston occupy 15th spot ahead of the game, and are on a decent recent run themselves, with just one defeat in their previous 10 games.

Coventry fan pundit sends 'key' Jack Rudoni warning to Preston North End

Lampard has revitalised Coventry's campaign since he was appointed in November, and Rudoni has played a huge part in their upturn in form over the last few months.

The central midfielder joined the Sky Blues from Huddersfield Town last summer for around £5 million, and initially struggled to make an impact at the start of the season under Mark Robins.

He has since grown into his role in the starting eleven over the last few months under the Chelsea and England legend, and has started all but two league games so far this term, with an impressive three goals and 10 assists to his name from the middle of the park.

The 23-year-old has become a fan-favourite at the CBS Arena for his creativity and quality on the ball, which has helped them to push for the play-offs this season, and our Sky Blues fan pundit, Chris Deez, has identified Rudoni as the main player on his side that PNE should be concerned about this weekend.

“If I was to pinpoint one player that Preston should be worried about this weekend, it has got to be Jack Rudoni,” Chris told FLW.

“I think in their pre-match preparations they will be talking about Rudoni a lot.

“He’s got an assist in each of his last three games for us, he’s got four assists in the last six games. He’s our danger man at the minute.

“He doesn’t score many goals, but he’s key to every great bit of play that we put together.

“He links up with the forwards brilliantly, especially Ellis Simms, and is great at finding those little pockets of space to dink the ball into, little through balls.

“(He’s) good on set-pieces, good at swinging the ball in. I wasn’t convinced when we first bought him, we spent quite a bit of money on him, especially after he’d just been relegated with Huddersfield.

“I think they were pretty much laughing all the way to the bank at the time, thinking that we’d overpaid, but he’s been worth every penny.

“At this stage of the season, just over halfway, he’s my player of the season by far for Coventry.”

Rudoni has made a habit of deciding games this season for Coventry

The 23-year-old was still notching goal contributions at the start of the season despite not being as impactful under Robins, but he has taken a much more decisive role in recent months under Lampard to fire the Sky Blues towards the right end of the table.

He rescued a draw for Coventry at Sunderland in early November, with an 84th minute equaliser to give interim boss Rhys Carr his first point in charge, then followed that up in the next game with a late assist from a corner for Bobby Thomas to make it 2-2 against Sheffield United.

Rudoni has since scored the winner against Hull City on December 14, and also set up winners against Millwall, Bristol City and QPR in recent months.

He has developed a real knack of having the deciding hand in key games since his arrival at the CBS Arena, and will hope to continue that trend against Preston on Saturday.