"Many supporters will be concerned" - Claim dropped on Plymouth Argyle ace Morgan Whittaker | OneFootball

The forward has scored just three goals so far this season after an outstanding 2023/24.

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...

Plymouth Argyle have slowly started to pick up results in the Championship after a very difficult opening few weeks of the season.

Wayne Rooney's return to the Championship has not quite been as easy as he would have liked it to have been, however, he is relishing the challenge and his Pilgrims side are showing signs of solid improvement.

Home Park has been a fortress for the Devonshire club in the opening three months of 2024/25, with huge wins against both Blackburn Rovers and Sunderland two of the results of the campaign so far.

Argyle picked up their second point on the road this season at Rooney's former side Derby County just before the international break, meaning that Plymouth are on a run of just one defeat in four matches.

While the squad is showing signs that it is getting better, there may be a little bit of concern over one key player.

Whittaker named as player who divides opinion

There was not much expectation surrounding the Pilgrims at the start of this season after narrowly avoiding relegation from the Championship in 2023/24, but recent weeks have been relatively good, and there are hopes that survival could be achieved once again.

But, supporters will be hoping for the improvement of one key player from the last campaign who has struggled to maintain the very high standards that he set himself.

Football League World has asked their Plymouth Fan Pundit, Chris, which player he believes divides opinion the most currently, with Argyle's Player of the Season from last year being name-dropped.

"Many fans, naturally, will have dividing opinions on particular players in the squad, no matter the football club," he started. "Be that be on their performances in recent games or their general club attitudes.

"One particular player that divides opinion recently is Morgan Whittaker. Although he was in the Championship Team of the Season last year, he has had mixed performances of late.

"On one hand, he's been scoring those last-minute goals which have provided us that crucial edge in gaining valuable points to move up the table. On the other hand, he's also been, at points, lethargic and not looking like he's willing to contribute in terms of being able to defend as well as performing the attacking role."

Chris continued: "With that in mind, many supporters will be concerned in relation to his performances, but I'm still in the camp that believes he's still a very high-quality player.

"I believe that he will not only improve in the season as it happens, but he will develop further and hopefully start scoring more goals for us."

Whittaker has been more easily contained this season

Although many anticipated Whittaker to return to form once again this season, he has found it a lot more difficult to be a threat consistently on the right flank.

He has scored just three goals in 14 matches, despite finding the back of the net 19 times for Argyle in 2023/24.

A huge difference this season has been his lack of shooting chances from close-range, with the 23-year-old having to settle for shots from distance to try and get his goal record up. This means that, while he has taken 46 shots in total, he has registered an xG rate of just 1.71.

Whittaker has to start finding better positions to fire at goal as his current tactic is obviously not working for him at the minute, although he did score a wondergoal against QPR earlier in the campaign.

He is also proving to be less of a creative force for his teammates, creating only 12 chances from his 14 appearances, and Rooney may start to feel some frustration with the young attacker.

Nevertheless, he has the ability to turn this early run of form around and become one of the best wingers in the Championship once again, much to the relief of Plymouth supporters.