Part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, this piece offers our FLW Fan Pundits their personal thoughts on the newest breaking news, teams, players, managers, possible additions, and more.

After a very challenging first few weeks of the season, Plymouth Argyle have gradually begun to improve their Championship record.

Though his return to the Championship has not been as smooth as he would have preferred, Wayne Rooney is enjoying the challenge and his Pilgrims team is making good progress.

The Devonshire club has made Home Park its stronghold in the first three months of 2024–2025, as evidenced by their decisive victories against Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers.

Portsmouth had only lost once in their last four games after Argyle earned their second road point of the season at Rooney’s old team, Derby County, shortly before the international break.

Despite the fact that the team is improving, there might be some worry about one important member.

Whittaker named as player who divides opinion

Given that the Pilgrims barely avoided relegation from the Championship in 2023–2024, there weren’t many expectations going into this season. However, following a few strong weeks, there are now hopes that survival could be accomplished once more.

However, one important player from the last campaign who has had difficulty upholding the extremely high standards he set for himself will be looked upon by supporters for progress.

Chris, a Plymouth fan pundit for Football League World, was asked which player he thinks splits opinions the most right now. Last year’s Player of the Season for Arsenal was mentioned.

“Many fans, naturally, will have dividing opinions on particular players in the squad, no matter the football club,” he stated. “That might be based on their recent game performances or their overall club demeanour.

Morgan Whittaker is one player in particular who has recently caused controversy. He was a member of the Championship Team of the Season the previous season, but his recent results have been inconsistent.

“On the one hand, he’s been scoring those goals at the last second that have given us the advantage we need to climb the table. He has, however, occasionally appeared listless and unmotivated to assist by playing both the attacking and defending roles.

According to Chris, many fans will be worried about his performances in light of that, but I still think he’s a very good 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

Whittaker has struggled to be a constant threat on the right wing this season, despite many people expecting him to get back to his previous level of play.

Despite scoring 19 goals for Argyle in 2023–2024, he has only managed to score three goals in 14 games.

His lack of close-range shooting opportunities this season has made a significant difference; in order to try to improve his goal total, the 23-year-old must settle for long-range shots.This indicates that even though he has received 46 shots overall, his xG rate is only 1.71.

Even though Whittaker scored a spectacular goal against QPR earlier in the season, his present strategy is clearly not working for him right now, thus he needs to start looking for better positions to shoot at goal.

With just 12 opportunities in 14 games, he is also not making as much of an impact on his teammates’ creativity, and Rooney can become irritated with the young attacker.

Nevertheless, to the relief of Plymouth fans, he has the capacity to reverse this early run of play and return to being among the top wingers in the Championship.