Retour
Ever since Harry Smith suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury more than a year ago, Drinan has proved that he has transformed himself into an elite striker at League Two level.
After scoring 28 goals last season, he has notched eight goals from 13 appearances this season, as he has demonstrated that last year was not a flash in the pan.
The problem is that he has made himself so important to Swindon that they are not getting many goals from other areas, as no other player has netted more than one goal for them across all competitions.
Paul Glatzel, Ollie Clarke, Ben Middlemas, Louis Millard, Antwoine Hackford, Joseph Hungbo, Stephan Negru, and Mitch Clark have all chipped in with one, but nobody has stepped up to be Drinan’s true partner in crime.
Ahead of facing a Rotherham United team who have had a similar problem of overreliance on Paul Mullin this weekend, Holloway admitted that more was needed from elsewhere.
He said: “We need to be clinical, and we need to get more goals; we need to create more opportunities; we need to create more chances, get more people scoring because we can't rely on Drinan. That's why we're coming up with different things to make sure that happens.”
The last three games have seen a shift in formation to introduce wing-backs and a narrower attacking trio of two players playing off of Drinan, and those two have been Matty Virtue and Joe Snowdon in the last two.
Hungbo started against Walsall in a more central role than he has been used to, and has demonstrated incredible quality when he has been on song, but more erratic at other times.
Holloway said: “It's about what he [Aaron Nemane] does on a regular basis: beating people. I think Hungbo, when he's fit, he beats people on a regular basis, so we need him in the team.”
In League Two, Hungbo has had the third-most shot-creating carries per 90 minutes and the fifth-most shots per 90 minutes, demonstrating that he makes things happen, even if he only has one goal.
The Wigan Athletic loanee has struggled with recurring knee issues after missing out on pre-season, which has limited him to just 339 minutes of league football.
With Swindon missing Anthony Munda and Ollie Clarke, Virtue could end up playing deeper, allowing Hungbo into the front three.