From crucial goals to a last-minute inclusion and a positional change, it has been an eventful season so far for Dundee’s Luke McCowan.
The 23-year-old was one of a handful of players retained from last season’s promotion-winning squad and has gone on to start each of the 18 Scottish Premiership matches.
Dundee are in seventh but with up to four matches in hand against each of the sides above them.
It has been a real team effort from the Dark Blues in what has been one of their best ever starts to a top-flight campaign.
There has been plenty of individual quality in Tony Docherty’s side too, with McCowan being one of those.
The midfielder, playing in a more central role, likes to get on the ball and create – taking players on and getting the ball into the box.
On key passes (those that lead to a shot on goal), he is up there with the best the Premiership has to offer – third to only James Tavernier of Rangers and Luis Palma of Celtic.
McCowan has 17 key passes to the Old Firm duo’s 22 each, with Celtic’s Matt O’Reilly in fourth on 16, according to Wyscout.
He also has the highest accuracy for crossing in the division at 50% and is in the top 10 most-fouled players in the Premiership.
It continues McCowan’s steady rise as a player since becoming a professional footballer three years ago and ditching 5am starts as a lifeguard.
Luke McCowan’s three crucial goals
Three goals isn’t a huge total, Dundee have spread the goals around, but what stands out is how key each has been.
Two were in 1-0 wins over Hearts and Livingston – the former coming after an admin error meant that he started the game even though his manager had named him as a substitute.
🗣️🎙️ Luke McCowan Interview
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⚪ Starting out with @AyrUnitedFC
🤝 Influences in his career
📝 Signing for @Dundee
➕ much more🔗 https://t.co/crJ3RcairZ pic.twitter.com/H1Ii2QXwwZ
— Up Wi' The Bonnets Podcast (@uwtbpodcast) October 25, 2023
Speaking of the incident on a recent episode of the Up Wi The Bonnets podcast McCowan said: “I think I was maybe on my phone on something and I’d seen on Twitter that my name was on the team sheet, and I remember thinking it’s a typo.
“I was warming up just like a substitution would. I remember as I came back in it was just: ‘You’re going from the start.’
“It was as if you changed the team naturally – like, say, if somebody got injured.
“Luckily enough I was on the pitch, to be fair!
“I just knew that Zander Clark was off his line. People will probably slag me for this, but the goal I scored against Fleetwood, I was thinking to myself, ‘I’m going to try this again here.’”
Long-ranger
McCowan’s other goal this season opened the scoring versus Kilmarnock in Dundee‘s most recent fixture, ultimately earning a point.
All three of his goals have been from outside the box. With 29 shots, he has attempted more from outside the box than any other Premiership player. Celtic’s Luis Palma is second with 25.
One of those efforts was the free kick in Dingwall that hit the post and was eventually turned into the net by Joe Shaughnessy for a dramatic late win, prompting a sour response from the Ross County manager.
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