EFL Championship: The top-ranked players per 90 from last season
The EFL Championship kicks off on August 6th and ahead of the new campaign starting we’ve taken a look at some of the standout stats from last season’s edition of the second-tier.
We’ve assessed four key betting metrics - Shots, Shots on Target, Fouls and Cards - to see which players ranked highest for each category during 20/21. A number of the highest-ranked players from last season have either been promoted to the Premier League, or departed the Championship for another division, so we have only included players who will be present in the league this coming campaign.
Stats are based off a player's average per 90 minutes played. For the Shots and Shots on Target categories, players must have made a minimum of 10 appearances for their respective teams. For the fouls section, players must have made a minimum of 15 appearances.
Shots
Blackburn striker Adam Armstrong is attracting strong interest from Premier League suitors following a tremendous campaign last season. Southampton are heavily linked with the 24-year-old, but a move will likely depend on whether Danny Ings departs the club during the summer window.
Should Blackburn retain their prized asset, he is certainly a player to watch in the shots market this season. Last term he averaged a whopping 4.9 per 90 minutes, scoring a total of 28 league goals for the Lancashire side. Elsewhere, Swansea’s Morgan Whittaker averaged 4 shots per 90, while Millwall target man Matt Smith finished the season with an impressive average of 3.8 per 90.
Charlie Austin only joined QPR on loan in January - a move since made permanent by the west London club - but averaged 3 shots per 90 (8 goals) in just 21 appearances, so he is another player that will likely continue to show his positivity in the final-third during 21/22.
Shots on Target
Armstrong also topped the list for Shots on Target per 90 minutes with 2.2. The former Newcastle man ended the season as the league’s second-highest goalscorer with 28 - five goals behind Ivan Toney - but actually scored more goals per minute than the Brentford striker due to his efforts coming in 8 fewer appearances.
Reading’s Yakou Meite is second in the list for SoT per 90 with 1.8. The Ivorian forward found the net 12 times last season as Reading flirted with a top-six finish throughout, eventually missing out.
Meanwhile, Bournemouth duo Arnaut Danjuma and Dominic Solanke made the top-ten after they both averaged 1.2 Shots on Target per 90 minutes, alongside Cardiff’s Kieffer Moore - who ended the campaign with 20 league goals to his name and will be keen to repeat those exploits this season.
Fouls
The player to rank first for fouls in the EFL Championship last season was Uche Ikpeazu, who spent the 20/21 campaign with Wycombe but has since moved to Middlesbrough following the Chairboys’ relegation to League One. The 26-year-old committed an average of 3.8 fouls per 90 mins, placing him well ahead of second-place Henri Lansbury, who averaged 2.9 whilst playing for Bristol City.
The ex-Arsenal midfielder will be plying his trade for Luton next season after making a summer switch to Kenilworth Road, so keep an eye on his price in the ‘to be carded’ market whenever the Hatters are in action. Birmingham’s tenacious front man Lucas Jutkiewicz ranked joint-second alongside Lansbury with 2.9 fouls per 90, while Preston’s Ched Evans ranked third with 2.8.
Yellow Cards
A familiar name sits top of the pile for the most yellow cards amassed in 20/21. Bournemouth midfielder Jefferson Lerma has picked up 37 yellow cards playing for the Cherries since his arrival from Levante in 2018, and last season he did not disappoint punters who backed him to find the referee's notebook by picking up 12 bookings - more than any other player in the second-tier.
Luton centre-back Glen Rea picked up two less yellows with 10, as did Derby wing-back Nathan Byrne and Preston midfielder Ryan Ledson. Six players picked up 9 yellow cards in 20/21, including Huddersfield’s Jonathan Hogg and Swansea’s Jay Fulton, so these are all players you should be looking out for when placing your Bet Builders this term.
For a lowdown of the best stats from the Premier League last season, check out our top-ranked players per 90 article.
