Championship Players/Managers of the Season

[ExiledAjax]

Given we've started taking votes for our end of season awards I wondered who out there was thought of as being up for the wider Divisional awards. I don't watch every team forensically but will suggest a few to get the conversation started.

Manager of the season - I think there are two stand out candidates: McKenna and Cifuentes. McKenna has a League 1 squad sitting on 87 points with 18 still to play for. Ipswich have been electric and have kept going until the end of the season and through the full 90 in every game. I expected them to collapse in the winter, and fairly they have not done so.

But I think there's a better candidate - Cifuentes. Good lord the miracle he's worked with a trainwreck QPR squad is remarkable. When he took charge on Halloween 2023 they were 23rd with 8 points from their first 14 games. They are now 16th with 46 points. The quick-minded will swiftly note that this means that in the 26 matches Cifuentes has managed, they've gained a stonking 38 points - 1.46ppg. Had the season started on 31 October when Cifuentes took charge, QPR would be 9th.

Notable mention to Danny Rohl at Sheff Wed who has overseen almost as good a renaissance (36 points from his 29 games in charge 1.24 ppg), but it's not quite the transformation that Cifuentes has managed.

Player of the season - The stats show Szmodics as top scorer with 23 and he's been involved in 41% of Blackburn's goals, Summerville tops both FotMob's and Whoscored's overall ratings and has a respectable 17 goals himself, Dewsbury-Hall has been exceptional for Leicester, and Armstrong has been very productive for Southampton. Jack Clarke at Sunderland has been key to their season, and Sara at Norwich has been fantastic. Further down the division or further back in the formations there's players like Coventry's Sheaf, Davis at Ipswich, Whittaker at Plymouth, and even someone like Chair at QPR could be in the conversation.

Young Player of the season - Caveat, I am not about to waste time checking who was 21 on July 1 2023, so this is just players who are currently aged 22 or younger. Also, I refuse to allow a player to win both YPOTY and POTY - so Summerville is in the chat for POTY, and if he gets that then as far as I'm concerned he cannot get YPOTY. They're separate categories for a reason.

Anyway, it doesn't look like a vintage year for young players (maybe everyone had a good tilt at the U18 FA Youth Cup). However,  Summerville's teammate Rutter is a standout candidate as he's had a spectacular season. Philogene is fun to watch, has a swagger, and has delivered with 8 goals and 6 assists this term. Rowe at Norwich is just 20 and has handed in 12 goals in just shy of 2,000 minutes, which is pretty impressive at that age.

I don't know, YPOTY would be one where I'd be interested to hear opinions.

For what it's worth, here's whoscored's current team of the season. The omission of Szmodics is probably the most interesting item, but the team is caveated by the fact they stick to a pretty rigid 442.

 

[And Its Smith]

5 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

Given we've started taking votes for our end of season awards I wondered who out there was thought of as being up for the wider Divisional awards. I don't watch every team forensically but will suggest a few to get the conversation started.

Manager of the season - I think there are two stand out candidates: McKenna and Cifuentes. McKenna has a League 1 squad sitting on 87 points with 18 still to play for. Ipswich have been electric and have kept going until the end of the season and through the full 90 in every game. I expected them to collapse in the winter, and fairly they have not done so.

But I think there's a better candidate - Cifuentes. Good lord the miracle he's worked with a trainwreck QPR squad is remarkable. When he took charge on Halloween 2023 they were 23rd with 8 points from their first 14 games. They are now 16th with 46 points. The quick-minded will swiftly note that this means that in the 26 matches Cifuentes has managed, they've gained a stonking 38 points - 1.46ppg. Had the season started on 31 October when Cifuentes took charge, QPR would be 9th.

Notable mention to Danny Rohl at Sheff Wed who has overseen almost as good a renaissance (36 points from his 29 games in charge 1.24 ppg), but it's not quite the transformation that Cifuentes has managed.

Player of the season - The stats show Szmodics as top scorer with 23 and he's been involved in 41% of Blackburn's goals, Summerville tops both FotMob's and Whoscored's overall ratings and has a respectable 17 goals himself, Dewsbury-Hall has been exceptional for Leicester, and Armstrong has been very productive for Southampton. Jack Clarke at Sunderland has been key to their season, and Sara at Norwich has been fantastic. Further down the division or further back in the formations there's players like Coventry's Sheaf, Davis at Ipswich, Whittaker at Plymouth, and even someone like Chair at QPR could be in the conversation.

Young Player of the season - Caveat, I am not about to waste time checking who was 21 on July 1 2023, so this is just players who are currently aged 22 or younger. Also, I refuse to allow a player to win both YPOTY and POTY - so Summerville is in the chat for POTY, and if he gets that then as far as I'm concerned he cannot get YPOTY. They're separate categories for a reason.

Anyway, it doesn't look like a vintage year for young players (maybe everyone had a good tilt at the U18 FA Youth Cup). However,  Summerville's teammate Rutter is a standout candidate as he's had a spectacular season. Philogene is fun to watch, has a swagger, and has delivered with 8 goals and 6 assists this term. Rowe at Norwich is just 20 and has handed in 12 goals in just shy of 2,000 minutes, which is pretty impressive at that age.

I don't know, YPOTY would be one where I'd be interested to hear opinions.

For what it's worth, here's whoscored's current team of the season. The omission of Szmodics is probably the most interesting item, but the team is caveated by the fact they stick to a pretty rigid 442.

 

Definitely McKenna for manager of the season.  Hard to argue with that Whoscored team really. Would be splitting hairs…apart from Hladky. Wouldnt have him as the best keeper this season. 

[Davefevs]

Dickie for Greaves in that team.  Bit of bias yes, but he’s been brilliant.

Re POTY, maybe not, but I just love watching Rutter play.

[ExiledAjax]

2 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

Definitely McKenna for manager of the season.  Hard to argue with that Whoscored team really. Would be splitting hairs…apart from Hladky. Wouldnt have him as the best keeper this season. 

Ng's inclusion surprised me initially but I though back to our games against Cardiff and recalled that he was pretty influential. Then I checked stats and he's basically the highest-rated RB in the division both in terms of attacking and defending, so fairplay to him.

Who would you have over Hladky? Hermansen? 

[ExiledAjax]

5 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Dickie for Greaves in that team.  Bit of bias yes, but he’s been brilliant.

Re POTY, maybe not, but I just love watching Rutter play.

Dickie is definitely our only possible candidate for anything this season. He's been a delight, our best CB since Webster for me. I absolutely love a CB who can take the ball forward and ping those defence-splitters into the forwards. Nothing better. That he's also been an ever present in a very effective defensive unit is brilliant.

[Fuber]

16 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

Given we've started taking votes for our end of season awards I wondered who out there was thought of as being up for the wider Divisional awards. I don't watch every team forensically but will suggest a few to get the conversation started.

Manager of the season - I think there are two stand out candidates: McKenna and Cifuentes. McKenna has a League 1 squad sitting on 87 points with 18 still to play for. Ipswich have been electric and have kept going until the end of the season and through the full 90 in every game. I expected them to collapse in the winter, and fairly they have not done so.

But I think there's a better candidate - Cifuentes. Good lord the miracle he's worked with a trainwreck QPR squad is remarkable. When he took charge on Halloween 2023 they were 23rd with 8 points from their first 14 games. They are now 16th with 46 points. The quick-minded will swiftly note that this means that in the 26 matches Cifuentes has managed, they've gained a stonking 38 points - 1.46ppg. Had the season started on 31 October when Cifuentes took charge, QPR would be 9th.

Notable mention to Danny Rohl at Sheff Wed who has overseen almost as good a renaissance (36 points from his 29 games in charge 1.24 ppg), but it's not quite the transformation that Cifuentes has managed.

Player of the season - The stats show Szmodics as top scorer with 23 and he's been involved in 41% of Blackburn's goals, Summerville tops both FotMob's and Whoscored's overall ratings and has a respectable 17 goals himself, Dewsbury-Hall has been exceptional for Leicester, and Armstrong has been very productive for Southampton. Jack Clarke at Sunderland has been key to their season, and Sara at Norwich has been fantastic. Further down the division or further back in the formations there's players like Coventry's Sheaf, Davis at Ipswich, Whittaker at Plymouth, and even someone like Chair at QPR could be in the conversation.

Young Player of the season - Caveat, I am not about to waste time checking who was 21 on July 1 2023, so this is just players who are currently aged 22 or younger. Also, I refuse to allow a player to win both YPOTY and POTY - so Summerville is in the chat for POTY, and if he gets that then as far as I'm concerned he cannot get YPOTY. They're separate categories for a reason.

Anyway, it doesn't look like a vintage year for young players (maybe everyone had a good tilt at the U18 FA Youth Cup). However,  Summerville's teammate Rutter is a standout candidate as he's had a spectacular season. Philogene is fun to watch, has a swagger, and has delivered with 8 goals and 6 assists this term. Rowe at Norwich is just 20 and has handed in 12 goals in just shy of 2,000 minutes, which is pretty impressive at that age.

I don't know, YPOTY would be one where I'd be interested to hear opinions.

For what it's worth, here's whoscored's current team of the season. The omission of Szmodics is probably the most interesting item, but the team is caveated by the fact they stick to a pretty rigid 442.

 

Was about to say probably Szmodics over Armstrong.

For me I'd also have Sheaf over Fatawu (moving Sara wide right in the 4-4-2 as specified), otherwise Jack Clarke has been indispensable for Sunderland.

With regards to Keepers - this season there haven't been many strong ones. I'd actually have O'Leary on sheer shot stopping ability - him and Hermansen on 74.5 and 74.8% respectively, but Max making more saves, 117 vs 104. Really puts his performances in context to the rest of the division.

[Gol]

Manager of the season echoing the above McKenna has done an absolutely unbelievable job and would deservedly win this award.  Like you said Cifuentes deserves credit for turning around a poor teams. QPR if they have a good summer could be a dark horse for the playoffs next season under Cifuentes. Danny Rohl at Wednesday deserves an honorable mention as Wednesday looked dead and buried when he took over.

Player of the season here are Fotmob's top 10 players this season, I was surprised Szmodics was not in there ( he is 19th!). Personally I would pick Summerville as Young player of the year and  Sam Morsy at Ipswich for player of the year (Fotmob have him 12th) as player of the season. He has been so influential for them this season, scored some vital goals and drives them on a real leader on the pitch,  has been Ipswich's 'Roy Keane' this season.

Here are Bristol City's top 10 performers (Twine's rating includes his games for Hull) no real surprises whose top, though thought Knight might be higher!

[ExiledAjax]

3 minutes ago, Fuber said:

Was about to say probably Szmodics over Armstrong.

For me I'd also have Sheaf over Fatawu (moving Sara wide right in the 4-4-2 as specified), otherwise Jack Clarke has been indispensable for Sunderland.

With regards to Keepers - this season there haven't been many strong ones. I'd actually have O'Leary on sheer shot stopping ability - him and Hermansen on 74.5 and 74.8% respectively, but Max making more saves, 117 vs 104. Really puts his performances in context to the rest of the division.

I think O'Leary's had it pretty easy given the defence in front of him. He's done very well, but I'd not back him for team of the season.

Really for goalkeepers I like to look for someone who's worked bloody hard and has outperformed their defence. This season that means someone like Rushworth at Swansea who has saved 71.4% of an astonishing 192 shots on target (second only to the frankly ludicrous 238 that Rotherham's Johansson has faced) that have carried an average xG of 0.31 per shot. Those are ******* impressive numbers and Fbref suggest he's saved Swansea 6 goals this season, the best of any goalkeeper.

[Coxy27]

Defender don't tend to win awards particularly often, so imagine he'd be overlooked in favour of Summerville, Dewsbury-Hall or Szmodics - but in the games that I've seen, I would say the player who has the biggest impact on a team is Leif Davis - so I would give him POTS. Young player can be Summerville.

Manager is easy - McKenna - although for absolutely no reason at all I don't like him and don't wish Ipswich well. What they've done has been amazing, but for some reason I can't get on board with them and hope they fail.

[ExiledAjax]

3 minutes ago, Gol said:

Sam Morsy at Ipswich for player of the year

Good shout for an Ipswich player. They're relative lack of high ranking individuals I think supports McKenna's shout for manager of the season. He's got a team of limited players performing as a spectacular unit.

[And Its Smith]

13 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

Ng's inclusion surprised me initially but I though back to our games against Cardiff and recalled that he was pretty influential. Then I checked stats and he's basically the highest-rated RB in the division both in terms of attacking and defending, so fairplay to him.

Who would you have over Hladky? Hermansen? 

I’d have a fair few over Hladky.  I assume goalkeeper scores get hugely weighted by distribution 
 

Hermansen and Rushworth for sure. 

[Gol]

2 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

Good shout for an Ipswich player. They're relative lack of high ranking individuals I think supports McKenna's shout for manager of the season. He's got a team of limited players performing as a spectacular unit.

My work has an office in Ipswich they absolutely love him there. I still wish we'd have signed him the summer we went up as was immense for Chesterfield.

Mckenna has been unreal for them amazed a team in the prem has not poached him yet. Interestingly on game on sky this season Sky said that Mark Ashton had been tracking McKenna for about 18 months before appointing him - this was when we appointed Holden!!

[Merrick's Marvels]

FotMob don't know their arse from their elbow based on those ratings for us!

[Mr Popodopolous]

1 hour ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

FotMob don't know their arse from their elbow based on those ratings for us!

Is useful for penalties per club in an easy place though..that's the only real thing I use it for.

[Gol]

2 hours ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

FotMob don't know their arse from their elbow based on those ratings for us!

Some of them did surprise me though Dickie has been by far our best player this season and I do agree with them that our defensive players have been better than our attacking players. I prefer looking at the stats individually rather than their ratings per se. for what its worth this is what they say about how they calculate their ratings  if you go down to Stats Definitions: https://www.fotmob.com/faq

[Northern Red]

The EFL have announced the nominees for their awards:

Manager - Farke, McKenna, Rosenior

Player - Dewsbury-Hall, Summerville, Szmodics

Young Player - Archie Gray, Jordan James, Jon Rowe

Marlon Pack nominated for the player award in L1.

https://www.efl.com/news/2024/april/03/efl-awards-2024--shortlists-revealed/

[ExiledAjax]

4 minutes ago, Northern Red said:

The EFL have announced the nominees for their awards:

Manager - Farke, McKenna, Rosenior

Player - Dewsbury-Hall, Summerville, Szmodics

Young Player - Archie Gray, Jordan James, Jon Rowe

Marlon Pack nominated for the player award in L1.

https://www.efl.com/news/2024/april/03/efl-awards-2024--shortlists-revealed/

Farke and Rosenior...ok. Personally I think that when you take into account the resources available to him and his experience Farke has just about met expectations. Rosenior has done well granted, so I see no issue there. McKenna will win it comfortably anyway tbh.

Of those three players I'd probably go Summerville.

[Markthehorn]

I’d go for McKenna , Summerville (maybe Szmodics  and Gray.

[GrahamC]

19 minutes ago, Northern Red said:

The EFL have announced the nominees for their awards:

Manager - Farke, McKenna, Rosenior

Player - Dewsbury-Hall, Summerville, Szmodics

Young Player - Archie Gray, Jordan James, Jon Rowe

Marlon Pack nominated for the player award in L1.

https://www.efl.com/news/2024/april/03/efl-awards-2024--shortlists-revealed/

Rosenior is genuinely laughable.

Aren’t even going to make the playoffs despite spending fortunes (especially wages) on it.

Wouldn’t have him in my top six.

Archie Gray surely wins the young player? Can’t stand Jordan James for 2 reasons, he dived to get Rob Dickie sent off at our place & pretends to be Welsh to play for them, he’s from Hereford, FFS.

[Davefevs]

40 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Rosenior is genuinely laughable.

Aren’t even going to make the playoffs despite spending fortunes (especially wages) on it.

Wouldn’t have him in my top six.

Archie Gray surely wins the young player? Can’t stand Jordan James for 2 reasons, he dived to get Rob Dickie sent off at our place & pretends to be Welsh to play for them, he’s from Hereford, FFS.

I like Rosenior for the way his teams set-up, but he’s another whinger.

[GrahamC]

Just now, Davefevs said:

I like Rosenior for the way his teams set-up, but he’s another whinger.

Yep, also no way can anyone say he’s done as well as Cifuentes, Robins or Wagner.

Ryan Lowe has had far fewer resources too..

[Marina's Rolls Royce]

It's Nige for me.

If he'd stayed we'd already be promoted and have one hand on the FA Cup.

[RoystonFoote'snephew]

McKenna would be my Championship manager of the season with Dewsbury-Hall the outstanding player over Summerville and Szmodics. Playing in the engine room of midfield is for me a tougher gig than winger or up top, albeit that Szmodics has done it in a bang average team. 

Archie Gray has to be my young player of the season. I can't help being impressed every time I see him play. 

[David Brent]

20 hours ago, Marina's Rolls Royce said:

It's Nige for me.

If he'd stayed we'd already be promoted and have one hand on the FA Cup.

Mr Pearson isn’t one of the nominees 

I agree with you though