by Come on, who picked Chuba Akpom as the championship’s top scorer and possibly player of the season? If you said yes, you’re lying.
A bookmaker search reveals the Nigerian forward went 100-1 to win the Golden Boot, but here we are, in mid-March, with Akpom finishing home with 22 goals in 29 appearances.
That’s five clear of Coventry’s next best Viktor Gyokeres – with an average of 105 minutes per goal and his tally coming from just 58 shots.
His goals, coupled with Michael Carrick’s inspiring management and burgeoning stars on the pitch, saw Middlesbrough within reach of the top two.
So if you feel like you missed the boat with Akpom at 100-1 why not take a chance on Boro to overtake Sheffield United into the top two? With 30 points to go and just four points between them, would you really bet against an in-form Boro for a late charge?
Middlesbrough striker Chuba Akpom fell deep to strike under Michael Carrick
Akpom played 97 percent of PAOK minutes as a centre-forward, but this season this percentage has dropped to 48 percent
His contact map from the 3-1 win over Swansea shows he is more than a traditional striker
The graphic shows his expected goals (xG) of 0.57 per game – the best result in the championship
Anyway, back to Akpom. A graduate of Arsenal’s Hale End academy, the striker has never lived up to his potential in north London. On loan spells at Brentford, Coventry, Nottingham Forest, Hull, Brighton and Sint-Truiden in Belgium, he scored just 13 goals in 85 games.
It was only during his time in Greece that the striker began to feel at home. While playing in Thessaloniki with PAOK, Akpom matured as a player and won the Super League and Greek Cup double.
However, even this season Akpom was in football purgatory, disliking Boro’s boss at the time, Chris Wilder. All things considered, his growth over the past six months has been amazing.
Looking at his touch map from Boro’s 3-1 win over Swansea on Saturday – in which Akpom scored a penalty – it’s clear he’s more than a traditional striker.
He fell deep into the striking game as he had all season under Carrick. Cameron Archer can lead the line and Akpom plays as No. 10 between Riley McGree and Aaron Ramsey.
Behind this triumvirate is a powerful duo of helpers. The timeless Jonny Howson – now 34 and with nearly 700 career appearances to his name – perfectly complements one of the division’s brightest young stars, Hayden Hackney, 20.
Shifting players’ positional tasks deeper often resulted in a decrease in their attacking effectiveness, but Akpom did the opposite. Not having to run a line took the pressure off his shoulders, allowing him to find a clear spot and help his teammates run past him.
Last season, he played 97 per cent of his minutes at PAOK as a centre-forward, but this season that percentage has dropped to 48 per cent, and he has spent more than half of his time in a deeper position.
Using the Delphlyx data, we can see Akpom’s stats as a comparison to the rest of the players in the division. The farther away the graph is, the better it is compared to other players.
In the graphic above, we can see that his expected goals (xG) of 0.57 per game is by far the best in the league. In terms of passing statistics and offensive duels won, he is at the top of the Championship. Off the ball and creatively, there is work to be done.
Akpom, which has yet to receive an international call-up, faces a lot of competition in Nigeria. Victor Osimhen is Serie A’s top scorer with 19 goals for Napoli, while Atalanta’s Ademola Lookman is third in Italy. In France, only two men have more goals than Folarin Balogun of Reims in Ligue 1. Josh Maja is also on form for Bordeaux and Paul Onuachu is Belgium’s second top scorer this season.
It is also worth noting that Akpom is the top scorer in England’s top four leagues in 2023 with 10 goals, and recently became the first Middlesbrough player to score 20 or more goals in a single season since Fabrizio Ravanelli in 1996-97.
Overall, the numbers look good for Akpom. If he continues to score at his pace of 0.75 goals per game, the Nigerian will come close to 30 goals scored only three times in World Cup history: Aleksandar Mitrovic (43, 2021-22), Ivan Toney (31, 2020 -21) and Glenn Murray (30, 2012-13).
That being said, only one number matters. And that takes away the four points needed to catch up with Sheffield United.
The goalkeeper left the red race
A bizarre moment in League Two this weekend saw Bradford City goalkeeper Harry Lewis play the ball outside his penalty area due to pre-existing rugby pitch markings.
It’s okay to joke about England’s failing rugby team here, but let’s focus on the referees instead.
As the Newport players begged him to send Lewis off, it was refreshing to see some common sense in the refereeing as an honest mistake was only penalized with a yellow card.
Grayson is a hero in India
It’s been two years since Simon Grayson’s fleeting stay at Fleetwood, and one would have to go even further back to his last truly successful appearance in English football, when his Leeds team were promoted from League One in 2009-10.
So it’s nice to see him idolized somewhere. Grayson led Bengaluru to the Indian Super League final after beating Mumbai City on Sunday.
And judging by the videos of him leading the euphoric fan section, this is a match made in heaven.
Edwards shows Watford madness
Watford receive a lot of sticks for their ruthless policy when it comes to sacking managers, but after digging through the archives, many have been excused.
Slaven Bilic became the 18th permanent coach to be sacked since 2012 at Vicarage Road last week after just 10 wins in 26 matches. So this trip was fair.
Luton are well positioned for play-off playoffs under Rob Edwards, despite little movement
And when Watford bosses looked at the league table, they might have wondered: ‘What on earth were we doing sacking Rob Edwards?’
Currently at Luton, Edwards’ Hatters have lost fewer games than any team on the Burnley League leaderboard and are well placed to play in the play-offs despite their modest budget. They beat second-placed Sheffield United on Saturday.
They make disgusting decisions at Watford, but Edwards’ sacking is easily the worst of them.
