My EFL Team of the Season so far (Part 1 — Introduction and Goalkeepers)

Image courtesy of: EA Sports

With the curve flattening in several countries, the possibility of football returning is higher than ever. But it remains a doubt whether it is safe or not for the fans to attend those matches, and more importantly, for the players to return to play. Nonetheless, EA Sports have decided to announce their annually Team of the Season campaign earlier than several previous seasons under the name of Team of the Season so far (TOTSSF).

And as always, the EFL Team of the Season are one of the squads that are announced early of the campaign. I have decided to not make any comments on this squad (I lied, sorry :) ) but will ask for the help from statistics to pick out my own EFL Team of the Season so far for no reason (other than expressing my anger on this squad, although several picks are very accurate).

The rules are simple:

1. The main starting lineup can only have five players from the EFL Championship, three players from the EFL League One and three players from the EFL League Two.
2. The players who are already picked by EA Sports for their Team of the Season are ineligible for my squad, including the reserves.
3. The formation will be the same to FIFA’s 3–5–2, with three defenders, two central defensive midfielders/central midfielders, one attacking midfielder, two wingers and two strikers.

So, shall we start?

Goalkeepers

Fulham and Plymouth Argyle are two of the teams who are chasing promotion as they are currently placed third on their respective league’s table. Furthermore, they only conceded 39 and 38 goals respectively, the fourth-lowest number among the teams in their leagues. For Fulham and Scott Parker, his decision of letting Marek Rodak stands in goal instead of Marcus Bettinelli has definitely paid off as the Slovakian goalkeeper becomes one of the key names among Fulham’s defence. The same story is happening for the West Brom’s loanee Alex Palmer, who is also enjoying a solid season with Plymouth.

Statistically speaking, they conceded 4.05 and 4.06 shots (according to Wyscout) and have made 3.14 and 3.09 saves per 90 minutes. Compared to other regular starters, they are one of the most consistent goalkeepers in the Championship and League Two, which explains the decision of picking them for this season’s TOTSSF. Meanwhile, another loanee in Nathan Trott is having an amazing season with Wimbledon amid their relegation battle. This season, Trott faces 15 shots per match and 6 of them are on target. But he registers 4.2 saves per 90 minutes, the highest among any League One goalkeepers and also compared with Rodak and Palmer. It would be a shame if his name is not included in the squad, at least among the subs, but eventually, he did make it.

It is no doubt that these three deserve to be in the squad, but other names who also deserve the spotlight towards them. Well, three of them are already in my mind for their performances this season:

1. EFL Championship — Brice Samba (Nottingham Forest)

Picking the standout Championship goalkeeper besides Rodak is possibly the toughest job when picking this squad because of the number of talents in the league. You have David Bentley, who is always at his best when it comes to keeping his team’s goal clean and he has done pretty well in his first season with Bristol City. You have David Raya, who is considered as Bentley’s successor and has reached a similar level for his debut season at Griffin Park to keep Brentford’s promotion dream alive. You have Sam Johnstone, the former Manchester United academy graduate aiming for a return to the Premier League with West Bromwich Albion. And last but not least, Declan Rudd in his prime years and one of the key factors behind Preston North End’s successful season. That doesn’t include the names who are also having a good season for their top-half or mid-table clubs such as Freddie Woodman (Swansea), Rafael Cabral (Reading) or Bartosz Białkowski (Millwall)…

But my pick goes to Brice Samba, the former Marseille goalkeeper who is having a good season with Sabri Lamouchi’s Nottingham Forest side. It’s worth noticing that Samba was brought into the club quite late into the summer transfer window and when he arrived, Arijanet Muric was still the first-choice goalkeeper, Costel Pantilimon and Luke Steele were battling out for that spot on the bench. Now both Pantilimon and Steele are all loaned out and Muric’s number of appearances remained at five while Samba already made that goalkeeper spot his with 33 appearances in the Championship up to now.

Forest are currently tied up in goal conceded with Fulham, only 38 goals but have a lower total xGA compared to the London-based club with 46.5 to Fulham’s 50.7 and Samba’s contribution to Forest’s record is quite significant. This season, he faces 4.07 shots against per 90 minutes but managed to register 3.12 saves also per 90 minutes, a good save ratio for a keeper who just has his first season in England like him. He also contributes to the team’s play by making medium or direct passes towards the advanced options, particularly Sammy Ameobi with 19 passes heading to the former Newcastle and Bolton striker. While his easy conceded goals per 90 minutes is a bit concerning with 0.14, it is something that he can still improve through his time with Forest.

With Lamouchi’s side still following behind Brentford’s tail at the moment, they will aim to set themselves into a comfortable position and gain an advantage in the play-offs. Hopefully with Samba in goal, they will be able to finish this season strong if football returns to England and fire their best shot to make sure they will lift the play-off trophy at Wembley.

2. EFL League One — Max O’Leary (Shrewsbury Town)

The battle for the League One standout keeper spot is also quite intense, but I have managed to narrow down to four young and talented players. Having played 27 matches this season for Doncaster, Seny Dieng is showing he is ready to return to Queens Park Rangers to challenge Joe Lumley for that first-choice keeper spot. He is the second-best goalkeeper for goals conceded per match among the four names with 0.97 and his commanding and confident mentality showing that he is ready for the Championship. But the fact that he only concedes 3.8 shots on target per match indicates that Doncaster’s opponents weren’t able to make many shots towards his goal, and indeed, with 2.42 saves per 90 minutes, he places the lowest among the four keepers I am considering in terms of saves made.

Josh Vickers is another name that I have considered quite a lot, given his rise from a backup goalkeeper for Paul Farman in League Two to a League One-quality choice. With 3.84 shots against and 2.63 saves made per 90 minutes, he is definitely better than Dieng in the shot-stopping department. But that 1.21 goals conceded per 90 minutes is quite concerning and his Lincoln side is the highest-conceding side compared to the four clubs that I am considering (Doncaster, Portsmouth, Shrewsbury and Lincoln) with 46 goals conceded this season. It doesn’t mean that Vickers is not good, but he is carrying quite a heavy task this season although playing in front of him are experienced names such as Cian Bolger, Jason Shackell and Alan Sheehan.

The second-to-last name that is on my list is Alex Bass, Portsmouth’s youngster who has stepped up to replace Craig McGillivray in goal, and Kenny Jackett has already expressed his intention of keeping him at the club for the next season. Looking at his stats after 15 appearances, it is easy to understand why Bass is considered as one of the hot prospects among Pompey’s squad. On average per match, he conceded 3.43 shots against and made 2.82 saves, the second-best saving rate among the four names, according to Wyscout. The reason that refrains me from picking him is he has played in only 15 matches this season and it would be a bit unfair to ignore keepers who have started for the whole season just to pick the one who has played in half a season (for any Pompey fans reading this: no, just because I’m a Southampton fan doesn’t mean I’m not picking Alex!). He does have a bright future in front of him but I would love to watch him for another season to see if he has the potential to become a future Premier League keeper.

And this leaves me with the only name, the one who I’m going to pick for the second spot on the bench, and that name is Max O’Leary. Last season, he stepped up to be the first-choice keeper for Bristol City after both Frank Fielding and Niki Mäenpää got injured and he did quite well in those 15 matches that he played in.

26 goals conceded and 3.07 saves per match last season are not terrible numbers for a goalkeeper who was considered as the third-choice at the start of the season. Fast forward to this season, Shrewsbury haven’t had their best season as they are battling out in the relegation battle but O’Leary is still developing as the season progresses. On average per match, he has faced 3.67 shots and made 2.84 saves, just 0.02 saves more than Alex. In terms of contributing to the build-up phase, he registers 29 passes per 90 minutes and completes 71% of them, along with 0.08 key passes per 90 minutes. It is something that O’Leary can look to improve under Lee Johnson and he can become a serious contender for Bentley when returning to Bristol City.

3. EFL League Two — David Cornell (Northampton Town)

This season, League Two have seen many talented goalkeepers playing for clubs across the league such as Richard O’Donnell (Bradford City), Tom King (Newport), Dean Gerken (Colchester), Alex Palmer and they are contributing heavily to their team’s goal conceding record. Standing at the top in the same aspect is Cheltenham with only 27 goals conceded up to now and it would seem reasonable for a Cheltenham goalkeeper to occupy this last spot. Well, that is also what I thought at the beginning before I looked at their goalkeepers for this season. Scott Flinders has been magnificent for them during the first half of the season at the age of 33 and then Owen Evans stepped into the goal and maintained that form he had when playing for Macclesfield earlier.

I would love to pick Flinders for this spot to give him credits for an amazing season he has for Cheltenham, but I have to go for a more consistent choice in goal since he is now dropped to Cheltenham’s bench. With that in mind, my pick for the last goalkeeper spot in the squad is Northampton’s David Cornell. But in order to give Flinders a shout for this spot, I will compare his stats to Cornell’s and saying why Cornell is my pick.

Firstly, why Northampton Town? Well, a simple (well, not that simple) answer. Northampton have conceded 40 goals this season, the sixth-lowest team in the league just behind Cheltenham, Colchester, Swindon, Plymouth and Newport respectively. As mentioned, among those six teams topping the board in the mentioned aspect, Alex Palmer stands out for his record with Plymouth and EA Sports have taken that into their record. How about the rest?

For Gerken and King, they have faced 3.29 and 3.25 shots per 90 minutes this season, way lower than what Cornell and Flinders have faced (3.65 and 3.46). For the number of saves made, the latter two registered 2.76 and 2.72 per 90 minutes respectively, the 17th and 18th highest in the league. Meanwhile, the former two have made 2.34 and 2.38 saves per 90 minutes, the 28th and 30th highest in the league, quite a distance compared to Cornell and Flinders. For Steven Benda, well, he hasn’t even made the top 30 in the league for shots against and saves per 90 minutes. Given Anthony Grant is the fifth-best tackler (2.7 tackles per game) and 14th for interceptions (1.5 interceptions per game) and Mathieu Baudry places 18th for interceptions (1.4 interceptions per game), it is quite easy to understand why the Swansea loanee hasn’t faced many shots towards his goal (3.3 shots on target against per match).

Return to Flinders and Cornell, the two mentioned stats also show why Cornell stands out more than Flinders. The Northampton goalkeeper can improve his saving ratio more as he only registers 75.76% compared to his colleague at Cheltenham, who has 78.49%. Along with that, Cornell can also involve in the team’s build-up whenever needed as he made 13.23 long passes and 8.61 passes into the final third per 90 minutes. This will allow Northampton to start attacks through Cornell’s long passes that are headed towards Sam Hoskins and Andy Williams.

…(Part 2 coming up soon, where I will talk about my choices for the three defenders spot)