Incognito Scout: The Top 5 Championship Players so far this Season
This week, the Incognito Scout dips into the second tier of English football.
The Championship is known as a highly-competitive league; a perception that's supported this season by the fact that leaders Burnley have dropped points in more games than they've won, while only seven points separate the Clarets from 18th-placed Cardiff City.
Incognito data is still able to separate the top performers from the masses, though, and below are the top five players on our Championship leaderboard, approximately one third of the way through the season*.
5. Josh Brownhill (CM - Burnley)
Brownhill has been used in several different positions by Burnley boss Vincent Kompany, but the majority of his appearances, and his best performances, have come in central midfield.
There, his numbers are outstanding.
The 26-year-old Englishman boasts the best Attack Quality rating out of 71 eligible Championship central midfielders (72.7) and the fifth-best Defence Quality rating (69.5)***.
He ranks in the top five in three of Incognito's eight attacking attributes, topping the pile for Shot (78.4), while he also makes the top five in four defensive attributes: On Ball Intelligence, Pressure, Off Ball Intelligence and Aerial.
4. Ollie Norwood (CDM - Sheffield United)
Former Northern Ireland international Norwood has been a standout performer at this level for many years, earning previous promotions with Brighton, Fulham and his current club Sheffield United.
His technical quality is clearly reflected in his Incognito attacking attribute scores. He ranks first among central midfielders for Set Piece (76.0), second for Cross (75.7) and fourth for Pass (69.5).
The 31-year-old's only significantly above average defensive attribute is Clearance (75.8) but he's consistent enough across traits to earn a Defence Quality ranking of fourth for his position (70.4).
3. Taylor Harwood-Bellis (RCB - Burnley)
At just 20 years old, Harwood-Bellis is young to be a starting centre-back for a promotion-chasing club.
However, he gained vital experience during previous stints at Blackburn, Anderlecht and Stoke, and the Manchester City loanee is thriving at Turf Moor.
He's ranked second for his position for Clearance (73.2) and Off Ball Intelligence (70.3), as well as third for Pressure (72.1), while he only places in the bottom half of Championship centre-backs for Aerial (60.0) and On Ball Intelligence (58.7).
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His parent club will also no doubt be delighted to learn that he ranks first for his position for Pass, with an excellent score of 76.1.
2. Jo?o Pedro (CF - Watford)
Jo?o Pedro missed a chunk of recent matches and before then, he had been deployed in several different roles.
However, he's been exceptional for the Hornets in his six appearances as a centre-forward. The 21-year-old Brazilian has only scored once as a CF but his attacking attribute rankings speak for themselves.
He places first for the position for Pass (75.7) and Intelligence (71.8), while he's also third for Dribble (71.1) and fifth for Cross (67.9).
There's plenty of room for improvement defensively, though, with significantly below average On Ball (43.3.) and Possession (50.7) scores contributing to a Defence Quality rank of 31st out of 47 eligible centre-forwards.
1. Liam Lindsay (CB - Preston North End)
Preston are only 14th in the table, but a lack of goals has been their main problem thus far rather than a leaky defence.
Playing in the heart of a back three, Lindsay has been - with the exception of a rare bad display at Norwich earlier this month - outstanding for manager Ryan Lowe.
Remarkably, he ranks first among Championship centre-backs in four of Incognito's eight defensive categories: Aerial (76.3), Clearance (76.0), On Ball Intelligence (73.2) and Off Ball Intelligence (70.6).
The 27-year-old has room for improvement with his Physical and Pressure scores, but he's comfortably top of the Incognito Championship leaderboard at this point in the season.
*Data based on matches up to but not including 14/10/2022
**Incognito Scores? adjusted for quality of league, quality of opponent and quality of teammates
***Quality and Attribute Ratings adjusted for position
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