The countdown of Playmaker’s ’72 of the 72’ is continuing at pace and we now focus in on an absolute star of League One this season.
It's certainly been no easy task, but - just to clarify - our '72' is less a roll call of the best footballers in the EFL and more a tribute to those players who have enjoyed the most memorable seasons while racking up the most impressive stats.
Whatever the criteria, we're confident in our selections of the most outstanding players through the Championship, League One, and League Two and welcome any debate on the subject!
His team won’t be going up this season, but he may well be playing at a higher level as we look at Peterborough United captain Harrison Burrows.
Earlier this week, Peterborough fell short of Oxford United in the League One playoffs as they suffered a 2-1 aggregate defeat to the U’s but, even with that loss, skipper Harrison Burrows will be one of several Posh players in serious demand this summer.
Just before half-time of the second-leg of that semi-final tie, Burrows did what he has done best throughout this campaign and whipped in a delicious delivery for fellow defender Josh Knight to bring them back into the tie. It was poetic tragedy, though, that his handball allowed Cameron Brannagan to score the eventual winner from the spot just moments later.
That assist for Knight’s was Burrows’ 15th of the League One campaign with only Derby County’s star man Nathaniel Mendez-Laing managing more than that in the 2023/24 season.
It also means he finishes the campaign with 21 direct goal involvements in the league, moving him level with Peterborough’s other key man Ephron Mason-Clark, in terms of being the most effective attacking outlets for Darren Ferguson’s losing semi-finalists.
Burrows, with his cliché’d wand of a left foot from full-back, has been instrumental to Peterborough being the league’s best attacking team and he was a deserving winner of League One's prestigious 'Player of the Season' award.
Despite his main attribute going forward being from set-piece taking, an area of the game where losing the ball is so common, he has still managed to maintain an impressive 82.9% pass rate throughout the campaign.
His ‘big game presence’ at the age of just 22, was also shown at Wembley Stadium last month when Posh edged past Wycombe Wanderers by two goals to one to win the EFL Trophy with Burrows scoring twice as they went on to defeat the Chairboys.
In fact, across all domestic competitions this season, Burrows racked up an incredible 12 goals and 17 assists - half of his goal tally coming in cup competitions.
This is a 22-year-old defender that has marked himself out as one of the best attacking outlets in the third-tier with exceptional leadership qualities, skippering a squad that boasts ‘big name’ players for the level such as Ronnie Edwards, Josh Knight, Archie Collins, Ephron Mason-Clark and even, albeit in more of a peripheral role this season, Jonson Clarke-Harris.
Burrows also has strong defensive numbers, too, with 2.1 tackles per game being the most of any Posh player this season, as well as one interception per game and the joint-highest number of clearances on average, too.
There will be immense disappointment that his handball led to Posh eventually staying down in League One this season, but he is a player of serious quality that will not be spending too much longer below the Championship.
8: Elliot Lee 9: Adam Armstrong 10: Davis Keillor-Dunn 11: Georginio Rutter
12: Gabriel Sara 13: Marlon Pack 14: Macaulay Langstaff 15: Ephron Mason-Clark
16: Dan Kemp 17: Joe Taylor 18: Eiran Cashin 19: Ali Al-Hamadi
20: Jack Clarke 21: Isaac Olaofe 22: Carl Piergiani 23: Jaden Philogene
24: Alfie May 25: Will Evans 26: Jamie Reid 27: Morgan Whittaker
28: Conor Chaplin 29: George Thomason 30: Mickey Demetriou
31: Stephy Mavididi 32: Marc Leonard 33: Josh Sheehan
34: Matt Smith 35: Kwame Poku 36: Illan Meslier 37: Aden Flint
38: Ronnie Edwards 39: Josh Sargent 40: Alex Gilbey 41: Ben Sheaf
42: Jobe Bellingham 43: Devante Cole 44: Jacob Greaves 45: Paddy Lane
46: Herbie Kane 47: Dan James 48: Archie Collins 49: Karamoko Dembele
50: Haji Wright 51: Dan Crowley 52: Cameron Brannagan 53: Aaron Collins
54: Andy Cook 55: Connor Shaughnessy 56: Jannik Vestergaard
57: Willy Gnonto 58: Ellis Simms 59: Charlie Hughes 60: Fatawu Isshaku
61: Sam Hoskins 62: Paul Mullin 63: Chris Martin 64: Omari Hutchinson
65: Isaac Hutchinson 66: Sam Tickle 67: Ben Hinchcliffe 68: Michał Helik
69: Lewis Wing 70: Rob Apter 71: Kyle Walker-Peters 72: Alex Palmer
 |  |
NameHarrison Burrows Born/Age2002-01-12(22 -yrs-old) Nationality England PositionMidfielder (Left Midfielder) / Defender (Left Back) | |
|
