Playmaker's EFL 72: #39 Josh Sargent

With the fabulous forties now in its slipstream, Playmaker's countdown of the EFL's best players this season marches resolutely on. 

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!

Our next entrant has had a highly productive season that could end in promotion to the Premier League...but just how many goals would he have scored were it not for injury?

Number 39: Josh Sargent (Norwich City)

A respectable joint-fifth in the Championship goal charts this season with 15 goals to his name, Norwich striker Josh Sargent could be forgiven for wondering just how many goals he would have bagged were it not for a bad ankle injury back in August. 

If a centre-forward is going to be injured, it may as well be in the act of scoring - and Sargent's four-month spell on the sidelines followed his tenacious opening goal in the Canaries' 4-0 win over Huddersfield at the start of the season.

After a red-hot start that had seen him score three goals and supply an assist in Norwich's opening four games, Sargent did not play another minute of Championship football until he returned in a 1-0 defeat at Millwall in late December...and has been making up for lost time ever since!

The top scorer in the Championship in 2024 with 12 goals, Sargent's dozen strikes in 19 subsequent games mean that, among players to score five or more goals in the second tier this season, only Leicester's evergreen Jamie Vardy (101 mpg) has a better minutes-per-goal rate in the division than Sargent (113). 

That said, Sargent still tops the charts for goals-per-game this season with 0.62!

Josh Sargent can’t stop scoring. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/34REvgLFnN

— Takes 🇺🇸 (@USMNTTAKES) March 29, 2024

A quick breakdown of Sargent's strikes this season clearly illustrates that he is an all-round threat with a variety of weapons at his disposal. Only Plymouth's Ryan Hardie (4) has more goals on counter-attacks than Sargent (3) this season in the Championship, but additionally no forward in the league has bagged more set-piece goals (4) than the 24-year-old former Werder Bremen man. 

Further, Sargent is deceptively strong in the air and no player has scored more Championship headers (5) than the forward in 2023/24. 

With sixth-placed Norwich odds on to make the play-offs this season, and his injury problems behind him, Sargent will be hoping to fire the Canaries into the Premier League - and there is no doubt the American possesses all the attributes to play at the highest level. 

As Norwich manager David Wagner told The Pinkun back in February:

"Josh is an absolutely complete striker. 

"He's quick enough to make runs in behind..his first touch is good to accelerate the game, he's good in the air as well...

"He's a complete number nine and he makes other players better."

Playmaker's EFL 72...the countdown

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

4⃣7⃣/7⃣2⃣

🤍 One part of @LUFC's electric attacking lineup, our next entry in the #Playmaker72 has 13⚽ and 7🅰 so far this season.

💥 Enjoying his best league campaign to date, we have @Daniel_James_97!https://t.co/GrFs0cniCA#LUFC pic.twitter.com/7676kMDKxx

— playmakerstats (@playmaker_EN) April 18, 2024