EFL Stats 2022/23: The Numbers

EFL Stats 2022/23: The Numbers

The English Football League has served up highs, lows, and everything in between. Vincent Kompany’s Clarets topped the Championship at one end, whilst Rochdale and Hartlepool slumped towards the other. 

What goes up must come down, and vice versa. Wrexham and Notts County take the place of the departing two. However, the Championship, well, that braces itself for the impact of another three monstrous Premier League clubs.

As with any 46-game campaign with a plethora of twists and turns, we can expect plenty of numbers, EFL Stats, and head-scratching figures. We’ve grouped an intriguing selection and listed them below (Championship Stats, League One Stats, and League Two Stats):

The Championship Stats

• Five years ago, the Championship Playoff Final between Coventry City and Luton Town was a League Two fixture. Ascent.
• Sunderland’s starting eleven against West Brom in April was the youngest side assembled all season at 22.5 years old. The 1-2 victory at the Hawthorns over their promotion rivals proved age is nothing but a number.
• Under evident instructions, Ryan Giles’ 445 crosses for Middlesborough out-crossed all his colleagues in the EFL.
• Swansea City’s 10.2 aerial duels won per game (24th) is a far reach from division-topping Millwall (27.4)
• Both Playoff Final opponents were priced at 8/1 to clinch promotion before a ball was kicked in the summer.
• The three free-kick goals by Millwall’s Zian Flemming was matched by only Ethan Chislett of AFC Wimbledon in League Two.
• Only Burnley (38.2xG) can boast fewer expected goals than Luton.
• Blackburn Rovers spent 211 days in the top six spots of the Championship. Eventual playoff final attendees, Coventry City, enjoyed just 16 days.
• No player won more tackles than James McClean (119) of Wigan in The EFL. In League One, Charlton’s George Dobson also managed 119 for the season.
• Coventry were the only team in the Championship this year unable to win a game from a losing position.
• No side dropped more points from winning positions than Luton Town (27).
• Viktor Johansson made the most saves – 157 – of any other Championship keeper. Rotherham’s survival may have something to do with the shot-stopping Swede.
• Coventry City have both scored the fewest goals from set pieces (7) and conceded the least (6) at the other end.

League One Stats

• Sheffield Wednesday put together a club-record 23-game unbeaten run.
• The Owls’ 96-point haul would have won them the league in the previous four League One seasons.
• Plymouth Argyle ended the season having sold 90.8% of tickets from their 23 home fixtures. Fortress Home Park. Ipswich Town (88.2%), Portsmouth (87.3%), Lincoln (83.8%), and Derby County (81.1%) make up the top five most-visited home grounds.
• According to Transfermarkt, Derby’s starting eleven in their 0-0 December draw in Bolton was the team with the highest market value (€18.90m) all season.
• When Barnsley managed to open the scoring in 2022/23, they didn’t lose on any occasion (26W/3D). 
• Ipswich Town scored two or more goals in 67% of matches (31/46). That’s more than any other side in The EFL. Interestingly, behind the Tractor Boys in the 2+ Goals stakes, Plymouth Argyle (61% – 28/46) also recorded multiple strikes more than any other Championship or League Two club.
• Steven Schumacher’s Plymouth Argyle had a budget of £4.1 million, including wages, accommodation, agent’s fees etc. All of which oversaw a League One crown.
• Sheffield Wednesday and Ipswich both won to nil in 48% (22/46) – more than any other EFL club.

Win to Nil Dominance

• Contrastingly, no other EFL club lost to nil more than Forest Green’s 41% (19/46) of fixtures.
• Carrying on the Forest Green Rovers theme – the 18 goals conceded in the first 15 minutes of games was the highest of the three tiers.
• Plymouth Argyle’s Dan Scarr (2.38) ends the season with the highest points per90 in The EFL.
• Charlton Athletic’s Ryan Inniss’ four red cards position him head and shoulders above the rest in terms of early baths.
• Shrewsbury’s Tom Flannagan (17) received the most yellow cards in the English Football League. Nuisance.
• Barry Bannan registered 12 Key Passes in Sheffield Wednesday’s 0-3 September win against Morecambe nearer the start of the season. No player in the EFL beat that total over the course of the campaign. In fact, no player topped the eight he recorded versus Cheltenham in October, either.
• Despite the 101 goals in League One, no other EFL outfit hit the woodwork more than newly-promoted Ipswich Town (24). Both West Brom (20) and Salford City (21) lead their respective leagues.

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League Two Stats

• League Two averaged a goal every 38.5 minutes across the season.
• 1-1 was the most frequent scoreline in the fourth tier, rearing its head 76 times (13.7% of games)
• Oscar Kelly’s (15Y/9M/7D) appearance for Stockport at home to Mansfield made him the youngest player in League Two this season. 
• The two own-goals scored by Theo Vassel put him in an unwanted EFL grouping. The Salford man, Alex Hartridge of Exeter City, Peterborough’s Nathan Thompson, Tom Lockyer in Luton and Blackpool’s Callum Connoly each put the ball in their own net on two occasions.
• At 42Y/1M/9D, Sutton’s Craig Dundas became the oldest player when featuring in March versus Mansfield.
• Thirteen players played every single minute (4140) of their team’s campaign in 2022/23. However, there’s someone who has managed to play even more. Following Kyle Knoyle’s January switch from Doncaster to Stockport, the right-sided defender managed to rack up 4154 minutes. Effort.

• League Two was the only league where a team conceded more goals than the highest goals-scored total by the most prolific team. Hartlepool shipped 78 strikes, whilst Salford scored 72.
• Kylian Kouassi (31) of Sutton United played more games starting as a substitute than any other player in the EFL. Benchwarmer.
• Elliot Watt’s 15 assists for Salford tops the entire EFL landscape.
• Ben Hinchliffe, Stockport County’s man between the sticks, saved two penalties in the League Two playoff semi-final to compliment the winning spot-kick he scored in the Evo Stick Northern Premier final for Dave Challinor’s AFC Fylde in 2014. Additionally, Hinchliffe winning the National League North and the National League in Stockport colours, again under Challinor, has given his CV an impressive look. Double act.
• The 132 fouls drawn by Cameron Norman of Newport County eclipses next-best Alex Scott (96) for Championship outfit Bristol City.
• Most EFL clean sheets? The 24 from Lawrence Vigouroux for table-topping Leyton Orient.

Bagsman

• Chuba Akpom scored 28 goals up top for Middlesborough this season. What is even more intriguing is that he was priced at 150/1 to do so.
• Viktor Gyökeres is the only player in the Championship to hit double figures for both goals (21) and assists (10).
• Scoring four goals off the bench was a league one-high for Plymouth Argyle’s Niall Ennis. Super Sub.

• Town’s Conor Chaplin scored more non-penalty goals (25) than anyone in the EFL. Chuba Akpom and Andy Cook, both on 24, weren’t far away.
• Jonson Clarke-Harris is now two goals shy of a century in his last five seasons. The 16, 13, 31, 12 (Championship), and 26 strikes best tells the tale of the Posh striker’s most-recent English Football League campaigns. Ruthless.
• Bantams striker Andy Cook hit a division-leading 28 goals as he fired Bradford City to the playoffs. Cooking.
• Those 28 Andy Cook goals made up a large chunk of Bradford’s 61 strikes this season. That’s a 46% contribution to his side’s goals total – the highest percentage in the EFL. Viktor Gyökeres (36%) and Sam Hoskins (35%) are the next most influential when comparing personal goal returns to team totals.

EFL Stats 2022/23: The Numbers