The new Championship season kicked off with a dearth of goals, a surprise result for Cardiff City and Viktor Gyokeres picking up from where he left off with Coventry City last season. Here’s the wrap up from the first weekend of season 2022/23…
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Cardiff City
A hard reset of a football club can be a very difficult thing to pull off. The easy bit is getting rid of the old identity but implementing the new one quickly is where clubs often have trouble. New players and patterns of play need to knit together and all of this with the backdrop of competitors trying to move forward at the same time. What can really help a reset is a good result to begin with and that’s exactly what Cardiff got at the weekend. Not just a good result I should add, but a 1-0 win over a Norwich side who have dominated just about everyone during their past two Championship seasons.
The Bluebirds new look saw a whole host of new faces. Ryan Allsop arrived in goal after relegation last season with Derby County, while full-back Mahlon Romeo teams up again with Cardiff boss and former Millwall teammate Steve Morison. Jamilu Collins on the other flank stepped in from Germany, while experienced Championship campaigners Andy Rinomhota and Callum O’Dowda came down the M4 from Reading and Bristol City respectively. The match winner was also a new face, Romaine Sawyers was promoted with West Brom and has represented Brentford and Stoke in the Championship. Sawyers’ right footed strike slid its way into the far corner just after half time and with a red card for either side in the last twenty minutes, Cardiff held on to the three points. It may not have been perfect for Cardiff but a winning start will no doubt make all of those many changes they’re going through just a little easier to cope with.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Viktor Gyokeres (Coventry City)
The Championship golden boot race and close season transfer rumour mill are often very closely aligned. It stands to reason that the leading marksmen of the previous season would be among the most sought after names in the division as every club looks to add goals to their squads. Of the top scorers from last season still playing in the division Coventry City’s Viktor Gyokeres ranks fifth, with a healthy 17 goal tally in a real breakthrough season. Being just 24 years old Gyokeres has been eyed by many, along with Coventry’s Gustavo Hamer and Callum O’Hare.
For Coventry fans this is somewhat of a backhanded compliment, it’s gratifying that their star players are attracting attention but the chat can become a bit disruptive the longer it goes on. All three players were still at the club for the big kick-off, Gyokeres and Hamer started while O’Hare was conspicuously absent. Manager Mark Robins bullishly put this down to injury but it seems if any one of the three is going, O’Hare looks to be favourite. I’m sure Coventry fans won’t want any of their key assets to be sold but they got through the opener at Sunderland without O’Hare and with plenty to thank Gyokeres for. The Black Cats fans turned out in vast numbers and Sunderland led through Jack Clarke’s goal going into the final ten minutes. Coventry needed rescuing and Gyokeres duly obliged and showed us all why he scored so many goals last season and why he’s a sought after Championship striker. The Swede slipped past two and then arrowed the ball home from the edge of the box, securing both a point for Coventry and his status as a very high value asset for the Sky Blues.
TALKING POINT
Where are all the goals?
Anecdotally we know the final day of the football season provides us with plenty of goals, however this season the opposite was true of a rather quiet opening round on the goalscoring front. We had two nil-nil draws between Wigan and Preston as well as Luton and Birmingham, but that in itself is not too unusual. What is more unusual is the dearth of goals elsewhere in the division.
Along with our four teams involved in the nil-nil draws a further six teams failed to score during defeat in the opening round. This coupled with the fact that only Milwall and Hull scored more than once means a rather goal shy tally of sixteen across the entire twelve games across the division. For a bit of context, last season over its 552 matches the Championship saw 1385 goals at an average of 2.51 per game. The opening round therefore produced just 1.33 goals per game and a massive 47% drop on last season’s average.
I’m not entirely sure what the explanation for this absence of goals is. Obviously when making direct comparison to last season we can argue that the record breaking Fulham team boosted the average up for everyone. I’ve heard theories that the early start back in late July this season means a more risk averse start from many teams, perhaps that’s one for the boffins with the running data to prove or disprove. I’m sure as everything fully kicks into gear the goals will start flowing but for now it’s very much a case of defences on top in the second tier.
LOANEE OF THE WEEK
Charlie Cresswell, Millwall (on loan from Leeds Utd)
As debut performances go, this was a pretty good one. Charlie Cresswell and Jamie Shackleton arrived at Millwall on loan from Leeds in the summer as the Elland Road club continued to transition from the Bielsa to the Marsch era. I have to say it was the Shackleton signing that really got me excited, but it was centre half Cresswell who everyone was talking about after Millwall’s opener against Stoke.
We know Millwall is a good place to go on loan if you’re a young defender. Dan Ballard trod this path last season on loan from Arsenal and he was sold on for good money to Sunderland in the close season. For an incoming young centre back, Millwall manager Gary Rowett provides a sturdy structure with a good keeper and experienced heads. The defensive side of things is not the big story here though, as it was Creswell who scored both goals in this opening day win. Just 12 minutes in the Leeds youngster rose to head home George Honeyman’s corner and then he repeated the trick volleying home Scott Malone’s second half set play.
Excitement is high at The Den and while Jed Wallace may have left for West Brom, business has been good and the club exudes a sense of stability many of their Championship competitors simply don’t have. Charlie Cresswell will do well to replicate his goalscoring antics each and every week from centre half, but the Lions look to have got themselves a loanee who’s going to fit in very nicely to an already well calibrated operation.
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