, The72 Championship Team of the week Matchday 12: Perfect day for Jutkiewicz

The72 Championship Team of the week Matchday 12: Perfect day for Jutkiewicz

Sheffield United moved to the top of the Sky Bet Championship table with a 1-0 win over Hull City.

Promotion chasers Leeds United and Brentford drew 1-1 at Elland Road during Saturday’s early kick-off.

Ipswich Town earned their first league win of the campaign, during an eventful 3-2 victory over Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium.

Sheffield Wednesday also propelled themselves into the play-off places with a 2-1 win over Bristol City at Ashton Gate during Sunday’s Championship offering.

A total of 33 goals were scored across the 12 matches in England’s second-tier and for the 12th time this season, we have looked at match rating statistics from WhoScored.com to create our Championship Team of the Week.

Goalkeeper: Costel Pantillimon (Nottingham Forest) 7.91

Nottingham Forest moved into fifth position after earning a superb 2-0 victory away at Middlesbrough.

Forest’s goalkeeper, Costel Pantillimon, kept his second clean sheet in the space of four matches for the Tricky Trees to extend their unbeaten run to seven matches in all competitions.

Pantillimon made four saves at the Riverside Stadium, preventing Middlesbrough from scoring for the second home for the second consecutive match.

The Romanian’s average match rating across his 12 league games of 6.76 out of 10 has only been beaten by three other goalkeepers in the division.

Defender: Pontus Jansson (Leeds United) 8.81

Pontus Jansson’s late equaliser rescued a point for the 10 men of Leeds during their 1-1 draw over Brentford.

With just two minutes remaining, Jansson headed in Ezgjan Alioski’s free-kick over the Bees’ ‘keeper, Luke Daniels and in.

Jansson made four tackles during the match, only Alioski made more.

He also won seven aerials duels, a total only matched by Brentford’s Henrik Dalsgaard.

Defender: Tom Clarke (Preston North End) 8.19

Despite not directly scoring for Preston North End during their 4-0 victory over Wigan Athletic, centre-back Tom Clarke excelled at Deepdale.

The Lilywhites’ skipper won seven aerial duels against a Wigan side who were reduced to 10 men when Darren Gibson received a straight red card in the 56th minute.

He managed two interceptions against Wigan, only visiting substitute Dan Burn managed as many, who inadvertently scored Preston’s fourth past his own goalkeeper, Christian Walton.

Clarke also won seven aerial duels, the joint-highest amount won by any Preston player.

Defender: Kyle Bartley (West Bromwich Albion) 8.17

West Bromwich Albion fought back from a goal down to win 4-1 at home to Reading.

Defender Kyle Bartley had a direct hand in two of the Baggies’ four goals at The Hawthorns.

He created West Brom’s second goal when his header from Harvey Barnes’ corner was volleyed in from close-range by Dwight Gayle.

Bartley completed the rout with 10 minutes remaining with another header from a Barnes corner, only this time going straight in.

Defender: Kristian Pedersen (Birmingham City) 8.61

Birmingham City recorded their first league victory at the St Andrew’s Trillion Trophy Stadium of the campaign, beating Rotherham United 3-1.

The win saw Danish left-back Kristian Pedersen continue his good vein of form since signing from Union Berlin in June.

Pedersen won more tackles (4), more interceptions (3) and make more clearances (19) than any other player.

He has averaged a rating of 7.41 out of 10 across his 12 league matches, the third-highest out of players that have represented their side in every Championship match of the campaign so far.

 

 

Midfielder: Jota (Birmingham City) 8.25

Jota makes the Team of the Week for the third consecutive match running after providing two assists during the home win over the Millers.

Lukas Jutkiewicz opened the scoring after 20 minutes when he firmly headed in Jota’s corner at the back post.

The Spaniard’s second assist led to Jutkiewicz completing his hat-trick midway through the second half. His shortly taken free-kick on the edge of the penalty area teed-up Jutkiewicz for a venomous strike into the bottom corner of the net.

He has so far got four assists in the league this season, all of which have come in the past week.

Midfielder: Geoff Cameron (Queens Park Rangers) 8.39

Queens Park Rangers held Derby County to a 1-1 draw at Loftus Road on Saturday.

Their goal came from Geoff Cameron, who had netted for the first time since signing for the Super Hoops on loan from Stoke City.

He levelled the match shortly after the half-time interval when Luke Freeman’s saved free-kick fell into the path of Nahki Wells, who found Cameron unmarked in the penalty area and the American international made no mistake in front of goal.

Cameron has so far averaged a rating of 7.02 out of 10 in his six matches for QPR, only Joel Lynch has averaged a better average rating for Steve McClaren’s side this season.

Midfielder: Ezgjan Alioski (Leeds United) 8.24

Alioski was vital as the Whites fought back hard to earn a point at home to Brentford.

His set-piece was expertly taken, as Jansson headed home in final exchanges of the clash.

The Albanian midfielder managed to make three more tackles (7) than any other player during the draw at Elland Road.

He also mustered six key passes, only three less than the entirety of Dean Smith’s Brentford side.

Midfielder: Joe Lolley (Nottingham Forest) 9.56

Joe Lolley was instrumental in Forest’s victory over the Boro in the North East.

He opened the scoring shortly after half-time with an excellent strike from outside of the penalty area that flew into the top corner.

Lolley then created the visitors’ second goal of the afternoon, with his cross being buried by their on-loan striker, Lewis Grabban.

The winger was unlucky to have not been this week’s Player of the Week with an impressive rating of 9.56 out of 10, a score that would have won the accolade in the majority of other match weeks.

Striker: Dwight Gayle (West Bromwich Albion) 8.24

Gayle took his goal tally for the season up to eight league goals with a second-half brace against Reading.

His first saw him head in Tyrone Mears’ cross at the back post from close-range.

He then volleyed in from just four yards out after Bartley had connected on to Barnes’ corner,

The striker, who is currently on loan from Newcastle United, has scored 26% of Darren Moore’s side’s 31 league goals this season and his form has helped them start off the season well, currently sitting in second place and just a point behind Sheffield United.

Striker: Lukas Jutkiewicz (Birmingham City) 10.0

It was the perfect afternoon for Blues striker Jutkiewicz, whose hat-trick sealed the victory for his side and earned him the first 10 out of 10 rating in the league this term.

His first goal came after 20 minutes, heading in a corner by Jota. Three minutes later, he tapped in from close-range when initial shots from Che Adams and Gary Gardner were blocked.

The 29-year-old completed his hat-trick midway through the second half, smashing in a well-worked free-kick routine past opposition goalkeeper, Marek Rodak.

He becomes the first player to win four WhoScored star man awards in the Championship this season, and his average rating of 7.82 out of 10 makes him the best player in the league so far this term.

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