TOP GOALSCORER genius Gavin Horsfall (@GHorsfall) shares his favourite Top Goalscorer fancies ahead of the 2017/18 Championship season.
WLB Season Preview 2017/18 | Championship: Top Goalscorer
It’s 9/1 the field in another competitive Championship heat.
Britt Assombalonga (9/1 Bet365) racked up 14 goals in his 32 appearances for Nottingham Forest last year at a rate of 0.65 goals-per-90 minutes, a figure better than that of leading scorer Chris Martin, who played twice as many minutes as the new Middlesbrough man.
But with the £15m Assombalonga seeing out the 90 just six times after Christmas, any enthusiasm from a betting perspective has to be tempered.
One goal in 13 wasn’t a true reflection of Scott Hogan’s (16/1 SkyBet) ability at Villa Park after his January move to the Midlands. The former Brentford man was knocking on the door with 60% of his shots on-target and with question marks over Jonathan Kodjia’s summer recovery from his broken ankle, we should expect to see Hogan in better light.
Neal Maupay (66/1 BetVictor)
Hogan’s former team Brentford have had a great summer.
Ollie Watkins (66/1 Ladbrokes) is great and just like all the social media judges, I’ve seen ALL THE VIDEOS of Neal Maupay (66/1) over the past 10 minutes – he looks a player-and-a-half to my untrained and overly-excitable eye.
He probably doesn’t get in ahead of a pretty settled Brentford front-three early doors, although Lasse Vibe is in the last 12 months of his contract and Dean Smith is all about competition for places.
I’d rather be on the speculative 66s now than the 33s later but value doesn’t put dinner on the table, as we know.
Tom Barkhuizen (100/1 SkyBet)
Bear with me on this one but at bigger prices and with room for improvement it was a breakthrough season for Jordan Hugill (70/1 10BET) at Preston last year.
Simon Grayson’s departure at Deepdale and Alex Neil’s arrival can only spell good signs for any Preston attacking player; they’ll look to get the ball forward quicker and, while Hugill may want the ball more direct, we might expect to still see the 25-year old build on his 12 goals last year.
In fact, while we’re at Deepdale, there’s no reason why Tom Barkhuizen (100/1 SkyBet) doesn’t become a better player under Neil either – six goals in 12 starts at North End last season for a player that looked Championship class when I first saw him at Hereford all those years ago.
Elsewhere, Neil’s old club Norwich welcome Daniel Farke to the club. Pre-season suggests it’s still one of Cameron Jerome (25/1 Ladbrokes) or Nelson Oliveria (20/1 SkyBet) as the German switches between strikers.
Oliveria probably has his nose in front after a prolific pre-season and his time on the pitch was more effective than his teammate last season – 0.63 goals-per-90 minutes as opposed to 0.43.
Best Bets
Championship – Neal Maupay to be Top Goalscorer (66/1 each-way BetVictor)
Championship – Tom Barkhuizen to be Top Goalscorer (100/1 each-way SkyBet)
Not The Top 20 Podcast Betting Preview
Our own Mark O’Haire (@MarkOHaire) joined Bet365’s head of media Steve Freeth (@SteveFreeth) and the superb Not The Top 20 podcast (@NTT20Pod) for a special pre-season betting preview.
Hosted by Ali Maxwell (@TheMakeleleRole) and George Elek (@GeorgeElek), the NTT20 podcast is an essential listen for EFL fans so get downloading and listening.
TOPICS Football League Tips
