A common observation of the Championship last season was that it was lacking quality strikers.
Aside from a handful of names, few number nines were viewed as being in the top tier category.
When you look at the top goalscorer chart for the season, it’s not difficult to see how many came to this conclusion.
Joel Piroe won the golden boot after finding the back of the net 19 times.
This was the lowest number of goals scored by a golden boot winner since the First Division became the Championship in 2004.
In fact, only once since the 2010/11 season has the golden boot winner scored less than 24 goals.
Looking further down last season’s goalscoring chart, Borja Sainz and Josh Brownhill finished joint second, only one goal behind Piroe.
It’s been a much stronger showing from the strikers this time out. Adam Armstrong currently leads the pack with 11 goals to his name.
However, there are several players who are closing in. Brandon Thomas-Asante, Joe Gelhardt and Carlton Morris all sit on 10 goals for the season, whilst Rumarn Burrell is not far behind on 9.
Eight players have found the net 8 times, including the likes of Kieffer Moore, Oli McBurnie and Jay Stansfield.
We are less than halfway through the season so any one of these players could be named top goalscorer by the end.
What we can say with some certainty is that at least some of them will better Piroe’s golden boot winning tally from last campaign.
Is it as simply because so many of the strikers who have done well this season were playing in other leagues last season? Adam Armstrong played the first half of the season in the Premier League.
Rumarn Burrell was plying his trade in League One. The list goes on.
However, this cannot be the only factor as virtually every striker who was somewhat prolific last season has been unable to replicate their success.
New West Bromwich Albion manager Ryan Mason doesn’t seem to fancy Josh Maja, restricting him to just five Championship starts.
Furthermore, even though Josh Sargent scored in his first five games of the season, he has only scored once since then.
Meanwhile, Mihailo Ivanovic and Colby Bishop have also struggled.
No matter what the reasons are, it is great to see more goals in the Championship once again.
Who knows, maybe one day someone will come close to Aleksandar Mitrovic’s total of 43 from four seasons ago.
