21 Under 21: Charlie Hughes (Wigan)
Episode #15 | George Elek and Ali Maxwell list the most outstanding young players in the EFL.
21 Under 21 will be released every weekday at noon in June, with paid subscribers unlocking early access to all video content.
“The best ball-playing part of Hughes’ game are those BIG diagonals” — George Elek
Charlie Hughes
Wigan Athletic— League One, 2023/24:
Born: 16 October 2003
Position: Centre-back
League appearances: 43
League starts: 42
🅰️ An outstanding season
In recent years, Wigan’s academy has built an impressive reputation for producing and developing talented young players. Unfortunately, due to the club’s financial issues, some of those players moved on before they reached the first team, but there’s a new crop of exciting youngsters who have already become household names. One of those youngsters is ball-playing defender Charlie Hughes.
Having started 19 games in the Championship, Hughes became a mainstay of Shaun Maloney’s side in League One. In addition to loving a big switch, the 20-year-old centre-back completed the third-most dribbles for Wigan, behind only Martial Godo and Stephen Humphrys.
In terms of his physicality and aerial ability, Hughes isn’t a stereotypical lower-league central defender, but he is a leader and he’s prepared to put his body on the line. The England Under-20 international wore the captain’s armband a number of times throughout the season and only four players in the entire league blocked more shots than he did. To cap an outstanding season, Hughes was nominated for the EFL Young Player of the Season award.
Born in Wigan, Hughes previously spent time with the academies at Manchester City and Liverpool. Given his progress over the last couple of seasons, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Hughes lining up for that calibre of team 10 years from now.
📈 At a glance
Pizza charts informed by match data. Each chart rates a chosen player from 0-99 across different metrics (e.g. Dribbles) according to their “percentile rank”. A 75 score shows a player outperforming 75% of other players in the dataset. Each dataset is position-specific. Negative metrics are reversed. [Credit: Riley Roberts.]
▶️ Watch: Episode 15
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to NTT20.COM to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.