Manager and Player of the Month Awards – February 2024

Announcing the headline acts from a February Festival of Football: Farke, Phillips, Clough, Rutter and more, much Moore.

Mar 01, 2024

Ali Maxwell, George Elek, Huw Davies, Sam Parry

Early March is usually reserved for announcements about the line-up of Britain’s biggest festival. But we’re a little more interested in February than Glastonbury, and we can make a compelling case that the month just gone was the most exciting and consequential of the EFL season so far.

The winners presented below have timed their achievements to coincide with a month of chop, change and challenge. To scrutinise all three league tables on March 1st is to inhale a yogic in-breath and hold the hot, steamy prospect of surprise and intrigue in your lungs. Keep holding it. Keep holding it. The exhale is going to cough up as much excitement as a Glastonbury Festival headlined by the incarnated ghosts of John Lennon, Tupac and Elvis – if not more.

Daniel Farke — Leeds United

Ryan Lowe’s Preston took 13 points from a possible 15 in February, their month bookended by victory over Ipswich and a 3-0 win at Coventry. For another manager to top it would require, in the words of Marsha Klein, “something bloody spectacular”.

Daniel Farke’s Leeds are something bloody spectacular.

Across all Championship fixtures last month, Farke’s charges won the most games (5 from 5), took the most points (15), scored the second-most goals (13) and conceded the fewest (just 1, to Leicester, while every other team let in at least 5). And yet it’s the manner of these victories that’s most impressive. Including their 4-1 FA Cup win away to Plymouth, Leeds won five of their six matches in February by two or more goals; in the other, they missed three Opta-defined big chances against Bristol City and beat them 1-0 anyway. Farke’s setup creates opportunities – it isn’t up to him to put them away… which is probably for the best, actually, with all due respect to the former forward’s impressive goalscoring record in Germany’s regional divisions.

Even with that superb attack, headed by a front four who’d each be double-marked if only the opposition had enough players to allow it, Leeds are keeping things tight defensively in a way their automatic promotion rivals currently aren’t (shout-out to Ipswich, still winning games despite conceding more goals last month than anyone except Stoke and Rotherham). Statistically speaking, Leeds allowed their opponents just one big chance across four matches before Leicester came to town. That night at Elland Road, Farke’s charges did benefit from the Foxes’ wayward finishing, but only after the hosts had missed a hatful of chances themselves.

Off the pitch, too, it’s all gravy. After Marcelo Bielsa, the club’s fans thought they could never love again, but they’ve bought into Farke even if he isn’t to be found in the local greasy spoon, working away at his laptop. Farke is the cool head this club needed following relegation; the man who ‘knows how to win the Championship’, sure, but also how to manage emotions when that looks unlikely, keeping a febrile fanbase on a low simmer instead of boiling over too soon.

Due to the slow start caused by their complicated transfer window, Leeds have been playing catch-up all season – it’s why they aren’t top. Well, that and Leicester’s incredible points return. And yet, before the pair’s Friday-night showdown, it was Farke saying, “It’s important not to lose your cool and be over-motivated” while it felt as though Enzo Maresca doth protested too much when he declared, “It’s a huge, huge, huge game – for them. For us, it’s one more game.”

If Leeds beat Huddersfield this weekend, it’ll be the first time in the club’s history that they’ve won 10 league games in a row – the same Leeds who were a winning machine for more than a decade under Don Revie, and also the same Leeds who’ve spent close to half of their existence living outside the top flight, giving them plenty of other opportunities to set such a record. Does it matter? Maybe not. In Farke’s own words: “There are many record-breaking statistics, but even more important is the feeling and the spirit.”

This guy gets it.

Kieffer Moore — Ipswich Town

Today is St David’s Day. So, of course there’s some fitting – and much-deserved – Welsh interest.

Last week, we penned a piece about Instant Impacts – those January signings who have taken to their new teams like crispy ducks to pancakes. In amongst the back-line bolsterers, the midfielder difference-makers and the slew of newly-signed strikers, one name was writ large and long: Kieffer Roberto Francisco Moore.

Over Christmas and into January, Kieran McKenna’s Ipswich struggled to conjure the number of goals we were used to seeing. If a large part of that was down to George Hirst’s absence, then a large – perhaps larger – part of their ability to adapt and recover over six games in February was down to Kieffer Moore.

Joining his new club on deadline day, Moore’s signing came with a level of expectation and pressure that the striker has played without. Let the record show: four goals in six league games. And goals are a fair barometer here: tap the glass and watch the dial shift from inclement weather to something more balmy.

Moore’s 19 shots for Ipswich (credit: FotMob)

Moore’s goal threat has reinvigorated Ipswich’s attacking output. In January, they averaged 1 goal per league game. In February, they have averaged 2.83 goals per league game. In fact, their 17 goals in February was the most in the league and 3 more than the next best. Moore has contributed to the tally with four goals from 19 shots – all inside the box – from an xG of 3.27 (per FotMob).

But goals are by no means the only measure of success for our Championship Player of the Month. With Hirst’s boots waiting to be filled, Moore has stepped beyond them; not qualitatively – there’s little use drawing comparisons between players with different strengths – but quite literally ten yards beyond.

Championship heatmaps (credit: Sofascore)

A presence in the box, Moore has enabled Ipswich to re-focalise their attacking play, in build-up and from set-pieces, around a reliable target. His athleticism, physicality and aerial ability are a point of difference, bringing others into play and sharpening what had become blunter edges of Ipswich’s attack. He’s scored the headers. He’s smacked home driven crosses. He’s flicked on the long throw for the throwback assist. Mawr, Mawr, Mawr – how do you like it?

Georginio Rutter — Leeds United

This all-conquering 2024 Leeds United side has a few youngsters eligible and worthy of this award.

Willy Gnonto scored four goals and assisted one: a breakout month for a player of whom much was expected, but who struggled to settle into the Championship season until February. Archie Gray has been astounding all season and probably had his best month yet. As flagged by

SCOUTED

legend Joe Donnohue, Gray has now surpassed the number of minutes played by Jude Bellingham in his breakout season with Birmingham City. The midfielder-turned-full-back continues to show preternatural composure, consistency and quality.

But I’m still all about Georginio Rutter. He’s only eligible for this award for one more month before turning 22 in April. While Gnonto may have registered one more goal contribution in February, there’s no doubt in my mind that Rutter’s performance level and value to the team is greater.

Rutter is so many different players in one. To bastardise a popular Irish expression, he is some player for one player.

He’s one of the Championship’s premier creative forces, with the joint-most assists in the league including three in February. He made the most open-play key passes of any Championship player in the month, and has played the most through balls this season.

He’s also one of the Championship’s most penetrative ball-carriers. His speed, agility, balance and strength allow him to withstand contact and pressure from opposition players while slaloming through them with unpredictable touches and body feints. Often, fouling him is the only response – as the most fouled player in the league this season, he was chopped or pulled down 25 times in February. The next-most fouled player was Jaden Philogene, 18 times. This is an important skill, with many a tight man-to-man marking scheme laid to waste by a zigzagging Rutter.

Defensively, he is crucial. He is energetic and athletic in the press, and made the most tackles of any attacking player in February.

And he’s a goal threat. Not a natural finisher – in fact, per FBref, he’s been the most underperforming finisher in the division this season – but still a goal threat, taking up awkward positions in the box and unleashing just shy of three shots per game.

Rutter is relentless – the footballing epitome of the phrase “you can’t keep a good man down”. In the first half against Leicester, nothing was coming off. He was turning the ball over time and time again. It looked bad. But he does not care, and that’s a huge skill! He does not stop trying things. And that resilience was crucial to Leeds’ turnaround against Leicester: all three of their goals had Rutter’s dynamic movement and ball-carrying at its heart.

Without Rutter The Nutter trying to make things happen, Leeds’ attacking approach would be a bit too safe at times. Too many straight lines. Too much onus on the wide forwards to put in a good cross or shot. Rutter lubricates Leeds.

This concoction of physical and mental durability, combined with an unusual but exciting mix of on-ball and off-ball skills, makes for a remarkable, box office footballer. A joy to watch in February, and our Championship Young Player of the Month.

Michael Skubala — Lincoln City

A recent CV of Futsal and Leeds United painted a certain picture of Michael Skubala, but his phenomenal start at Lincoln City has been built upon solid foundations rather than the expected expansive stuff.

They won five of their six games in February, scoring 10 goals, conceding two, and keeping four clean sheets. This run of form has catapulted them from the warm and safe embrace of mid-table into the adrenaline rush of teams dreaming of a play-off berth that is likely just out of reach.

Their fixtures might have been favourable in the calendar month, but for Lincoln to have only conceded a total of 3.27xG across the six games shows how defensively well-drilled Skubala has them, and he deserves immense credit for his side’s recent run. Skubala’s Lincoln are an early addition to the 2024/25 watchlist.

Adam Phillips — Barnsley

We once coined Phillips on the pod as the “League Two Bruno Fernandes” in his Morecambe days, but this now feels like a slightly disrespectful comparison for the Barnsley attacking midfielder as his star has continues to rise at odds with his footballing doppelganger.

In a month where an unbeaten Barnsley amassed 11 points from five games, Phillips scored four goals and contributed two assists, with a 1-1 draw with Shrewsbury the only game where he didn’t have a direct goal involvement. The goals could well be pivotal to Barnsley’s promotion push, as against both Leyton Orient and Derby the Tykes found themselves 1-0 down, only for a Phillips brace to complete a 2-1 comeback win.

The first strike against Derby was the pick of the bunch and, dare I say it, quite Bruno Fernandes-esque from the edge of the box. The second that day was a header: Phillips’ second in February and third of the season. That’s the same number Bruno has ever scored in a Manchester United shirt, so stick that in your pastel de nata and eat it.

Abu Kamara — Portsmouth

Abu Kamara assisted four and scored one of Pompey’s league goals in February, including a hat-trick of assists against Reading. He provided two standout moments last month: a 10/10 assist for Paddy Lane’s winner against Carlisle and a beautiful, Arjen Robben-esque ‘Cut In And Curl One’ finish against Cambridge.

Kamara was at the heart of Pompey’s wins against Carlisle, Cambridge and Reading as they extended their lead at the top of the table from three points to seven. His ability to drift past opposition defenders and attack the space with long carries in transition has been a crucial aspect of their attacking play in recent weeks. He brings a goal threat, creates for team-mates and is the team’s only serious dribbling threat – an important player, all told.

The Norwich loanee is Portsmouth’s only outfielder to have appeared in every matchday squad this season. While others have suffered through injury, 20-year-old Kamara, playing his first full season in senior football, has shown himself to be physically capable – no, physically comfortable – and has shown progress in his capacity to impact games.

Nigel Clough — Mansfield Town

Marathon runners tend to hit the wall as they approach mile 20 of 26.2, some three-quarters of the way through their fun day out. In a 46-game football league season, that’d be around Matchday 35 – which, for most League Two teams, is this weekend.

It fits. Right now, we can see Stockport stumbling, Barrow beginning to rethink their life choices and Notts County throwing their guts up at the side of the road. Meanwhile, Mansfield lengthen their stride and look to the camera as if they’re Ridiculously Photogenic Guy.

With 20 goals scored and five conceded, the average scoreline across Mansfield’s five February fixtures was 4-1 in their favour. After Notts County put up a fight in a 1-0 Stags win, Forest Green, Harrogate and Salford were dispatched 4-0, 9-2 and 5-1, and the underlying numbers backed up the results with Nigel Clough’s side having the division’s best xG ratio by a distance, even if that 9-2 was just a little noisy. Their only failure came in a narrow 2-1 defeat at Walsall (which reminds us: an honourable Manager of the Month mention to Mat Sadler, whose Saddlers rose from the bottom half to the play-off places with four consecutive wins – feel free to use this careless snub as motivation for the rest of the season).

There’s a very satisfying flow to Mansfield’s football at the moment. The passing is snappy, the attacking movement fluid and the finishes unerring, as nine goals in a game will attest. When that sort of result happens – when hat-trick hero Hiram Boateng, 28, scores as many goals in one night as he has in any of his previous league seasons – you feel as if everything Clough touches turns to gold, or at least a vibrant yellow and blue hue. It isn’t normal for a team to look so vigorous when its most-used XI includes outfield players aged 32 (Jordan Bowery), 34 (Aden Flint), 35 (Lucas Akins) and 37 (Stephen Quinn, the unsung hero averaging an assist every 143 minutes).

More tests will come, of course, and Clough has experienced bad spells before with Mansfield that he struggled to turn around: six defeats in eight games during the 2020/21 campaign, for example, or a run of five points from 12 fixtures at the start of the following season. As we head into March 2024, though, the finish line is already within sight.

Hakeed Adelakun — Doncaster Rovers

Hakeeb Adelakun signed for Doncaster on January 22nd. Grant McCann had managed him previously at Hull City, and spoke with excitement about adding him to the group.

“I feel like we haven’t got a player like Haks,” he said. ”What I mean by that is he’s really clever in terms of the positions he can pick up, he can slip people in, he can score goals himself… he’ll get fans off their seats with the way that he plays.”

You could have forgiven Doncaster fans for reading those words with an air of resigned cynicism. Not many Donny players have got the fans off their feet in the last year or three, and the team had won just two of their previous 12 in the league.

In horse racing, the phrase ‘hacked up’ is used to describe a horse who has won comfortably. Well, Haks absolutely hacked up in League Two in February. He took six shots and scored three goals: the winner against Wimbledon, the winner against Tranmere, and a goal that put Donny 2-1 up in a 2-2 draw at Salford – all good takes.

Goals are great, sure, but don’t forget that Adelakun can “slip people in” as well, and did so to the tune of four assists. The best of the lot was an outside-of-the-boot pass to set Kyle Hurst on his way to make it 5-1 for Doncaster against Grimsby, a game in which Adelakun assisted three goals. When fit, motivated and confident, he is – for want of a more descriptive phrase – a complete baller at this level.

Everything McCann said has come true within a month, and Adelakun’s seven goal contributions helped a team that had won two games in three months win three in February, going unbeaten. This is one of the most straightforward picks of the season.

Emmanuel Adegboyega — Walsall

It isn’t hard to imagine what a teenage striker sent out on loan sees in his dreams. A goal on debut. The match-winner in their first start. A hat-trick soon after, with accordant praise for the gaffer and the lads and really to be honest he’s just here to help out.

A young loanee centre-back, though – what’s the dream scenario? Solid performances at the back, shackling some experienced strikers, maybe popping up with a goal or two… Or what about scoring three times in four appearances to gain your new employers an extra four points?

No. That would be a pipe dream.

Yet here we are. Having swapped Drogheda United for Norwich City last summer, joining the army of players who’ve recently arrived in the Football League from the League of Ireland, 20-year-old Emmanuel Adegboyega was given a mid-season loan to Walsall for a bit of experience. The Saddlers signed him primarily to defend, of course, and he’s done that well as well but, well… the match-winning goals are quite hard to ignore.

Adegboyega made his league debut against high-flying, free-scoring Mansfield on February 17th, coming off the bench for the equally Scrabble-friendly Priestley Farquharson, and scored within 20 minutes. He’d been caught slightly out of position for Mansfield’s equaliser, but made up for it by losing his man at a set-piece, leaping to meet the cross and glancing his header neatly into the far corner, before executing a 9/10 knee-slide. When he volleyed home a rebound in Walsall’s next game against Morecambe, Adegboyega’s first start, he looked almost nonplussed. Been there. Done that.

It was back to the boring stuff in a 2-0 win over seventh-placed Harrogate – clean sheet, most tackles won, yawn – but then he scored a late winner against Accrington, shrugging it in off his shoulder, and earlier in the game there was this very decent bit of chance creation from open play, below. He was also fouled five times in that game, which is a lot for a centre-back, and won a match-high four tackles.

Adegboyega isn’t going to score another three goals in March. All dreams must turn to reality. But the reality so far is that the young Irishman has had a massive impact on Walsall’s season already while showing the necessary fundamentals for a centre-back with a touch of on-ball inspiration on top. Keep an eye on this one.

Agree with our picks? Disagree? Let us know, and as ever… go well!