Manager and Player of the Month Awards - August
Our first ever monthly awards, picking Manager, Player and Young Player of the Month for August in the Championship, League One and League Two.
AS… IF… as if we are a month into the season and already penning a monthly awards piece. But we are. It’s here!
Monthly Awards impose some regular checkpoints on the lifespan of an EFL season. A chance to talk about those winning runs, scoring streaks and all manner of outrageous individual performance. Sometimes they add up to more. Sometimes they don’t. But these awards give us an opportunity to celebrate those pockets of achievement for players, managers and clubs who may not, in the end, finish amongst the promotion pack.
It will be fun… we think. It will also be difficult, and it’s likely to cause some disagreement. Choosing only one Manager out of a group of 24, many of whom will be achieving plenty, is difficult. After all, different clubs and managers have different contexts: 9 points in a calendar month for one Manager may be considered par for the course, and for another, it could be considered a 10/10 return. In fact, it’s worth saying at this point: if you think Manager of the Month should go to the manager that picked up the most points in the month, it’s best to look away now.
Choosing just one player out of 300 or so? Now that really is tough. Top performers are going to miss out, necessarily. We won't fret too much about the ten other worthy winners, preferring to focus on celebrating our selections.
We are keen for the comment section to become an interesting, thoughtful conversation on the nature of awards and how different people go about deciding who should win them - it is a subjective thing after all! So let us know your thoughts.
It goes without saying that we respect and recognise the EFL’s official ‘X Of The Month’ Awards. This is just what we think. No shortlists. No umming and ahhing, just a Manager/Player/Young Player for each league, with our reasoning. Let’s crack on.
Ali Maxwell
David Wagner - Norwich City
Two things can be true:
Norwich City did not pick up the highest number of points in the Championship in the month of August.
Norwich City have been the all-round most impressive team in the Championship in the month of August.
Pre-season, the feeling was that Norwich City was a club amidst a cloudy atmosphere with a somewhat disillusioned fanbase. Wagner had joined in January, with the club in 11th place. They finished 13th, losing more games than they won under their new manager. On top of that, did the summer additions set the pulses racing? Not mine. Not on paper.
All that pre-season prevaricating has been proven complete nonsense. David Wagner takes huge credit for that.
An injury-time winner on Opening Day against Hull set the tone. A very ‘first-match-of-the-season’ cock-up at the back had gifted Hull the lead, but Norwich absolutely dominated events, looking completely sure of themselves—a total reversal from a team who failed to score in the last five home league games of 2022/23.
Sensational victories at home to Millwall (3-1) and away at Huddersfield (4-0) have delivered thrilling attacking football, a cocktail of technical skill and clever movement, all at high speed. Full-backs flying forward, midfielders scoring, wingers scoring, strikers scoring. And added to that, Norwich have looked incredibly fit and physically imposing. The equation? Technical skill + physicality = ability to dominate games in different ways, in a division that demands it.
The only match that Norwich didn’t win was a 4-4 draw away at Southampton. Having led three times in the game at St Mary’s, a soft injury time penalty was given against them, and a whirlwind match was drawn. But they deserved the win; Wagner’s gameplan was highly impressive and he gained yet more credit from the display.
Broadly, here is a manager’s checklist for August:
Win football matches
Play exciting football
Seamlessly bed in new signings
Give young players a chance to thrive
Handle key departures well
David Wagner has ticked every box. The team are winning. The fans are loving the manner in which they are playing. Shane Duffy, Jack Stacey, Ashley Barnes, and Christian Fassnacht have all found spots in the team and look like they’ve been playing for the club for years. Despite missing 95% of last season, Jon Rowe’s quality was noted and a space in the team was earmarked for him. The departures of Teemu Pukki, Max Aarons, Kieron Dowell haven’t affected the team whatsoever.
Right now, the performances are looking sustainable. Per Opta Analyst, Norwich have the highest xG generated, and top six defensive numbers.
They’re scoring from open play and from set pieces, too. Their open xG per shot number (0.12) is high, reflecting the quality of the chances they are creating, rather than high volume/low quality. In defence, it’s the reverse - the open xG per shot faced number (0.06) suggests that teams are finding it highly frustrating trying to breach their defence.
Even if it’s not sustainable, and they lose every single match from here until the rest of the season, Wagner’s managerial performance in August has been the most impressive in the Championship.
Ali Maxwell
Gabriel Sara - Norwich City
We did think hard about having a manager and a player from the same club winning awards. Is it a problem? Wouldn’t it be better to spread it out a bit to keep people happy?
Nah, sod that. Why should a player be ineligible for an award because their manager is also thriving, or vice versa? Why should a Manager of the Month award have anything impact on a Player of the Month award?
These awards are about individual merit, and Gabriel Sara justifies his selection - just as Wagner does - because he has been the standout player in the division in August.
When you have a central midfielder playing like this, it’s as if you have an extra player on the pitch. Tenacious in the tackle. Quality on the ball. Creating chances for fun and scoring a beautiful goal to boot.
He facilitates Norwich’s exciting, mixed attacking style; they are a team that are happy to build up patiently and play a possession game, and he’s comfortable in that system. But where they look most dangerous is attacking quickly in transition: as soon as they win the ball - if the attack is on - they fly forward.
Full backs bombing on, Ashley Barnes showing for it with back to goal, Jon Rowe and Christian Fassnacht offering out-to-in runs from wide, Josh Sargent sprinting in behind: it’s a cornucopia of passing options for a midfielder that likes to play a killer pass, and Gabriel Sara has kickstarted many of these dangerous attacks.
He has the most key passes in the division. Just over half of these come from set-piece situations, where his delivery has led to two headed goals already.
His goal against Southampton was an absolute laser, a beautiful strike. Just as notable was the fact that he started the move in a deep midfield role with six attacking players in front of him. Eight seconds later, he gets on the ball 20 yards out, shifts it onto his left foot and smashes it into the top corner.
Gabriel Sara has stepped into the Gus Hamer role as the Championship’s best all-round central midfielder. Defensive third: win the ball. Middle third: move the ball forward. Final third: create or threaten.
He’s the Championship’s Player of the Month.
Ali Maxwell
Jon Rowe - Norwich City
Now, we know what you’re thinking. Three Norwich City winners? A clean sweep? ThEy’Re NoT eVeN tOp!
Damn right. Jon Rowe has been a phenomenon in the month of August; a player who had never started a league game before August, and has now scored in all four Championship starts. Joint top scorer in the league, with a tally not boosted by penalties (like Adam Armstrong) or one standout performance (Ozan Tufan’s hat-trick vs Sheff Wed).
He has impacted every single game and there is no more worthy winner of this award.
Whether he starts on the left or right, Rowe is an out-to-in winger. His starting position may be in a wide area, but as soon as Norwich attack, the full backs gallop forward, and Rowe’s job is to find space and shooting opportunities.
He ghosts into areas that full backs don’t want to move into and that defensive midfielders are uncomfortable with. The centre backs are occupied already by Barnes and Sargent… which makes Rowe a Big Problem.
Championship players of a similar profile often seem to be wasteful in front of goal. Their final ball or shot is frustratingly poor. They are great to watch when they are dribbling, but their execution is lacking.
This month, Jon Rowe has been the definition of End Product. A screamer into the top corner from 20 yards with his weaker left foot. A header from a corner. A quick-release right foot shot, curled into the far corner with no back-lift. And a poacher’s goal, sprinting into the box when the ball was out-wide, outpacing his marker and finishing a low cross first time.
Rowe’s constant movement also saw him win a penalty, against Huddersfield giving his marker the slip from a wide throw in, running onto the throw and - too quick for the defender - winning a spot kick.
In deeper areas, his first touch is good. He protects the ball well, has a good awareness of where the space is, and quick feet to keep the ball away from defenders, spin and speed away from them. Already, more than one opposition player has picked up a yellow card after chopping down Rowe; he’s just been too good for them.
This finishing streak likely won’t continue all season - although Manuel Benson’s did! - but let the record state that in August 2023, Jon Rowe had an absolute mad one and, after a whole year sitting on the sidelines, rehabbing, biding his time, announced himself upon the Championship stage.
Ali Maxwell
Shaun Maloney - Wigan Athletic
Eight points is a big deduction. For many clubs, an imposition like that would lead to a scrapper’s mindset: "Survival is the only goal, this is going to be an uphill battle.”
Shaun Maloney refused to make a big deal out of the deduction. He didn’t make a big deal out of losing eight of last season’s twelve highest minutes-makers, most of whom left for free or were able to terminate their contracts due to the repeated late payment of wages last season that led to the deduction.
From a position of some despair and multiple tall obstacles, he has built a young team with spirit and quality, and completely changed the atmosphere within a downtrodden fanbase, wiping away the eight-point deduction within four games, beating the division’s two pre-season favourites, Derby County and Bolton Wanderers, away from home in the process.
11 of the 14 players that have started a league team are 18-25. Only Reading and Peterborough have put out significantly younger starting XIs. A 21-year-old ‘keeper, a group of U23 centre-backs. 18 months after suffering cardiac arrest in training, Charlie Wyke is fit and thriving in a system that provides him with goalscoring opportunities.
Two players with high ceilings - Charlie Hughes and Thelo Aasgaard - are being given senior roles in the team, performing well and likely cementing their status as important assets for the club as it looks to rebuild. And Maloney has given other academy graduates a chance - Sam Tickle, Scott Smith and Baba Adeeko - and rather than looking like rabbits in headlights, they have performed.
It’s not just young players that Maloney has invigorated. He gave his old team-mate Callum McManaman a chance to train with Wigan as he approached 12 months without a professional contract. McManaman was motivated, trained hard, won a contract and repaid Maloney’s faith with a brilliant winner vs Northampton.
Wigan’s only defeat so far was in large part down to a 20th-minute red card to centre-back Charlie Hughes. Subsequent camera angles have shown the sending-off to be harsh. The manager loses zero credit from that defeat.
Win or lose, Maloney has maintained complete composure. He has shown strong management off the field for the whole of 2023 when shenanigans above his head undermined his work, but in the month of August, he was finally able to show off the quality of his work on the football side.
Ali Maxwell
Kwame Poku - Peterborough United
It’s been an interesting August within the League One player pool. There have been a few hat-trick heroes: Devante Cole, Martyn Waghorn, Victor Adeboyejo. We’ve enjoyed a few match-winning individual performances. But across the whole month, the most impressive body of work has come from Kwame Poku. The Posh wideman is the League One player operating at the highest level so far this season.
There can’t be many wide forwards approaching 100 senior league appearances having just turned 22. Due to that experience, Poku is way ahead of most his age in terms of how to corral his significant talent into consistent performances.
His dribbling threat has got to the point where League One full-backs just look terrified. Some try and get tight and try to tackle. Those players are genuinely left clutching thin air. Others just stand off him completely, giving him two two-yard cushions. Neither of these are good options. Poku has the vision and quality in his left foot to pick out teammates with in-swinging crosses from the right side.
He has been a consistent menace in each of Peterborough’s games so far. He’s able to find a lot of space out wide, and from there his 1v1 threat helps generate a lot of Peterborough’s dangerous attacks. Only Corey Blackett-Taylor has generated more chance-creating carries, which measures the number of carries that were followed by a shot or key pass; Poku’s technical level means his final product is more dangerous and reliable than Blackett-Taylor’s.
We’ve enjoyed watching him since he was twisting League Two full-backs inside out for Colchester as an 18-year-old. But Poku isn’t some raw young dribbler anymore. He is a triple threat - he scores, he assists, he beats players - and he looks to have taken another leap over the summer.
Ali Maxwell
Joe Low - Wycombe Wanderers
There have been some impressive U21 performers in League One so far. Reading’s Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan has been a real handful. Tyler Goodrham looks sharp for Oxford. Ryan Trevitt, Oliver Arblaster and Charlie Savage are playing well.
But the player that has had the biggest impact on their team has been Wycombe’s Welsh giant, Joe Low. And, in the words of Uncle Bryn - I’ll tell you for why.
Joe Low didn’t play in Wycombe’s first two league games. You may remember those games: Wycombe were shambolic defensively, conceding six goals across games against Exeter and Lincoln.
So in came Joe Low for the game against Leyton Orient. His league debut. The big centre-back was bang up for it. He threw himself at everything and scored two goals. Wycombe’s season was up and running.
Next up: Burton. 0-0, Wycombe’s first clean sheet of the season.
Then, in the final game of the month against Bristol Rovers, Low scores again, heading home a set piece for his third goal in three games. Late on, at 2-1 to Wycombe, Rovers had a clear shot at goal to equalise.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it Joe Low throwing himself at a football, once again? A goal-saving block, on top of the goal.
Many young players have had a good start to the season, but the value of Low’s contributions is the highest. His arrival into the team has coincided with them looking much more solid at the back, he’s scored 60% of their goals and made a block that secured three points. Without him, Wycombe would have had a much more troubling points return in August.
George Elek
Johnnie Jackson - AFC Wimbledon
AFC Wimbledon have started the season with an unbeaten August, winning two games and drawing three. But it is the performances themselves, in stark contrast to last season’s disappointing campaign, which means that Johnnie Jackson deserves this accolade.
The likes of MK Dons, Gillingham and Notts County may have picked up more points in the month, but this award has to look deeper than just a points tally and into the actual achievements of the man in the dugout, and Jackson comes out on top.
The club released a statement back in April explaining to the fans why they were keeping the faith in the manager, rather than sacking him after a 21st-place finish. Jackson was then supported in the summer with 10 new additions to the squad, and he has integrated them into the team immediately and effectively, looking a totally different side to last season.
They have the 4th best xG ratio in League Two this season and have already come up against pre-season favourites Wrexham and won the xG battle 2.07-1.28 in the 1-1 draw that day. They’ve actually won the xG battle in all their games so far, and by a decent margin so, although we don’t give awards for Expected Goals rather than the real thing, it does give an indication of how well Jackson has his team drilled.
These awards, especially at this stage of the season, should be awarded for both achievement in of itself, but also achievement placed within the context of pre-season expectations. Jackson has been run close by John Coleman, but given that this month could well reroute both AFC Wimbledon’s and his career trajectory, he is the deserving winner.
George Elek
Jake Young - Swindon Town
“But hold on”, I hear you scream, “first you give Manager of the Month to a gaffer who’s only won two of his five games, and now you’re telling me the best player in the whole of August hasn’t even played 300 minutes?”
Yes, yes I am. Because Jake Young has had an August most professional footballers can only dream of. A month that even makes Erling Haaland look slightly more human.
And to think it all started when, having recently joined Swindon on loan from Bradford, Young was named on the bench for the season opener against Crewe. He took just two minutes to rifle the ball in from the edge of the box having come on at half-time.
A first start followed at Forest Green where he played a part in Swindon’s first win of the season without being involved in either goal, but then the fun really starts. Young scored six goals, yes six goals, in Swindon’s next two games. Two in the dramatic 5-5 draw at Wrexham, and then four in the 6-0 mauling of the previously in-form Crawley Town.
He’s scored all manner of goals too, four with his right foot, one with his left and two headers. Long range strikes, solo-goals and close-range poacher’s goals, Young has already scored them all.
If I haven’t won you over yet, how about the three assists he’s also racked up? All have been for Dan Kemp who, in a normal month, could feel aggrieved at not having won this award with his own four goals and three assists.
It’s been a month to remember for a player who hadn’t scored since September last year and already has fans of Bradford wondering why they’ve loaned him out to a League Two rival. Did they not learn from Eoin Doyle?
George Elek
Brad Hills - Accrington Stanley
Defenders don’t get the credit or awards that they deserve, and that stops here. We often hear about the ‘difficult first loan’ but Brad Hills laughs in the face of acclimatising to men’s football, not only settling in seamlessly at Accrington but quickly looking a cut above the level. (Yes he’s on loan from Norwich; yes that sort of makes it 4x Norwich winners; yes, we stand by every one of them).
He’s been dominant in the air, ranking top for aerial wins in the league among defenders so far this season, and he has also made more clearances than anyone else. In fact, he is 15 clearances clear, which fits nicely into exactly what John Coleman looks for in a dominant centre-back.
There was some concern around Accrington Stanley in the summer after their relegation from League One, but they ended the month sitting pretty in 3rd having conceded just four goals in their five games. Hills has been one of two ever-present outfield players and the rock around the solid defensive unit, despite being an inexperienced 19-year-old.
And he can cross like a winger, too!
They say you shouldn’t fall in love with a loanee, but it’s too late for that now for Accrington fans, even if there seems little chance that his stay in League Two will be anything more than fleeting.
Did you enjoy this? Did you hate it? Let us know. And go well.
Will you be trying to get some of your winners on the pod?
Glad to see Poku acknowledged. You mentioned picking out teammates, but he also had a knack for picking out fans at Sixfields with his end product. Very talented boy.
Imagine my horror not to see any representation from CAFC in these awards😂. Great piece/addition though 👍