Last season didn’t go as planned for Norwich City F.C. The team ended up at the bottom of the Premier League winning only five out of 38 games. Their biggest problems were to go forward, create chances, and the actual end product, scoring goals. Teemu Pukki, who has been Norwich City’s best goal scorer in the past couple of seasons, scored 11 goals and had 3 assists. That means that he either scored or assisted over 60% of the whole team’s goals in the Premier League last season.
Teemu Pukki has been on fire for the last two seasons when Norwich City has been playing in the EFL Championship. In season 20/21 Pukki scored 26 goals while also giving four passes leading to teammates scoring. Season 18/19 was even better for Pukki since he ended up scoring 29 goals and being the top scorer of the EFL Championship. The expectations were high for Pukki to do well in season 22/23 as well.
Ongoing season
At the start of the 22/23 season, many predicted Pukki to be the top scorer of the season. So far Norwich has played 15 games and Pukki has missed only one of them. The start was a little bit slow for both the team and the player, but when Pukki started to do what he does best, there seems to be nothing that can stop him. This is what everyone thought, but it hasn’t been quite the same as everyone expected. Pukki has scored four goals and helped his teammates to score three more.
He is sitting in the 18th place on the top scorer -list tied with seven other players. He has scored four goals less than his fellow teammate Josh Sargent, who is topping the list. What happened? There is no simple explanation for it, but the biggest reason might be, that his role in the squad has changed. Norwich City F.C. used to play in a 4-1-4-1 formation but updated their formation to be more like 4-2-2-2. This means that when previously Pukki was their lonely striker,
nowadays he’s playing up top with Josh Sargent.
This change has affected in a positive way in Norwich’s results, but also Sargent’s statistics. What comes to Pukki, he is nowadays more of a target man who drops the ball and creates space for other players. He is still the team’s main
forward, but just not in the way he used to be. Instead of just running behind and scoring goals, he is nowadays also a playmaker.
Probabilities this season
Most likely Teemu Pukki will not be the top scorer of the EFL Championship. If he keeps up the form and takes an even bigger part to help Norwich climb from 6th position to automatic promotion
positions, then he can be one of the most effective players, but still not the top scorer.
His role has changed and that, of course, affects the number of goals he will score. When talking with Finnish betting professionals behind Vedonlyontisivustoni.com, even they didn’t think Pukki
could do it.
Even though at the start of the season Pukki was one of the favourites to win it, that is not the situation anymore and the odds have turned against him. At the moment Estupiñán from Hull City or Brereton from Blackburn Rovers is more likely to be the top scorer than Pukki. Against all the odds, even his teammate Sargent nowadays has lower odds than him to finish the season as a top scorer. So the answer is no, Pukki will most likely not be the top scorer of the EFL Championship.