EFL Top 50: Should Sheffield United's Billy Sharp and Morgan Gibbs-White be higher on prestigious list?

Billy Sharp and Morgan Gibbs-White may be at different ends of their respective careers, but they have combined to great effect for the Blades this season.

In the annual ranking, which always causes a great deal of debate amongst football fans arguing that their favourite stars should be higher, Sharp is apparently the 37th best player currently playing in the EFL while Gibbs-White doesn’t make the top 10, coming in at 13th (and behind THREE Queens Park Rangers players).

Putting aside the obvious omissions from a United point of view – John Egan? Sander Berge? Serial EFL promotion winner Ollie Norwood? – one can only conclude that Sharp’s advancing years have counted against him in the rankings.

Only four players – and one superhuman in Aleksandar Mitrovic – have scored more goals in the Championship this season and despite turning 36 recently, Sharp arguably looks in better shape than he ever has before.

His all-round game has also improved immeasurably - as demonstrated by his seven assists so far this season and praise from Premier League-bound Gibbs-White, who said recently that Sharp “makes the game easy” for him.

Put another way, and with all due respect to the players mentioned, would many Unitedites swap Sharp at the minute for Oladapo Afolayan of Bolton Wanderers or Forest Green Rovers’ Jamille Matt? Dom Telford, of Newport County, is almost 10 places higher than Sharp in the rankings.

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There is also a case to be made that Gibbs-White could be higher, considering the impact he has had on United’s fortunes since signing on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers and the sheer joy he has brought to those on the Lane terraces.

But every club will feel that about their star men, even if Sharp – the man who has scored more EFL goals than any person on the planet, no less – being 37th does stand out as being particularly harsh.

The only ranking most EFL football fans will probably agree on is Mitrovic sitting at the top of the tree. But for Unitedites, Sharp – captain, leader, legend - will always be No.1…

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