Idris El-Mizouni stands out with impressive tackling skills, filling the shoes of a sold teammate with ease in his new club.
Ruel Sotiriou and Shaq Forde’s goal-scoring prowess has been key, contributing 44% of Leyton Orient’s league goals this season.
Jordan Brown, though underrated, plays a crucial role in the team by doing the “dirty work” that goes unnoticed but is essential for success.
FOOTBALLLEAGUEWORLD VIDEO OF THE DAY
A number of Leyton Orient players deserve enormous credit for their remarkable 2023-24 League One campaign to date.
The O’s priority was to remain in the division, having won the League Two title last season, yet they now find themselves in the midst of a play-off race.
Richie Wellens’ side are just six points behind sixth-place Stevenage, with a visit to The Lamex Stadium on the horizon.
Collage Maker-29-Jun-2023-02-51-PM-9294
Leyton Orient’s highest-rated players
Arguably Orient’s highest-rated player, Idris El-Mizouni has been integral to the team’s success over the past two seasons.
The Tunisian makes almost twice as many tackles per 90 minutes as any other Orient midfielder.
The Ipswich loanee has even been an upgrade on Hector Kyprianou, who was sold to Peterborough for over £400k in the summer of 2022.
Forwards Ruel Sotiriou and Shaq Forde continue to win plaudits for their productivity in front of goal.
Sotiriou (10) and Forde (9) have scored a combined 44 percent of the side’s 43 league goals thus far.
Leyton Orient goalscorers (League One – 23/24)
Ruel Sotiriou
10
Shaq Forde
9
Dan Agyei
4
George Moncur
4
Jordan Brown
3
Ollie O’Neill
3
The former also has four assists to his name in what has been a career-best campaign for the 23-year-old academy graduate.
Ollie O’Neill is another forward-thinking player that is well thought of at the Gaughan Group Stadium, having provided three goals and two assists in eight league appearances since his January move.
Meanwhile, Dan Happe is viewed by many as the club’s most consistent defender, and will always have an extra connection with O’s fans due to being an academy graduate.
Richie Wellens
RELATED
Leyton Orient will have eyes on 2025 windfall after Fulham transfer agreement success: View
Leyton Orient’s most underrated player
However, the player that deserves more credit from Orient supporters is Jordan Brown, who seems to be a victim of his simplistic style.
Brown is not the type to score a long-range screamer or play a defence-splitting through ball, but his efforts in the centre of the park remain integral to Wellens’ side.
The 22-year-old does the so-called ‘dirty work’ that often fails to attract the attention of those watching the game.
Instead, it is in Brown’s absence that his impact on the team is most noticed.
The likes of Max Sanders and Darren Pratley – albeit assets to the team in their own right – lack the tenacity that Brown provides in abundance.
Now, statistics are not the way to judge a do-it-all midfielder of Brown’s mould, but there are two that help to demonstrate his contribution to the team.
Among all Orient midfielders, of which there are many, Brown takes the joint-least unsuccessful touches per 90 minutes (0.9), while he is also dispossessed the least (0.4), according to WhoScored.
And, while the ability to not make mistakes is not as glorious as other attributes, its value should not be understated.
Especially in a team with match-winners further forward, it is not Brown’s place to win games for the O’s, but to be the solid base that allows those with more creativity to flourish.
After all, there is a reason that he starts in the majority of games that he is available; Wellens knows that the O’s would be a far inferior outfit without him.
Leave a Reply