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Top 10 SWFC Players of the last 10 years (Owlstalk Ratings)


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On 28/05/2022 at 16:32, Degryse14 said:

                                     K. Westwood

 

L. Buxton      S. Hutchinson       M. Hector       D. Pudil

 

R. Wallace          K. Lee          B. Bannan     F. Forestieri

 

                          S  Fletcher           L. Gregory

 

Buxton gets better since he hung up his boots

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Fernando Martin Forestieri. One of the most exciting players we’ve seen at S6 for many a year. Blessed with quick feet, poise, a rasping shot, a low centre of gravity and a kind of manic scampering energy to win the ball back.

 

We were never quite sure if he was an out-and-out striker, a second striker, a left winger or (if you’re Garry Monk) a left wing-back. But wherever he played he was capable of conjuring up some magic. Particularly in his glorious 15/16 season. Voted Man of the Match in 10 of his first 33 games for Wednesday (in which he also scored 15 goals, set up another 6 and got sent off twice). There was rarely a dull moment with Forestieri on the pitch.

 

Unfortunately, the magic of the 15/16 season would be glimpsed less and less in the following years. There was the Norwich incident at the start of 16/17. This turned some fans against him, and while he was still one of our better players in 16/17, an inconsistency crept into Forestieri’s game and he lost his automatic place in the line-up.

 

There were off-field issues (scraps with Winnall) and on-field ones (racism storm at Mansfield).

 

For the 2017/18 season the injuries struck. When he played he was excellent, but he only started 7 games. Then 2018/19 saw further managed decline – a handful of good performances and an incredible goal away at Norwich. But by now more of his games were off the bench and the tantrums were as frequent as the spectacular goals.

 

2019/20 was even worse. Garry Monk didn’t fancy him and injuries once again interrupted his flow. Things soured to such an extent that Monk opted not to renew his contract for the Covid-extended season. A career that started with such a bang ended with a whimper.

 

But that shouldn’t detract from those glorious early days. At his best, maybe he was the very best we've had post Premier League. For example, across the last 10 years, no other player has been rated at 9/10 or above more than 3 times in a whole career. Forestieri managed it 4 times in just his first 30 games. When he was good, he was very good.

 

So these brilliant moments and incredible first year have propelled him to number 7 in our list.

 

 

Screenshot 2022-06-22 at 21.49.23.png

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You probably weren’t expecting Lewis McGugan in this list. He’s remembered with regret, as a player who lost his appetite for the game. He faded out and spent the entire 2016-17 season on the sidelines in the Urby Emanuelson vortex.

 

But, for a time, when he was good, he was very good. In 2014-15, in a Stuart Gray team lacking in flair and creativity he burned brightly. In an initial month-long, 7-game loan spell in 2014 he established himself as one of our better players.

 

At the start of February 2015 he returned for an extended loan spell, and after a couple of appearances to regain match fitness, things really started to get a bit crazy:

 

The next 10 games he would be man of the match in 6 of the 10 games. A purplest of purple patches. He thrashed in long-range free-kicks against Derby and Blackpool and scored the opening goal in the win at Millwall. His best performance came at Rotherham, where he set up two of the goals, the 86th minute equaliser for Lavery and 93rd minute equaliser for Nuhiu with two pinpoint crosses (before Kieran Lee famously scored the winner in the 98th minute).

 

Even in the four games in this spell where he wasn’t man of the match he almost was (e.g. only 0.08 behind Chris Maguire for the loss at Blackburn).

 

Unsurprisingly, he won player of the month for February and for March.

 

This ten game stint was pretty much the best of what we saw of McGugan in a Wednesday shirt. Gray left soon after, and he never seemed to fit in Carlos Carvalhal’s plans. When he did play under Carlos he scored goals. But the starts became few and far between.

 

Still, in just 28 starts he scored 9 goals from midfield, many of them spectacular, and it is that 10-game purple patch that has really elevated him to number 6 in this list. Welcome, Lewis McGugan!

 

 

McGugan's 10 match purple-patch:

562030277_Screenshot2022-06-30at00_05_26.png.cb8c158c70dc5cba045ac09bb0c2063c.png

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Lots of people in this thread have already mentioned Keiren Westwood as one of Wednesday’s best players of the last ten years. In fact, discounting a few legends from the black and white TV era, he’s even in the conversation for our best keeper ever (see table at bottom).

 

Racking up 198 appearances over 7 seasons (all bar one of these in the league), he was for the most part a model of consistency. The only frustration were his niggling injuries – six times he was subbed off during a game and another couple of times he dropped out in the warm-up.

 

His best season was his first. Replacing the popular Chris Kirkland, he racked up 10 Man of the Match appearances as part of a mean Stuart Gray defence. This number of MoM’s has only been bettered twice in a season in the past decade – Barry Bannan in 18/19 (11), and the chap at number 4 in our list.

 

2014-15 also included a legendary Westwood performance in a 0-0 draw versus Norwich where he pulled of a string of point blank saves to deny the Canaries. Aside from a couple of hat-tricks, it is the highest score Owlstalk has given a Wednesday player in the past 10 years.

 

The next two seasons under Carlos Carvalhal were almost as impressive. Perhaps Westwood’s level didn’t drop, it was just he wasn’t called on as often as Wednesday started to control more games. When called upon at the business-end of the campaign, Westwood was our stand-out performer, being voted Man of the Match (9.14 rating) in the backs-to-the-wall draw at Brighton in the play-off 2nd leg, and again (8.79) in the playoff final defeat to Hull. In the Brighton game in particular he withstood an onslaught, saving 8 of the 9 shots on target. The next season in the playoffs he conceded only once, late on to that Tom Lees own goal.

 

After three flawless years, the injuries and spats with managers started to reduce his output. According to Owlstalk, 2017-18 was his worst season, the only season he performed below the average for the squad.

 

After a falling out with Jos Luhukay in 2018, he came roaring back into form in the second half of the 2018/19 season - earning his highest season rating (6.89) and a new contract under Steve Bruce. A few faltering performances and injuries saw Garry Monk return him to the bomb squad, but he was never really replaced by Cameron Dawson or Joe Wildsmith.

 

2020-21 saw him brought back from the cold by Tony Pulis, and yet again Westwood was one of Wednesday’s better performers. But despite this he couldn’t save the team from relegation. He did earn another 3 Owlstalk Man of the Match awards to bring his total to 27 (only Bannan has more).

 

With a career average rating of 6.63, Westwood is in solidly at number 5 on our list.

 

 

2087330196_Screenshot2022-07-08at22_26_11.png.201e2af28df36ccee4be0a85402754c4.png

 

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Great goalkeeper at his peak. 

 

the decision to recontract him by Bruce was a howler in retrospect, he had already been banished once by Jos, was increasingly fragile and had started charging around his area like benny hill being chased by a group of Randy nurses. His timing coming off his line in the last couple of stints he had was becoming a major weakness. 
 

but the first three seasons - absolutely outstanding and rightly remembered as a superb player . 

 

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1 hour ago, smhouston said:

                  Westwood

 

Hunt Hutchinson Loovens Pudil 

 

Wallace Lee Bannan Forestieri

 

           Hooper Fletcher

Not sure what the above is, but this is the team (in hindsight) which would have gotten us promoted that day vs Hull.

 

                   WW

Hunt.   Lees.   Loosens.  Pudil

         Lee.   Lopez.   Bannan

  Forest.    Hooper.    Joao

 

Our CM pairing of Lee and Hutch got overran by their three and their full backs (one of them in fairness being Robertson) were given the freedom of the park. We know first hand how erratic and prone to balls over the top Odebejo is so having Lopez spray them to a marauding Joao would have stretched them and meant they didn't suffocate us as much as they did.

 

Westwood was unbeatable until Diame hit that worldie but you could still see Westwood berating himself for not having got a finger to it.

 

(Carlos got out thought that day, in much the same way Moore did away at Sunderland. )

 

Westwood: Incredible keeper, best I've seen at Hillsboro other than Pressman before he started eating pies at halftime.

 

 

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