A US sports analytics company has placed Wolves star Max Kilman as 47th best, out of all Premier League footballers for the 2022/23 season.
The central defender has just finished the season as one of Wanderers’ most used stars.
The 26-year-old made 41 appearances across all competitions – the most of any Wolves player this season.
37 of those came in the Premier League. And he played 90 minutes in 36 of those.
Despite not being quite as good as last season, Kilman certainly had the faith of whoever was sat in the dugout at Molineux this season.
And even though the eye test suggested he wasn’t quite as good as last season, his statistics were apparently still pretty good.
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US sports analytics company places Max Kilman as 47th best Premier League player for 2022/23
This will perhaps come as a bit of a surprise to a lot of Wolves fans.
The 2022/23 season was a real struggle, and few Wolves players really stood out. But Kilman actually appears on the 50-strong list, compiled by sports analytics company PFF for best Premier League players of the season just gone.
They say of him: “There is not one challenge facet where Wolves defender Max Kilman has graded lower than 70.0, standing out as a dominant aerial presence that could see rival clubs come calling.
“With broadcasters reminding us regularly of Kilman’s background in futsal, his 90.5 aerial duel grade ranks third in his position.”
The list has been decided by a team of analysts, and they say they have ‘collected data used to grade the performance of each and every player that steps foot on the pitch’.
Kevin De Bruyne is number one, Erling Haaland is number two and Martin Odegaard is number three. The full list can be found here.
Kilman is the only player from Wolves on the entire list.
Max Kilman was still good for Wolves in 2022/23 – he was often a victim of the high standards he showed in 2021/22
It is very interesting to see Kilman placing in the top 50 Premier League players for 2022/23. Few would have predicted that.
Kilman was good at times for Wolves this season. But he was certainly nowhere near as consistent as he was last term.
In 2021/22, he excelled playing on the right of a back three.
Perhaps it was always likely that he would struggle to match those very high standards this time around.
But it’s great to see Kilman here and hopefully he too will see it and take confidence from it moving forwards. One wonders if West Ham United have managed to get a hold of the data PFF have. Apparently they are keen to sign him. As are Tottenham Hotspur.
What is interesting is that Wolves skipper Ruben Neves does not appear. He was easily Wolves’ best player in the season just gone, which was reflected when he won both the Players’ and Supporters’ Player of the Season awards.