Why do teams find it difficult to score goals in the Championship?

The championship is often home to thrills, spills and goals, and plenty of them. But not so much this season.

After 15 rounds, there have been 435 goals in 180 games, 57 fewer than we scored at this point last season.

It is the lowest level in four years. So where have all the goals gone?

“We have to keep this in context because we are comparing it to last season, which was absolutely crazy, where at times it looked like an all-out attack,” former Leyton Orient and Reading winger Jobi McAnuff told the BBC’s 72+ podcast. .

“The teams that went down, like Burnley and Sheffield United, weren’t in their best form either.”

Of the top 10 teams in the division, only four have scored more than 20 goals.

Last season, when by this point we had scored 492 goals, each of the top 10 teams had scored more than 20 goals in their first 15 games.

The top two, Leicester and Ipswich, swept away everyone in front of them and had scored 62 goals in total. This season, Sunderland and Sheffield United have 44.

Former Derby County defender Curtis Davies believes this could be partly down to the type of players clubs have signed.

“It’s also a symptom of the current tactic of clubs signing strikers, not centre-forwards,” he said on the podcast.

“People will say they want a number nine, but they also want him to come and do other things, not stay in the box and only get involved when necessary.”