Danny Batth: The rock at the back

Veteran defender Danny Batth has been named Sunderland’s player of the season at the clubs annual award ceremony.

Sunderland’s season continues to defy expectations with the Black Cats now in contention to secure a spot in the Championship play-offs, possibly becoming the first promoted team to do so since Brentford in the 14/15 season.

Much of that achievement is owed to 32 year-old centre half, Danny Batth who has been instrumental to Sunderland’s success so far both on and off the pitch.

The former Wolves and Stoke defender made 40 league appearances this season, helping his side in keeping 13 clean sheets in that time, before suffering an injury at home to Huddersfield that ruled him out for the remainder of the campaign.

In relation to Sofascore, Batth has an average match rating of 6.83 this season and averages four clearances per game, one of the highest rankings in the league.

Batth’s dominance in aerial duals has been an influential factor in Sunderland’s season and in games where opposition have relied on long ball tactics to break them down.

On average, he has won 3.69 aerial duals per game, which puts him in the top 11% of Championship defenders for this statistic, and above some of the highest rated defenders in the league.

Should Sunderland be fortunate enough to secure promotion at the first time of asking, Batth will take many of the plaudits for his contributions across the season, a worthy winner of Sunderland’s player of the season.

Other award winners included Amad Diallo who was named young player of the year and Jack Clarke who picked up the goal of the season for the outstanding team goal away to Reading.