Championship strikers by xG 2026/27: live top 10
Expected goals is the cleanest way to judge a striker early in a season. Goals arrive in lumps and a good finisher can go 3 games without one, but the quality of the chances he keeps getting into does not lie. This is the live Championship top 10 by xG this season, with a card for each of the leading strikers, the full table beneath it, and the numbers that explain why each one is there.
Right now. Will Lankshear leads on 5.18 xG, 0.69 ahead of Yousef Salech. Yousef Salech has 2 goals from 4.49 xG, the clearest sign of a striker whose chances are running ahead of his finishing. Cyle Larin is the other way round: 7 goals from 4.14 xG, a run that history says will cool. New to the 10 since the last change: Marko Milovanović, Jimmy-Jay Morgan.
The top 10 Championship strikers by xG
| Player | Club | xG | xG per 90 | Shots | On target | Goals | Minutes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Will Lankshear | Middlesbrough · 21 | 5.18 | 0.69 | 26 | 11 | 6 | 678 | View profile → |
| 2 |  Yousef Salech | Cardiff City · 24 | 4.49 | 0.58 | 24 | 13 | 2 | 700 | View profile → |
| 3 |  Cyle Larin | Southampton · 31 | 4.14 | 0.62 | 33 | 12 | 7 | 598 | View profile → |
| 4 |  Marko Milovanović | Portsmouth · 23 | 3.09 | 1.44 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 193 | View profile → |
| 5 |  Lyndon Dykes | Millwall · 30 | 3.04 | 0.61 | 13 | 5 | 4 | 445 | View profile → |
| 6 |  Patrick Bamford | Sheffield United · 33 | 3.00 | 0.49 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 551 | View profile → |
| 7 |  Lorent Tolaj | Bristol City · 24 | 3.00 | 0.49 | 27 | 5 | 2 | 553 | View profile → |
| 8 |  Jimmy-Jay Morgan | West Bromwich Albion · 20 | 2.92 | 0.43 | 12 | 7 | 3 | 609 | View profile → |
| 9 |  Taïryk Arconte | Millwall · 22 | 2.85 | 0.5 | 16 | 5 | 3 | 517 | View profile → |
| 10 |  Rumarn Burrell | Queens Park Rangers · 25 | 2.80 | 0.42 | 15 | 6 | 2 | 595 | View profile → |
What the numbers mean
xG, or expected goals, adds up the quality of every chance a player gets. A tap-in from 6 yards is worth most of a goal; a hopeful shot from 30 yards is worth almost nothing. Add them up and you have the goals a striker should have scored from the chances he had, which is the best early guide to who is getting into the right places, whatever the goals column says.
The 4 bars on each card put him against every Championship striker with 180 minutes this season: how much xG he builds per 90 minutes, how often he shoots, how good his average chance is, and how many of his shots he puts away. A full bar means the top of that group.
The list rebuilds every night from the latest matches, so it will move as the season goes on. The date on each card says when it last changed.
More on xG → · Why per 90 matters → · xG against xGOT →
What is xG?
Expected goals. Every shot gets a value for how often a chance like it is scored, from almost 0 for a long-range punt to close to 1 for a tap-in. A striker's xG is the sum of those values, so it says how many goals his chances were worth.
How is the list ranked?
By total expected goals in Championship league matches this season, for strikers with at least 180 minutes. The per-90 figure and the shot numbers sit beside it so a player with fewer minutes is easy to read.
How often does it update?
Every night, from the latest matches. The order, the cards and the table rebuild together, and the date on each card says when the list last changed.
Reading the list
A striker near the top of this list with fewer goals than xG is getting into the right places and will usually catch up. One with more goals than xG is either a genuinely elite finisher or, more often, riding a run that will cool. The per 90 column matters most for players with fewer minutes, and the shot numbers show whether the xG comes from volume or from chance quality. Every name opens a full FDscout profile with the radar, the role scores and a Compass reading of how he plays.