Who Has Fouled The Most?

This season has seen a rise in the intensity in which Birmingham City play at which is a credit to Gary Rowett and his staff. But it has also seen a rise in the amount of fouls given away. This is good because it shows that we are competitive and won’t be taken lightly by the opposition. But who has fouled the most?

Last season, it was a running joke that Paul Robinson was guaranteed a yellow card each and every game that he played in. Knowing Robbo, he would probably deliberately do it just to make us fans laugh, he is that kind of guy. But his disciplinary record this time out is actually very commendable. So that leaves us with only one player who could have fouled the most… That’s right, Clayton Donaldson.

The big striker has conceded 47 free kicks this season in the league. (The stat doesn’t take into account cup competitions.) It did come as a bit of a surprise to me as I thought it would be either a defender, for obvious reasons, or a niggly defensive midfielder. However, it is in fact our main striker that has committed the most fouls. In a way, I can see why. He has the work rate of a farm horse; he never stops going and is very likely to close defenders down. Despite this, strikers often have the effort but not the tackling ability to match and Clayton certainly falls into this category.

He also likes to play on the last man and win aerial challenges. Due to this, strikers are often penalised for using their arms and unnecessary strength to try and win the ball. So we can’t really blame Clayton for his overall fouling. He has only received one yellow card which does show that he does honestly try and win the ball, but sometimes he doesn’t do that within the letters of the law.

Maikel Keiftenbeld is second in the fouling list, with 38 fouls. Despite this, he has 7 more yellow cards than Donaldson, 8 in total. This shows that his fouls are more for breaking up play and taking one for the team. It is this kind of player that we have been missing probably since the days of Robbie Savage. Someone to just put a foot in and leave a mark. Let the opposition know that they’re not in for an easy ride.

It is also interesting to note that both Morrison and Spector have had less than 20 fouls each in the league this season. This shows how well the midfield in front of them are doing in terms of not letting the opposition through. It also shows how good at tackling the two centre halves are as it shows that not many fouls are given away due to mistimed challenges.