West Ham loanee considered Portsmouth's 'best' this season as former Wigan man forced to take surprise back seat

That’s according to Whoscored.com, whose ratings play a major role in helping to decide the EFL’s team of the week and season selections.

The 21-year-old presently has a 6.89/10 score from his seven games played for the Blues following his temporary switch to Fratton Park over the summer.

The talented former Wycombe loanee has certainly enjoyed an encouraging start to his PO4 career, with the highlight to date no doubt being his maiden goal for Pompey as they secured their first win of the season against QPR recently.

He was also tasked with running the Blues’ midfield against Sheffield Wednesday last time out as John Mousinho made the difficult call to drop captain Marlon Pack for the game against the Owls.

The only issue is, Potts’ current rating places him a staggering 95th in whoscored.com’s top Championship player rankings - which emphasises the troubles Pompey have experienced this term following their step up from League One. 

Indeed, wth the Blues sitting bottom of the table with just one win from their 12 games played to date, it’s hardly surprising their best-performing player only just breaks into the division’s top 100.

Conor Ogilvie (6.71) and Tom McIntyre (6.67) occupy second and third places respectively in the list of Pompey’s top performers - scores that see them come in at 143rd and 162nd in the divisional rankings.

But what’s really surprising is the 6.65 score Callum Lang currently has from his nine games played in the second tier to date.

If the Fratton faithful were to pick one shining light from their difficult start to life back in the Championship, the former Wigan man would surely be the unanimous choice. The 26-year-old has stepped up to be the Blues’ talisman this season, with his energy, work-rate and four goals giving fans something to hold onto amid the current doom and gloom.

Yet his whoscored.com rating doesn’t reflect that and unbelievably places the former Wigan man 171st in their current player standings.

The next Pompey player on the scoring chart is Pack (6.51) - a player who was named in the EFL’s League One team of the season in 2023-24, after he skippered the Fratton Park outfit to the title. The midfielder has had his difficulties this season as he struggles to cope with the challenges that Championship football brings.

That saw him dropped to the bench for Friday’s visit of Sheffield Wednesday to the south coast, with Andre Dozzell called up to replace him. Yet he’s still considered one of the Blues’ better performers - although, at this moment, there’s little prospect of the 33-year-old making the Championship team of the season as he currently sits 201st in the overall rankings.

Fellow League One team-of-the-year pick, Will Norris, sits 331st in the standings with a score of 6.22. That represents a fall from grace for the Blues stopper, who is currently out of the Mousinho’s side after an indifferent start to the campaign. Meanwhile, Conor Shaughnessy - another recognised at the end of last season - isn’t ranked having featured just twice for Pompey this term because of injury.

Incidentally, Sunderland’s Dennis Cirkin tops the rankings with a score of 7.42, with Norwich’s Borja Sainz (7.42) and Luton’s Alfie Doughty making up the top three.

Sheffield United’s Harrison Burrows - who Pompey admired during the summer - sits 10th in the ratings with a score of 7.10 - which is the same as former Fratton Park favourite Matt Clarke’s rating for Middlesbrough this season.

Karamoko Dembele (6.87) - another player linked with the Blues in the summer - is ranked 72nd, while Alex Robertson, who’s now at Cardiff, is placed 93rd with a score of 6.81.

The Pompey players can help improve their current ratings with a win against Hull on Saturday.