Wrexham have seen several of their players impress during the early stages of the 2024/25 season.
Despite a defeat to Stevenage and draw with Leyton Orient in their last two fixtures, Wrexham should be largely pleased with how they have started the campaign.
Birmingham City are already opening up a big gap at the top of League One but if you had told Wrexham fans ahead of 2024/25 that they would be second going into the October international break, they probably would have been very pleased.
A number of stars have stepped up to help the Red Dragons cement themselves as one of the early-season promotion favourites.
Prior to his injury picked up last weekend, Max Cleworth was arguably the Welsh outfit’s standout performer of 2024/25.
Wrexham beat Crawley Town 2-1 toward the end of September with Phil Parkinson labelling Cleworth ‘terrific’ post-game.
He is not the only star to shine for the Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds-owned club this term though.
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Highest-rated Wrexham players in 2024/25 so far
Ryan Barnett has been called Wrexham’s player of the season so far by one journalist this week.
And after his free transfer from Charlton Athletic in the 2024 summer window, George Dobson has been likened to Bobby Moore.
However, it is not Cleworth, Barnett or Dobson that currently rank as Wrexham’s highest-rated player of the campaign, according to Opta.
Rather than a standard 1-10 system, Opta rate players using a points system and at present, it is Elliot Lee who has the most Opta Points of any Wrexham star this term (183.8).
Cleworth is second on the list with a points total of 146.0. The rest of the top 10 is rounded out by Dobson, Thomas O’Connor, Eoghan O’Connell, Arthur Okonkwo, James McClean, Jack Marriott, Barnett and Ollie Palmer.
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How will Wrexham replace Max Cleworth
After picking up an injury against Leyton Orient, Cleworth is facing a spell on the sidelines, leaving a bit of a gap in Parkinson’s backline.
Wrexham could replace Cleworth with a free agent and former Championship promotion winner Daniel Ayala is currently available as a viable option.
For the time being though, Dan Scarr has come into the backline, making his first league start against Stevenage earlier this week.
However, with games set to come thick and fast after the October international break, Parkinson will have to start rotating his three-man defence a lot more to ensure no more big injuries are picked up.
This could open the door for summer addition Lewis Brunt to start garnering more minutes in League One going forward.
Wrexham host Northampton Town on Saturday and it will be interesting to see how Parkinson sets up his backline.