The top 8 most intimidating EFL Championship players in history named and ranked by AI | OneFootball

Chat GPT ranks these players as the most intimidating in EFL Championship history

There have been several intimidating players to play in the Championship.

Those players that you know exactly what you're going to get when they stepped out onto the field. Towering presences, physical ways of playing and, above all, more than a few yellow and red cards across the course of a season.

Picking just eight to form the toughest, most intimidating list known to Championship mankind is incredibly difficult, so Football League World has turned to popular AI-based service, ChatGPT, to outline who they believe are the most intimidating players to grace the second tier.

AI states that this list is based on a physical style, various disciplinary records, and a reputation as players you least want to face on the pitch. So, without further ado, let's get straight into it.

8 Darren Moore

The current Port Vale manager kicks off this list at number eight, and it's no surprise, as the 6-foot-2 monster at the back was always a handful for opposition strikers in the late 90s and throughout the 2000s.

ChatGPT coins Moore as a "man-mountain" and a "physical duels specialist," outlining how he rarely lost challenges in the air. He rarely knew how to lose them on the ground, either, and his intimidating nature saw him help the likes of West Bromwich Albion and Derby County to Premier League promotions.

He does, unfortunately, have the misfortune of being one of the main names in the Derby side who picked up just 11 points in the 2007/08 season, though. Not many people found him intimidating then, but he was at least able to regain such a title, and his place on this list, with a couple of seasons back in the second tier with Barnsley, following on from that top-flight disaster.

7 Jake Buxton

Jake Buxton made a name for himself in League Two with Mansfield Town, but his move up a couple of divisions to Derby in 2009 didn't see him shy away from challenges.

AI states that Buxton was the Rams' "defensive anchor" during the seven years he spent at Pride Park. He made 159 appearances during his time there, including 45 in the 2013/14 season, where he helped the side make the Championship play-offs.

He was said to have had plenty of battling spirit and a willingness to put himself where it hurt week by week to help benefit the team.

For that alone, he's worthy of a place on this list.

6 Matt Crooks

Trees aren't usually seen as too intimidating, despite their height, but this one was one tree you didn't want to face in the 2021/22 season.

The 31-year-old now plays at Hull City, but his time spent at Middlesbrough saw him rack up a good number of yellow cards in the Championship.

The 2021/22 campaign saw Crooks miss just six league games all season, and all were due to suspension, as the six-foot-four midfielder picked up a staggering 16 yellow cards, as well as one red.

No one has been able to reach that number of yellow cards in a season since, and it's going to be tough to see anyone replicate it anytime soon. Perhaps, given Crooks still intimidates midfielders in this league currently, the 2025/26 campaign could see him do enough to bump himself into the top five of this list.

5 Ben Pearson

AI calls Ben Pearson a "Preston North End midfield stalwart across multiple seasons". That was when he wasn't missing games through suspension.

Pearson topped the yellow card charts in both the 2016/17 and 2017/18 Championship seasons with 14, and despite his 13 not seeing him top the leaderboards in the 2018/19 campaign, his three red cards that term fully established him as a truly intimidating player.

With the 30-year-old still lining out in the Championship for Stoke City, it won't be long until he holds the title of most yellow cards in the division's history, as Henri Lansbury only sits six yellows ahead of Pearson, who has racked up 84 in 253 second-tier appearances.

If you were an opposition midfielder facing Pearson, you knew that you'd be leaving the game with a few bruises around your ankles. Truly a modern-day bruiser, and one deserving of a place on this list.

4 Joleon Lescott

The majority of Joleon Lescott's career was spent in the Premier League, but before he made his name at the likes of Everton and Manchester City, he was one of the main stars in the Wolves side in the early 2000s whilst they were in the Championship.

At six-foot-three, Lescott was a force to be reckoned with even during his early twenties, playing almost every game, being physically dominant and tactically smart, according to ChatGPT's explanation.

And, like Buxton before him on this list, the former England international was never afraid to get stuck in and come out of challenges with a few bangs and bruises.

He would go on to become a Premier League stalwart, but his time in the second tier saw him lay down the foundations which would see him become a top-flight regular in the late 2000s.

Taking the bronze medal in this list is a Championship veteran. Curtis Davies played over 300 times in the Championship, and every time he struck fear into opposition strikers.

He commanded respect wherever he went, despite crossing the rivalry border in the Midlands at times, and "combined leadership, positional sense and physicality to great effect" during his time playing in the second tier, according to AI.

Davies played huge parts in Birmingham City, Hull City and Derby sides who finished seasons inside the top six. Usually, having an intimidating presence at the back can lead to success for sides in the Championship, and that definitely was the case for the sides that the 40-year-old played for.

Undoubtedly one of the toughest players to play in the division, but there are two others with a worse disciplinary record who land above Davies in this ranking.

2 Darius Henderson

Darius Henderson stands out in this list, and any other list which details the worst disciplinary records of players in the Championship, or the toughest, hardest players in the division's history, simply because Henderson played as a striker.

Despite this, he has still picked up the joint-most straight red cards in Championship history, with six.

He went just one season since the First Division was re-branded to the Championship without a red card, and funnily enough, it was during the season he played at Millwall, a notoriously hardened club. And when he left The Den midway through the 2012/13 campaign to join Nottingham Forest, he made sure he picked up a dismissal before the end of the season whilst at The City Ground.

Henderson was someone who was a danger to defences in more ways than one, and had many fans wondering whether it was a goal he'd score or a card he'd pick up each week.

1 Matt Mills

Henderson shares the record for the most straight red cards in Championship history with one player, Matt Mills.

Mills himself has more second-tier dismissals than anyone else, however, having picked up three second yellow card sending offs, compared to Henderson's two.

That disciplinary record "reflects his aggressive and high-risk defensive style," according to ChatGPT, and is the reason that the former Nottingham Forest, Bolton Wanderers, Leicester City and Reading centre-half earns his place atop this list.

It's a record unlikely to be broken anytime soon. Ben Pearson currently sits on six Championship red cards, though, so if he wants to repeat his three red card flurry from 2018/19, then he'll definitely have a reason to find himself challenging Mills for the moniker of "most intimidating."