When it comes to the Championship top six this season, there's not a lot that is too shocking when looking at the table.

All three relegated Premier League teams are there and so are Brentford and Swansea, who fell in in the play-offs last season - but there's one anomaly.

That anomaly would be a resilient team from Yorkshire forcing their way into the battle for Premier League football after struggling to stay in the division last season - that team being Barnsley.

The Tykes seemed to come into life this season when Gerhard Struber departed for New York Red Bulls and was replaced by Valerien Ismael, who has taken the club to places in the table that fans probably would have thought were impossible this season.

Some smart recruitment and a consistent style of football have gotten Barnsley to the play-offs and now they're dreaming of the top flight once again - let's look at who their 12 best players have been this season.

Collins wasn't even the first-choice goalkeeper for the first half of the season, but he took his chance when it came and hasn't looked back.

Following three defeats in a row in January, Ismael decided to drop Jack Walton and give Collins a chance, having not played a league game since October.

Whilst he probably has a rock-solid defence in-front of him to thank for the results, Barnsley have only lost two games since Collins returned to the sticks, which shows that there's every confidence in him to keep the ball out of the net as much as possible.

It is still a position that Barnsley could perhaps upgrade on next season, but the ex-Chelsea man hasn't done too badly in his 20 games this season, conceding just 16 times.

Palmer seems to have come from nowhere this season to become a first-team regular next to Alex Mowatt in the Tykes' engine room, and he must be doing something right if Ismael trusts him.

The 22-year-old has been with Barnsley for many years since leaving Man City's academy at 16, but it was only towards the end of last season where he got senior game-time.

After making cameo appearances earlier this season, Palmer has graduated into a fully-fledged starter and whilst he rarely completes 90 minutes due to Ismael wanting to freshen up his team during the game, he's clearly been effective enough to become a regular fixture and he can only get better at his young age.

Chaplin has been somewhat of a minuscule figure in the second half of the season due to the mid-season arrivals of Daryl Dike and Carlton Morris, but he's still featured regularly with 32 Championship outings to his name this season.

The 24-year-old notched 11 league goals last season and similar things would have been expected of him this year, but Chaplin scored just twice before January and maybe that's why the club decided to bolster their options.

Worryingly for Chaplin he's spending more and more time on the bench but due to getting a lot of minutes in the first half of the season he ranks in the top 10 players - although if promotion to the top flight is achieved it's hard to see him being effective at the top level.

One of the Austrian contingent that Gerhard Struber brought in, Sollbauer was an unusual Barnsley signing in the sense that he probably has no re-sale value, joining the Tykes when he was 29 years old as opposed to the usual criteria of incomings being younger.

Sollbauer has proven himself to be a real leader and he's the one that provides the experience at the back next to Michal Helik and Mads Andersen, and even though there's been times recently when the 30-year-old has been on the substitutes bench, he's fought his way back into the team and played well.

He's a little lower in the numbers when it comes to interceptions per game compared to his defensive partners, however Sollbauer is ultra consistent and is probably one of the unsung heroes.

It says something about Ismael's coaching that Morris' goalscoring record for Barnsley is already better than his MK Dons stats were in League One for the first half of the season.

Morris scored just three times for the Dons but the Tykes saw something in him and in he came on a permanent deal from Norwich City in January.

The 25-year-old has played in every single match since arriving - albeit a lot have come from the bench - but his effectiveness is proven in the stats with seven goals in 21 outings for the club.

That is impressive and whilst he will hardly grab any headlines unlike other players, Morris is a definite match-winner for Barnsley.

In Ismael's 3-4-3 system, the wing-backs are very important and a shrewd move was made in the summer to bring Brittain in from Milton Keynes Dons.

The 23-year-old was deserving of a step up to the Championship and he's taken the opportunity with both hands - he's yet to score for the Tykes but Brittain has notched five assists and it's unsurprising considering the head coach likes the wing-backs to get as high up the pitch as possible.

A Whoscored rating over the season of 6.89 shows how consistent he has been, but like many of Barnsley's young squad he now faces a new test of the Championship play-offs and we will see in the next few weeks how he copes with that, but with the way he's been playing it should be no issues.

This ranking may seem harsh considering Woodrow is once again Barnsley's top scorer, but it just shows how many good players there has been for the club this season.

The 26-year-old has a really consistent scoring record for the Tykes over a season, netting 16 in his first, 14 last season and he's currently on 11 Championship goals for 2020/21.

Woodrow is a real battler at the top end of the pitch and he gets stuck in with the dirty side of the game as well as hitting the back of the net, as evidenced by his eight yellow cards.

He may now face goalscoring competition from other players, but Woodrow is still one of the first names on the team sheet.

The second part of the fearsome trio that makes up the Barnsley defence, Andersen probably came in for a little bit of criticism for performances last season despite playing most Championship games.

However the 23-year-old has played at a different level this season, starting every single league game and he even finally notched his first Tykes goal in the 2-2 draw with Cardiff in January.

The Dane has been a dominant force at the back and it's easy to see why he's now become a fan favourite at Oakwell, and stats-wise he leads the Barnsley team with 2.5 interceptions per game, slightly more than one of his partners Helik.

If Dike had been at Oakwell for a full season, he would probably be the undisputed number one on this list.

What an impact the young American has made - little was really known about him apart from the fact he had scored eight MLS goals for Orlando City in his debut season and he'd just made his USA debut before joining Barnsley on loan.

Dike's impact was immediate - he's scored nine Championship goals in 17 appearances and is now attracting attention from a whole host of Premier League clubs.

Realistically the only way Dike will be around at Barnsley next season to play in-front of their fans is if they win the play-offs - if not then it's likely we see the American in the Premier League with another English team due to how well he's playing.

After starting this season in his natural position of central midfield, you'd have been laughed at if you predicted Styles would have ended the campaign as one of the top left-sided players in the division.

Ismael saw something immediately in the youngster that made him switch him to the left-wing-back role, and in that position Styles has flourished.

He's notched four times - some of those goals being world class strikes - and his performances at a team doing very well have seen Styles attract attention from the likes of Leeds and Southampton, so if Barnsley don't make it through the play-offs and into the Premier League, the 21-year-old may leave them behind.

Barnsley fans would love for nothing more right now than for skipper Mowatt to sign a new contract, with his current deal expiring this summer.

That's because it's been a landmark season for the 26-year-old in terms of goal contributions, scoring eight times and assisting another seven goals in his quest to almost single-handedly get the Tykes into the top flight.

Mowatt is the driving force in the midfield and if he were to depart for absolutely nothing it would be a gut-wrenching blow for the club, but there's still time to sort things out and there may be a few big performances left in the red shirt in the play-offs for the former Leeds man.

Barnsley's star player this season is one who would have been unknown to the majority this time last year, as Helik arrived at Oakwell back in September from Cracovia in his native Poland.

Who knows what the expectations on him were, but Helik has met them and then some, playing 41 Championship games and scoring five times for the Tykes.

Amazing performances have led to Helik's first senior Poland caps in 2021 and you get the feeling that the 26-year-old is destined for bigger things than the Championship.

Helik leads the way in terms of clearances and blocks per game for the club and also records the highest Whoscored rating of the season for the club - 7.27.