Man United, Liverpool, Chelsea: Every Premier League club's centre-back partnership ranked | OneFootball

Manchester United announced earlier this week that they had agreed a £43m fee with Real Madrid for Raphael Varane.

The Frenchman is expected to be confirmed as a United player once he takes his medical in the coming days.

Varane will partner Harry Maguire in the centre of defence for the Red Devils.

90min.com have now gone a step further and ranked every Premier League centre-back partnership from worst to best.

20. Newcastle (Emil Krafth, Federico Fernández, Kyle Dummett)

19. Norwich (Grant Hanley, Ben Gibson)

18. Watford (Francisco Sierralta, William Troost-Ekong)

17. Everton (Michael Keane, Yerry Mina)

16. Arsenal (Rob Holding, Gabriel)

15. Tottenham (Joe Rodon, Davinson Sanchez)

14. Brighton (Lewis Dunk, Adam Webster)

13. Wolves (Wily Boly, Conor Coady, Max Kilman)

12. West Ham (Craig Dawson, Angelo Ogbonna)

11. Southampton (Jannik Vestergaard, Jan Bednarek)

10. Leeds (Liam Cooper, Diego Llorente)

9. Brentford (Kristoffer Ajer, Ethan Pinnock)

8. Crystal Palace (Marc Guéhi, Joachim Andersen)

7. Aston Villa (Tyrone Mings, Ezri Konsa)

6. Leicester (Caglar Soyuncu, Jonny Evans, Wesley Fofana)

5. Burnley (Ben Mee, James Tarkowski)

4. Chelsea (Cesar Azpilicueta, Thiago Silva, Antonio Rudiger)

3. Man City (John Stones, Ruben Dias)

2. Liverpool (Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez)

1. Man United (Raphael Varane, Harry Maguire)

On paper, United's centre-back partnership is very strong. They compliment each other very wekk.

Maguire is dominant in the air while Varane is rapid and will be able to cover for his partner.

It goes without saying that the Frenchman is a major upgrade on Victor Lindelof and Eric Bailly.

Liverpool's centre-back duo of Van Dijk and Gomez was brilliant in the 2019/20 season but they both suffered major injuries in 2020/21.

Whether they will be able to regain their best form after being out for so long remains to be seen.

Elsehwere, Burnley's duo of Mee and Tarkowski has been ranked the fifth best in the Premier League, above Leicester and Villa's partnerships.

Tottenham and Arsenal's partnerships have been ranked among the worst in the Premier League.

Spurs, though, could fly up the rankings soon with highly-touted defender Cristian Romero reportedly nearing a move to north London.

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