Squawka
·1 March 2024
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Yahoo sportsSquawka
·1 March 2024
“No doubt offence sells the tickets, but defence wins championships,” as famed basketball coach Dave Thorson once said.
No adage is more true when it comes to Premier League football or any league for that matter. Every successful team possessed a central defender par excellence and England’s top division is currently littered with some.
So who are the Premier League’s best right now?
To come up with a list, we’ve used the Twenty3 Discovery Tool to find the best centre-backs and come up with a ‘Squawka Score’, which is based on 30 different metrics that include ground and aerial duel win %, interceptions, last man tackles, discipline, clearances, long ball accuracy, forward pass accuracy among others.
Players’ per 90 output across those metrics — each of which is given a weighting between one and five — is rated by the Discovery Tool to produce a percentage score. The weighting of each statistic highlights the most important aspect of a centre-back’s game. This is the Squawka Score.
Each player’s stats are compared to the average output of defenders across the past three seasons of big-five European league football based on an automatically calculated minutes threshold. The more they rank in the 95th percentile and above for each metric, the higher the Squawka Score.
With the 2023/24 season well underway, here are the best centre-backs in the Premier League ranked by their Squawka Score from the campaign so far, with only players who have 1,170+ minutes (half of the possible minutes played) under their belt considered.
Despite some tricky moments this season, including giving away a penalty in the 4-4 draw against Chelsea, Ruben Dias has continued to prove his class as Manchester City look to win a record breaking fourth consecutive Premier League title. The Portuguese CB was named in the 2023 FIFA FIFPRO Men’s World 11 in January alongside six of his teammates and his ability to carry the ball and ability to find a pass has been key for City this season and last.
He ranks in the top 5% for retention rate, accurate passes into the final third, percentage of sequences featured in that end in the final third and completion rate for passes into the final third, with only Thiago Silva having a better pass accuracy for defenders to attempt 1,500+ passes in the Premier League so far this season.
Despite not starting his Premier League game until September, Gabriel reaffirmed his place in the Gunners’ back-line alongside partner William Saliba, who has nothing but admiration for the Brazilian.
“Firstly, he’s such a good defender so it’s easy to play with him, because you know he will win most of his duels against the striker or the winger. It’s so good to play with him, and he talks a lot, but he talks too much. He’s a good leader on the back line, I think he’s the real leader.”
As well as his strong leadership abilities and defensive duel numbers, Gabriel is also crucial as the last line of defence, with no centre-back making more last man tackles so far this campaign than the Brazilian. At the other end he has also been a huge threat, scoring at least four more goals than any other defender in the Premier League since he made his debut in the competition in September 2020, including four this season alone.
After joining from NAC in 2020 and two loan spells at Heerenveen and Blackburn, Jan Paul van Hecke has now secured his place in the Brighton back-line alongside Lewis Dunk and is improving week after week. The 23-year-old is the perfect player for Roberto De Zerbi’s system as he couples the ability to play a forward pass with impressive duel win % numbers and the Italian has been full of praise for his centre-back.
“I think the most important quality of JP is the balance between the arrogance and the confidence in himself. He is not arrogant but his confidence in himself is high, high, high,” He said.
“It is his secret to keep this level because he has an incredible personality, shows incredible leadership and he is so young. It’s not common to see one young player with that level of personality. “We spoke a lot together. I am very proud of JP and Billy [Gilmour]. They are both great guys and deserve to play in this level now. Their improvement has been fantastic.”
“I wouldn’t argue with Messi,” came Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou’s response after the record eight-time Ballon d’Or recipient described Cristian Romero as the world’s best defender. “Most of the boys don’t like to train against him. He’s a real competitor and I love that about him. Whether it’s training or a game, what you see is what you get with Romero,” the Australian added.
Now in the Tottenham leadership group, the Argentine seems to have calmed down slighty this season (Chelsea performance aside) and is forming an impressive defensive partnership with Spurs’ summer signing Micky van de Ven. His aggressive nature always sees him play within the absolute limits of the game’s laws at times as he intimidates opposition forwards, but his ability to bring the ball forward and his impressive passing range and accuracy has seen him become vital in Tottenham’s set up under Ange Postecoglou, when he is available.
Form is temporary as the old saying goes. Virgil van Dijk would be the first to admit he played below his usual (lofty) standards last term. Some eyebrows were raised when Jurgen Klopp named him Liverpool’s captain heading into the season but it’s proven to be a masterstroke as the Dutchman not only rekindled his past form the Reds are once again in the mix for glory in the German’s final season in charge.
His header deep into extra-time secured a record breaking 10th League Cup trophy for the Reds against Chelsea in this season’s EFL Cup final, becoming just the third outfield player after John Terry and Vincent Kompany to be named the Alan Hardaker Man of the Match award in multiple EFL Cup finals.
In the Premier League, van Dijk is once again his old rolls royce self and resolute. To date, of any defender playing at least 900 minutes this season, he is the sole one to only be dribbled past once, whilst also winning more aerial duels than any other player in the competition in 2023/24 and boasting an incredible 83.85% win rate.
Here are the metrics used and weighting given to each metric to come up with the overall Squawka Score: