Who are the best Premier League right-backs in 2024? | OneFootball

The Premier League is home to some of the world’s best right-backs.

Some of football’s most talented full-backs have graced the Premier League, from Lee Dixon to Gary Neville to Kyle Walker and everyone in between.

The best Premier League right-backs of the 2023/24 season so far:

*excluding those who have played fewer than half available minutes (1,260).

Who are the best PL right-backs of 2024?

But who are the standout right-backs right from the start of 2024?

You’ll find a list below based on their Squawka Score across 20224. Only players who have played 400+ minutes of Premier League football included and wing-backs are excluded.

As of writing, there isn’t a more creative Premier League right-back than Kieran Trippier; in fact, he leads the race for this season’s Playmaker Award, having created ten goals to date. When it comes to overall chances produced, only Bruno Fernandes (82), Pascal Groß (76), Martin Ødegaard (73) and Bukayo Saka (68) sit ahead of him (63) in the rankings.

4. Kyle Walker

For many seasons, Walker was the gold standard among Premier League right-backs, but that crown slipped off with the emergence of Trent Alexander-Arnold. There’s a feeling Manchester City’s number two is returning to his very best. Near ever-present this season, only missing two games, the City skipper has chipped in with two assists. Still, his ability to enter the opposition’s final third and defend one-on-one consistently is what head coach Pep Guardiola admires the most.

Once a promising centre-back, Ben White is now Arsenal’s first-choice right-back, and his transformation continues to pay dividends. Furthermore, the former England international has built up a telepathic understanding with right-sided forward Bukayo Saka, a partnership that has played a crucial role in consecutive title challenges. For his part this season, White has chipped in with two goals and created four more.

The belief is that Alexander-Arnold will end up in midfield, which isn’t unfamiliar territory as he played there during his youth; if that vision comes to pass, then Liverpool will have a suitable candidate to fill those right-back shoes. Conor Bradley has been nothing short of a revelation. He assisted on his Premier League debut as the Reds ran out 4-0 winners at Bournemouth before he scored and created two more next time out against Chelsea. It’s been quiet since then, but the 20-year-old’s future is undoubtedly bright.

Honourable mentions

It was hard to pindown Manchester United’s go-to right-back for a while, but that is no longer the case with Diogo Dalot (62%) now making that position his own (unless he’s being tasked with filling at left-back). The native of Braga has chipped in with two assists in 26 league appearances to date while scoring one himself.

However, his compatriot Pedro Porro (58%) has been on another level under Ange Postecoglou. With his future at Tottenham seemingly uncertain near the end of his loan from Sporting last season, the move was made permanent. Postecoglou transformed him into Joao Cancelo’s regen as Spurs laid the foundations for a top-four finish.

1. Malo Gusto

It was another summer transfer spree for Chelsea, which brought in 12 players; six months earlier, Malo Gusto joined from Olympique Lyon before remaining on loan until the 2023/24 season. He regularly featured under Mauricio Pochettino before dipping in and out, but in recent weeks, the one-time capped French international has cemented that right-back berth in Reece James’ absence. His performances, including three assists since Boxing Day, have been so encouraging that it’s hard to see a healthy James usurping him.

How did we rank the Premier League’s best right-backs?

We used Twenty3 Sport’s Discovery Tool to run a customised search. The Discovery Tool rates a player’s per 90 output in the metrics detailed below to produce a percentage score, referred to above as the Squawka Score.

Each player’s stats are compared to the average output of left-backs across the past three seasons of big-five European league football. The higher the score, the closer they rank to the 95th percentile and above for each metric.

We also weighted each stat from 1 to 5 to highlight the most important aspects of a right-back’s play style.

To be awarded a score, a player must have reached the automatically calculated minutes threshold, in this case, 400 minutes in the Premier League during 2024.