Premier League Stats: Comparing the Top Defenders in the Premier League 2023/2024

Modern football is a thrill to watch as the strategies mostly focus on attacking play. Defences these days have the zone marking approach. Man marking is a thing of the past and although zone marking is regarded as a superior form, attackers these days are deadly and are constantly finding holes.

In other words, the art of defending has died down a bit and finding a good defender is a real struggle. The Premier League has some of the best players in these positions and since the struggle of maintaining clean sheets is a major achievement these days, we decided to give the nod to the top players.

Not only will we list the top defenders in the Premier League, but we will also compare their stats to see which one ranks the best.

When van Dijk came to Liverpool, he exceeded all expectations. He was so good that he was nominated for the Ballon d'Or. A majority of sports fans were so convinced that he was going to win it that they even started placing bets on him.

Online sportsbooks such as BetMGM reported spikes in the number of bets on the Ballon d'Or winner. People used bonuses such as the BetMGM sign up offer to double down on their wagers and increase their overall payouts.

Several years later, van Dijk is still at the top of his game, but not at his peak. Statistics show that his ground duels remain decent as won 75% of the time. His aerial duel success is even better – 82.26%. With 6 clearances, 2 interceptions and no yellow cards, he continues to prove that he is a key player for Liverpool.

Also Read: Gordon scored the only goal as Newcastle handed Arsenal their first loss of the Premier League 2023-24 season

Age is nothing but a number for Thiago Silva. The 39-year-old is the strongest player in Chelsea's defensive line. He has the best long pass accuracy (78.79%) among the players that we are going to compare. His aerial duel success rate is 75% and has won 2 ground duels. Additionally, Silva has 4 clearances, 1 interception and 1 tackle.

Manchester City has been among the best clubs in the world these past couple of years. Its players are nothing short but amazing, including Ruben Dias. His output is absolutely ridiculous this season.

Dias has 5 ball recoveries, 2 won ground duels, 3 clearances, 1 interception and 1 tackle. His aerial duel success rate is a bit lower than van Dijk and Silva though – 61.11%. And if that is not enough, Dias attempted over 6 long passes, meaning that he's no stranger to pushing attackers and starting counter-attacks. His aggressive play style also cost him possession on quite a few occasions. Statistics show that he's lost the ball 7 times.

Next, we have Arsenal's young protégé , William Saliba. The 22-year-old proved this season that he has the potential to grow as one of the best defenders in PL's history. He has 6 ball recoveries.

His ground duel success is better than Dias and Silva – 62.5%. Only van Dijk is in front of Saliba in this category. He lost possession on 76 occasions, which is two tiles lower than Ruben Dias. When it comes to the hard job (tackles), he's below any other player on the list. Saliba has just one.

Moreover, his number of clearances and interceptions (2 and 0) are pretty low. The good thing about Saliba is that he's been playing clean so far as he has no yellow cards.

Our final player is none other than Trippier. This season, Trippier played 1,039 minutes and has had more ball recoveries than van Dijk, Dias and Saliba (6). He is also at the number 1 spot in the number of ground duels won (3).

Although Trippier has the highest number of tackles made (2), the bad thing is that he lost possession on more occasions than any other player (20 times). His clearance, interception and block rates sit at one.

Comparison between the defenders