Top 10 defenders in the Premier League this season
The season has come to a close, and it’s time now to pay tribute to the meanest defenders of the season gone by. Chelsea and Southampton had the hardest defences to beat in the league.
They conceded the fewest goals throughout the season and performed the best overall defensively. Individually though, here are the best at the back in the Premier League. Notable absentees include Ryan Bertrand, Gary Cahill and Joel Ward but it’s a tough list to get into.
10. Phil Jones
It’s been a season which hasn’t been the best for Manchester United defensively. The United sides of old have been known to have the meanest defences with the likes of Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Jaap Stam, Steve Bruce etc.
This season though, they have the fourth best defence in the league and it wouldn’t have been so if it weren’t for Phil Jones. In a season where Manchester United manager Louis Van Gaal was still finding his best XI to field, there is no doubt that Jones played an integral part in defence.
Manchester United have lost 7 of the 21 matches Phil Jones has missed, which clearly shows how the Red Devil’s defence is incomplete without the Englishman, who averages 2.4 tackles per game.
Plagued by injuries throughout the season and shifted out of his natural position into midfield have hampered the quality of Jones’ defensive capabiltiies. Let’s not forget that Jones turned 23 only in February.
Despite his age, it is without a doubt that he is an integral man at Old Trafford. A recent study showed that he is the best centre back under 23 in Europe in a report compiled by the CIES Football Observatory.
9. Aaron Cresswell
West Ham paid around £3.5m for Cresswell when they bought him from Tranmere Rovers, but nobody could have predicted the impact he would have. The left back has been ever present for Allardyce’s Hammers team and has a consistency record which is pretty astonishing.
Cresswell has started 209 of a possible 219 league games since his ascent from League One to the Premier League and his performance doesn't seem to be dropping either. Cresswell popped up with 2 goals and 4 assists this season and averages 1.2 tackles per game.
Rumours of 20m bids from Manchester City and Liverpool have begun to surface but with Bilic now the manager Cresswell should stay put.