Who are the best Centre Backs in the Premier League? | Vital Football

Who are the best Centre Backs in the Premier League?

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Van Dijk obviously takes the top spot, but after that who is of elite quality and why?

Our reference point would be who?
 
Great question. I don't think there are many.

I quite like Soyuncu and have a feeling that Ben Godfrey will be top drawer. Obviously Ruben Dias and Laporte are decent.

A lot of the world's best centre halves are getting the wrong side of 30 to be fair. Upamecano will be hot property, just like De Ligt was a couple of years back.
 
What do you call the guy they brought in at Leicester? Still early days of course but he's looking pretty good for them at the moment.
 
I like Dier, he's a good lad. I wouldn't say there were too many centre halves that were better than him in the air, ball to feet however he can be turned quite easily. Surprisingly pacy for a big fella too. He can certainly play a role, of course there are better candidates out there. It's a case of whether we can afford them or not at the moment.
 
After Van Dijk it is hard to think of anyone as a stand out in the Premier league. So many CBs in the league these days have flaws or question marks over their heads. So many get shown up far too frequently. I think this is the case in Europe too. There seems to be much fewer top CBs than there were 10/15 years ago.

Most likely this is down to the change in emphasis in playing styles and how the game is refereed too.
 
Rule changes favouring the attackers hasn't helped. The nonsense that is VAR & teams playing a high line are also factors but there are still a good few centre halves around. Liking the look of the young fella Leicester bagged in the summer.
 
steveperryman said:
Rule changes favouring the attackers hasn't helped. The nonsense that is VAR & teams playing a high line are also factors but there are still a good few centre halves around. Liking the look of the young fella Leicester bagged in the summer.
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Are you talking about Wesley Fofana? If so, I think he's an absolute steal for Leicester. One of those who you could stick anywhere across the back line and he'd do a great job,
 
Even Van Dijk looks vulnerable when teams actually attack Liverpool and get at their back 4....most of the time he is shielded from that...

He is the best though with an excellent football brain...apart from him everyone else is average at best.
 
We need a top all round centre back who's comfortable on the ball and we can use to play out from the back into midfield, Jan used to be that guy for us and we haven't replaced him for the last few seasons, I know technically he was still here for one of those but he was pretty much done.
 
Thfctditd said:
We need a top all round centre back who's comfortable on the ball and we can use to play out from the back into midfield, Jan used to be that guy for us and we haven't replaced him for the last few seasons, I know technically he was still here for one of those but he was pretty much done.
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No point having a ball playing CB when all you are instructed to do is hoof the ball - it's the same with Lloris, his hoofing the ball is now out of control and rarely achieves anything, except to give the opposition the ball.
 
Spursex said:
No point having a ball playing CB when all you are instructed to do is hoof the ball - it's the same with Lloris, his hoofing the ball is now out of control and rarely achieves anything, except to give the opposition the ball.
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Dier doesn’t even do that very well....sorry EX just don’t see what you see.
 
I find it quite difficult to have firm views on the strengths of CBs because they are helped or hindered by the systems they play in and the players around them. It's far easier to identify poor CBs because their deficiencies show up irrespective of other factors.

Dier undoubtedly has improved. But then he is playing with two DMs in front of him who rarely stray from their positions. And we get every player behind the ball when defending anyway. In that set up he's rarely exposed.

Tarkowski and Mee at Burnley get great reviews. But then they play for a team that defends in numbers and focus on breaking up the opposition's play before it gets to the penalty area.

At the bigger clubs you're expected to stand on your own two feet more. So your strengths and weaknesses are more open to scrutiny. Michael Keane was highly rated when he was at Burnley but really struggled when he went to Everton. I believe he's improved under Ancelotti though, although again that may be the system and players around him.
 
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