Stones or van Dijk: Who is the best defender in the Premier League?

Stones, van Dijk or someone else? Who is the best defender in the Premier League? The aforementioned players are the hottest candidates, mainly because of the teammates they have around them. However, even a glance at the stats may not give a clear answer.

Stones vs van Dijk

Both players play in the same position, that of central defender. However, John Stones has been deployed as a central defender on paper recently, but in play he is far more often found in the central midfielder’s area.

In the current season, van Dijk has appeared in 29 games in which he has scored 2 goals and only on 2 occasions has he gone out as a loser. In contrast, Stones has appeared in 15 games, scoring 1 goal and coming away as a winner 11 times. So we don’t see much difference in the team stats.

But the main difference can be seen in the stats of stopping opponents. Stones in this statistic records only number 2 while van Dijk number 33, an incredible difference. As the last defender van Dijk stopped the opponent 3 times, which is the most of all Premier League players, Stones never solved the situation as the last defender, because apparently he never appeared in it.

In the “clearances” statistics (it is very hard to find an appropriate Czech term) van Dijk completely dominates with 117 against Stones’ 20.

Looking at most defensive stats, van Dijk has bigger numbers, but that doesn’t necessarily mean more quality. After all, opponents attack more often against Liverpool than against the Citizens, so van Dijk will logically have higher numbers.

Carragher gave (apparently) the answer

After Manchester City’s league derby with Manchester United, the former England defender posted an interesting thing on social media. “I’ve never seen a player in Stones’ position perform like he did,” Carragher posted on social network X.

The truth is that John Stones plays in the midfield position as if he has never played at stopper. The Englishman can bring the ball out and continue to distribute it to his teammates with great calm and insight.

However, the likes of Cristian Romero also enter the best defender debate. The Tottenham-based stopper has an incredible save percentage, 63% to be precise.

Van Dijk and Stones are both around 50%. All of the players mentioned have yet to commit an error that has led to an opposition goal this season. So the question of the best Premier League defender is still in the stars.

Source: Premier League