The Premier League’s Best and Worst Defenders Based On This Statistic

No player has been dribbled past fewer times in the Premier League last season than Victor Lindelof.

As of late, the caliber for judging a good defender requires several criteria. Players like Sergio Ramos with their unbelievable attacking prowess make even the offensive contributions appear important whereas more traditional defenders can’t entirely be judged by cleansheets alone with the kind of vitality goalkeepers are providing in that regard.

As such, when it comes to how often one is dribbled past, a fairly decent metric is provided of the individual workrate of a defender.

In that regard, Victor Lindelof may have found himself a surprising accolade.

With regard to being dribbled past in the entirety of the Premier League last season, Lindelof holds the joint smallest amount with his average of 0.1 times per game tied along with Aston Villa’s Tyrone Mings.

This is certainly surprising given that Manchester United have had a few defensive hiccups this season, but that is more to the credit of shotstopper David De Gea.

Having said that, Lindelof hasn’t always been at his best this campaign with several occasions and small follies begging the question as to whether the Red Devils ought to replace him with an experienced centre-back this summer. However, his partnership with Harry Maguire and statistics like these do make a compelling case.

On the other end of the spectrum sits Leicester City’s Ricardo Pereira with the full-back being dribbled past a shocking average of 1.9 times a game. However, given his role as a flankman as opposed to Lindelof as a centre-back this stat can be excused a tad bit in that regard.

It is certainly intriguing to see how these defenders will fare when the next Premier League campaign kicks off and whether these statistics can be continued and how well they’ll translate into the overall defensive form of their respective sides.