Who is the best English defender in the Premier League?

Soldato
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Rio and Terry are both giants in their field. Those two immediately come to mind, and I have to ponder for a bit who would come (a distant) third.
 
Soldato
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Haha Ledley King? He's a great defender but even at his best can't compare to Ferdinand. I do think Woodgate at his best could compete for the other England place against Terry though. He's just too injury prone.

1.Rio
2. Terry/Woodgate

couldnt of said it better

wheater will be the best one day... carra isnt even in my top 5 tbh

rio
terry
woodgate
king
lescott
 
Man of Honour
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Maybe R.Ferdinand but I'm not 100% sure. Terry runs him close but when on top form (fully concentrating!) Rio probably shades it due to the extra pace.

Cole and Campbell have both gone off the boil slightly in recent times, Bridge looked very solid for Chelsea last year but looked a fool in one of the qualifiers for England. Woodgate, King and G.Neville miss too many games, and Carragher looked a bit more a liability last season in terms of being forced into fouls in the box.

On the plus side we aren't too badly off for defenders at the mo. Not so sure about keepers, I'm not 100% convinced by James, Carson, Green, Robinson etc. Kirkland and Foster look talented but haven't really had much of a run at the top level.
 
Soldato
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I think we won every game King played in last season, if not then pretty close.

We won every game Chris Eagles played in in the 2007 season but I don't see anyone claiming he's the best right winger in the league :p

If you're going on pure talent then sure you can include King, but he's more a liability than anything else and I would hate to be counting on him since he will normally miss 75% of the season.

My order would be...
Rio
Carragher
Then there's a fair few that are on the same level. I honestly can't put John Terry above those. He's an incredibly inspirational and mentally strong character but I just can't put him in the same boat as Rio or Carragher any more. I've got to say that both Wayne Bridge and Ashley Cole are often over looked in these sort of things. Bridge had a very good season last year, and when Ashely Cole is on form he can neutralize anybody on the wing.
 
Caporegime
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I'm a gooner and as such, obviously hate Cashley cole, but frankly mentioning him in the same breathe as Wayne bridge is beyond a joke. If he hadn't let cash, fame and women letting him puke in there cars before he bangs them get to his head he would be on form like before his injury at Arsenal. To be honest, he's one of the best around on his best game, but unfortunately he seems to have gotten big headed and really doesn't try like he used to. For 3 years at Arsenal he was ridiculously consistant and incredibly good. But again he's a great left back, but its the balance of attack and defence, and his raw speed that made up for mistakes. Bridge on the other hand, makes a dozen serious mistakes a game, has very little end product to his attacking game, isn't that fast, is clumsy, not great passing and thats all in his best games. England have had many sucky performances lately but nothing, not a single player has been anywhere near as bad as that game he had, everyone has a shocker now and then, but that was the king of all shockers, most players could be drunk and play out of position and be better than that performance. Utter joke of a player.

Lescott is a better defensively player and probably, was the most consistant defender of the year, making very few mistakes and very versatile at the back. I might put Lescott top frankly. No one else mentioned Richards at all, which seems weird as everyone was raving over him 2 seasons ago. Like i said that performance against Man U, probably best single defensive performance of anyone in the league the whole year.
 
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I'm a gooner and as such, obviously hate Cashley cole, but frankly mentioning him in the same breathe as Wayne bridge is beyond a joke. If he hadn't let cash, fame and women letting him puke in there cars before he bangs them get to his head he would be on form like before his injury at Arsenal. To be honest, he's one of the best around on his best game, but unfortunately he seems to have gotten big headed and really doesn't try like he used to. For 3 years at Arsenal he was ridiculously consistant and incredibly good. But again he's a great left back, but its the balance of attack and defence, and his raw speed that made up for mistakes. Bridge on the other hand, makes a dozen serious mistakes a game, has very little end product to his attacking game, isn't that fast, is clumsy, not great passing and thats all in his best games. England have had many sucky performances lately but nothing, not a single player has been anywhere near as bad as that game he had, everyone has a shocker now and then, but that was the king of all shockers, most players could be drunk and play out of position and be better than that performance. Utter joke of a player.

Lescott is a better defensively player and probably, was the most consistant defender of the year, making very few mistakes and very versatile at the back. I might put Lescott top frankly. No one else mentioned Richards at all, which seems weird as everyone was raving over him 2 seasons ago. Like i said that performance against Man U, probably best single defensive performance of anyone in the league the whole year.

No Rio Ferdinand in your little rant about Wayne Bridge :/

Also Richards has been mentioned
 
Soldato
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Being a Chelsea fan, I'd still say rio shaves it ahead of terry but then terry did have a pretty bad spate of luck with regards injuries last season. I too say Cashley Cole (Yes I don't particularly like him either) is very good and just about the only defender I've seen handle Christiano.

Rio
Terry
Cashley/Woody(when fit)
 
Associate
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An interesting slant is to tip these into which world class english defenders do we have?

In which case;

Ashley Cole (best left back in world imho)
Rio

Thats it because Terry and Carra are great defenders but would not get a game against Puyol, Nesta, Maldini etc.
 
Soldato
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Ashley Cole at Arsenal and Ashley Cole at Chelsea are 2 completely different players. He isn't even the best left back in the prem at the moment. Evra and Clichy have been far better than him.
 
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