Summary of defensive impact
– Evra (82%), Smalling (80%) and Evans (76%) won the largest proportion of their tackles.
– Ferdinand (74%), Evans (72%) and Vidic (61%) won the largest proportion of ground duels.
– Vidic (67%), Smalling (64%) and Jones/Evra (62%) won the largest proportion of aerial duals.
– Rafael (10 minutes), Evra (11 minutes) and Vidic (11.6 minutes) have the best minutes per challenge rates.
– Rafael (3.1), Evra (2.4) and Evans (1.8) made the most tackles per game.
– Rafael (2.1), Evans (2) and Jones (1.6) made the most interceptions per game.
– Ferdinand, Rafael, Vidic, Jones and Smalling haven’t made any errors that have lead to goals.
– Ferdinand has the best discipline record, with a foul every 332 minutes (5 and a half hours!), followed by Smalling (169 minutes) and Evans (136 minutes).
Ferdinand is the best passer we have in defence with a passing accuracy of 90%. He has the best passing accuracy in his own half (97%) and only Evra (78%) and Evans (77%) have a better passing accuracy in the opposition half. Evans isn’t far behind Rio though. There’s next to nothing between their passing stats this season.
The attacking abilities of our full-backs are also worth noting.