Who are the top 5 centre-backs in the world?

Matt007a

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VVD and Dias are the standouts from our league. Ramos and Chiellini have been the top two of the last 10 years, but both are coming towards the end now.

Marquinhos is definitely up there and before injury I'd say Laporte as well.

Hard to believe that in the 00s Rio, Vidic, Terry, Carvalho, Stam, Maldini, Puyol, Cannavaro and Nesta were all playing. We had a real golden age of CBs.
 

JJ12

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I agree but it's no more crazy than Maguire being in there.
Yes it is - Maguire is top 5.

Rudiger isnt miles off but probably around top 12.
 

Bastian

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VVD and Dias are the standouts from our league. Ramos and Chiellini have been the top two of the last 10 years, but both are coming towards the end now.

Marquinhos is definitely up there and before injury I'd say Laporte as well.

Hard to believe that in the 00s Rio, Vidic, Terry, Carvalho, Stam, Maldini, Puyol, Cannavaro and Nesta were all playing. We had a real golden age of CBs.
+ Thuram
 

bond19821982

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How exactly is VVD in the list for everyone? He hasn't player for almost an year and is coming back from an ACL.
 

AltiUn

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Might be controversial but I'm not quite as sold on Dias as some others just yet, still has a lot to prove. I think there's very few top class CBs at the moment, van Dijk stands head and shoulders above any of his competition although there's no way of knowing how his injury may have affected him. At their peaks I think Chiellini and Ramos were probably better but I don't think they are now. I know he's a bit of a meme but I'd argue Maguire is in the top 15, definitely, at a push you might sneak him into the top 10.

Varane's probably top 10 but not top 5. Bonucci's still really good. I like the Marquinhos inclusions, I think he's really good. We seem to be between generations a bit at the moment regarding CBs.
 

hasanejaz88

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VVD and Dias are the standouts from our league. Ramos and Chiellini have been the top two of the last 10 years, but both are coming towards the end now.

Marquinhos is definitely up there and before injury I'd say Laporte as well.

Hard to believe that in the 00s Rio, Vidic, Terry, Carvalho, Stam, Maldini, Puyol, Cannavaro and Nesta were all playing. We had a real golden age of CBs.
Well a few years ago you had Bonnuci, Chiellini, Boateng, Hummels, Godin, Ramos, Varane, Thiago, Marquinos all playing together at close to their peak (not including VVD and Dias since ofcourse they weren't as good then as they were a few years ago). That's a very good bunch of players themselves. If you want to talk about the this decade you can include VVD, Laporte and Dias for latter part while including Pique and Masherano for the early half of the decade to that list too.

For players given in the list for the 00's, all were rarely playing at their peak at the same time. Maldini, Thuram and Stam were old and not as good, while Cannavaro declined at Madrid, as they once were by the time Rio and Vidic reached their peak, Puyol also reached his best in the late 00's rather than at the same time Maldini and co were great.
 

RobinLFC

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"Nothing" seems a bit of an overstatement.
He's obviously a very good player or he wouldn't feature in their starting XI. But to simply state "he's top 5 in the world because he won X, Y and Z", that's not a justification at all. Vice versa, it's not because you've won nothing that you can't be a top 5 player at your position.
 

giorno

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As a real madrid fan i can tell you that sergio ramos was still comfortably our best defender this past season
 

Hughes35

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In no particular order - Van Dijk (If he comes back from injury the same), Laporte, Dias (If it wasn't just one good season), Marquinhos, Maguire

Ramos has been, but his best days are behind him. Same for Chiellini, Silva, Bonucci etc
 

LawCharltonBest

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Sir Alex says in his book that the best advice he received from another manager was to pick a team that mirrored himself, not just the best players available.

For that reason, the manager LawCharltonBest would absolutely have Harry Maguire in his top 5. Won't get in many others but i think hes absolutely brilliant. My favorite CB since Stam.
 

OleBoiii

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Don't mean to be mean, but I would take Matip, Gomez and Konate way before I had to consider the Manchester Barge.
When I was a lad I ate four dozen eggs
every morning to help me get large.
And now that I'm grown I eat five dozen eggs
so I'm roughly the size of a barge.
 

Ødegaard

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Can't really say for the world as I've only followed the Premier League the last few years.
1. VvD
2. Dias
3. Laporte

Would be my top 3. The best of the rest is too hard to judge for me.
I would be shocked if Varane comes in and displaces Van Dijk, but I'd also be surprised if he isn't at least in the running for "best of the rest".
 

GlasgowCeltic

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Honestly don't think there are five worth mentioning, certainly not going crazy about the likes of Dias yet
 

Lay

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The quality at centre back is pretty low at the moment.
 

TheReligion

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I'm just looking at how many people suddenly don't rate Varane any more because he's close to signing for United...

Salt x 1000
 
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:lol:
Don't mean to be mean, but I would take Matip, Gomez and Konate way before I had to consider the Manchester Barge.
Liverpool’s three centre backs not named VVD. You honestly believe Liverpool have FOUR CBs better than Maguire, sorry FIVE as I assume you forgot about Fabinho.

there’s something refreshingly familiar about Liverpool’s delusional fans
 

Adam-Utd

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City's defenders are so over rated.

Dias looked bang average for Portugal when asked to do actual defending and not just sweep up mistimed long balls.
 

JJ12

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As a real madrid fan i can tell you that sergio ramos was still comfortably our best defender this past season
He played 15 league games - pretty hard to understand that one.
 

B20

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Matip is a top class defender whenever he's fit, which is rarely. I'd say definitely in a similar echelon to maguire. Showed his top level in the latter stages of the CL as well.

Gomez is a bit in between. At his best, he's a better defender than both. Some of the runs we've gone on defensively with him and van dijk have been crazy. He's been a big part of why we could keep so many clean sheets with our full backs caught high up the pitch.
He blows a bit more hot and cold though. And also gets injured a lot on top of that. In time, I think he could be better than both if he can stay fit.
 

Commentary

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1) Virgil Van Dyke
2) Ruben Diaz
3) Marquinhos
4) Varane
5) John Stones or Laporte
 

WeePat

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Van Dijk
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I mean there are a lot of good to very good CB's out there who all kind of fluctuate between similar levels. To me there just two genuine standouts at the moment.
 

Threesus

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I actually think Maguire is a bit underrated among football fans. We saw how lost we looked defensively, especially in the weeks after he was injured.

I would say only VVD, Marquinhos and Dias are better than him.