Best defenders with fewest yellows and reds?

horsechoker

The Caf's Ezza.
Joined
Apr 16, 2015
Messages
61,264
Location
The stable
Which defenders have been great centre backs and full backs while avoiding a booking and/or sending off?
 
Gaetano Scirea never got a red during his illustrious career i think.

Very clean.
 
Varane doesn't get many? But I don't think this is necessarily a good thing in current football.

You can't afford to be too passive. You've got to play on the edge a little bit, or else the risk is you're not doing enough. I think in modern football the instinct has to be to go forward first, and then drop back second.
 
Think Rio got one red for us when he played in midfield against Blackburn.
 
Skills said:
Varane doesn't get many? But I don't think this is necessarily a good thing in current football.

You can't afford to be too passive. You've got to play on the edge a little bit, or else the risk is you're not doing enough. I think in modern football the instinct has to be to go forward first, and then drop back second.
Click to expand...

Aye. And a lot easier to get a yellow nowadays both with more attacker-friendly refereeing and higher lines forcing more tactical fouling.

Carlos Gamarra played 8 games across 2 World Cups in 98 and 02 and didn't concede a single foul.
 
duffer said:
I like the way you say "including QPR" as if they barely count as a football team. :lol:
Click to expand...
I just assumed an over the hill old defender playing for QPR is a bit more likely to collect a booking than playing for dominant United/Bayern sides :wenger:
 
Van Dijk is great at avoiding making any defensive actions at all and standing off players.

Whenever he does though, he makes a foul.
 
The Law of Denis said:
Rio was amazing for this, he would go months without conceding a foul, never mind a yellow.
Click to expand...
Yeah, his reading of the game was superb. Loved players like him (and carrick) who were so proactive with their reading and understanding of the game, and their positioning.


Amar__ said:
Van Dijk is great at avoiding making any defensive actions at all and standing off players.

Whenever he does though, he makes a foul.
Click to expand...

:lol:
I used to think Kompany, but whenever he got dragged out of defence he would always make the same exact foul out wide. Not sure how many bookings he picked up.

Jaap Stam is one i dont remember getting many yellow cards. Id need to search his stats for us, and obviously not too sure about elsewhere. But certainly in the league for us its probably just about double digit yellows.
 
VVD defensive technique will ensure he gets no yellows. Can’t get a yellow if you stand 5 yards away at all times
 
Rio went something like 50 games without committing a foul.

I saw somewhere ages ago that Aaron Hughes who seemed to have played for about 37 years only got around 20 yellows in about 670 games and another 4 in over 100 games for Northern Ireland.
 
I think this is a very misleading metric. It was something talked about a lot with Rio when he first came to United, along with his ability to bring the ball into midfield and composure

However the truth is that he was at his best next to Vidic, who was very aggressive and would get booked and sent off. Its not that Rio was so good he didnt need to make challenges that would get him booked, its he simply chose not to and sometimes it would cost us and when we found Vidic we had someone who closed that weakness for Rio.
 
Thiago Silva has 52 yellows in 626 games for European clubs & the NT (tm stats).

Sent off twice - the double yellow vs West Brom and a rather ridiculous red for touching the ref in 2013.

Seemed less controlled in Brazil (more yellows & a few reds), but from his Milan days on certainly one of the cleanest & most in-control defenders.
 
I think we should consider pre/post Van Basten era, since post1993- the rules was so different from back then. The tackle from behind is also outlawed in 1998, so you could say post 1993 until present, the rules protect attacker more and it has made defenders life a lot difficult. Even you could say the difficultness level of booking from 2000s are different and harder than 2020s.

The old rules of booking especially before 1993 or 1994 made some defenders had very few both yellow/red cards. For example Scirea had only 3 yellow cards for Juventus and 4 yellow cards in national team, Beckenbauer had only 5 yellows in Bundesliga and 1 yellow card in national team and Ruud Krol who was a hard-tackling defender had only 6 yellow cards in his club career and 2 yellow cards in national team. If all of them come to play nowadays ( especially Krol) , they will receive more than 20 yellow cards.

For example Scirea's tackle Maradona, this is 100 percents red-card in today standard.



2.52
 
Last edited:
Gio said:
Aye. And a lot easier to get a yellow nowadays both with more attacker-friendly refereeing and higher lines forcing more tactical fouling.

Carlos Gamarra played 8 games across 2 World Cups in 98 and 02 and didn't concede a single foul.
Click to expand...

That's incredible! Paraguay were a defensive masterclass in France 98 with Chilavert, Arce and Celso Ayala in that backline, gave France a very hard game in the last 16 before Blanc scored golden goal.

Could be miles out but Cannavaro never seemed to get booked a huge amount as his anticipation was so good.
 
FootballHQ said:
That's incredible! Paraguay were a defensive masterclass in France 98 with Chilavert, Arce and Celso Ayala in that backline, gave France a very hard game in the last 16 before Blanc scored golden goal.

Could be miles out but Cannavaro never seemed to get booked a huge amount as his anticipation was so good.
Click to expand...
Surprisingly 125 yellows, 9 double-yellows and 6 straight reds in 677 games. Would have expected less.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fabio-cannavaro/leistungsdaten/spieler/5775
 
FootballHQ said:
That's incredible! Paraguay were a defensive masterclass in France 98 with Chilavert, Arce and Celso Ayala in that backline, gave France a very hard game in the last 16 before Blanc scored golden goal.
Click to expand...
Yeah absolutely. They came up against some stacked teams that summer too. And in his position he went head-to-head with Raul, Stoichkov and Henry, and always looked in total command.
 
Tom Cato said:
Lahm one booking per 13,3 matches
Rio one booking per 13,2 matches

Rio confirmed hoodlum
Click to expand...
Javier Zanetti 52 yellow and 1 red in 858 matches, roughly one every 16.2 matches

He played half of those matches in midfield though
 
John Terry. Could swear he never got yellows or reds in 2005-2011 despite committing a fortune of fouls that he got away with.

But seriously Rio is the first one that comes to mind. An absolute Rolls Royce of a defender.
 
Wasn't Gary Pallister really good on that front? Think one red around 96-97 but other than that :confused:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.