Forget about last season, is Phil Jones the best centre-back in the Premier League at the moment?

[LilyWhiteSpur]

Lovren, Matip, Gomez, Mustafi, Mertersacker and Stones in a list of the best in the country shows the caliber of the competition. Far from certain that I would take the Liverpool options over Lindelof and Blind, the Utd 5th and 6th choice.

Alderwereld needs to prove his quality in Europe and through actually achieving something of note, the whole Spurs team do. They get a very easy press but they have come to the fore in one of the weakest eras of PL football and have won nothing. Koscieleny, Kompany and Alderweireld might be the best but there are questions over all 3. Utd probaly have 4 of the best 10-15 in the league.

How exactly is the last few years been the weakest on PL history? I'd say as a whole the last 2-3 years have been the strongest the PL has been. Look at the managers currently working in the PL? The money being spent? Really don't see how having 4-5 teams vying for the league rather than just 1 or 2 makes the league weaker.

As for the defender issue, just to note Vertongin has been easily our best defender this season.

 

[RU Devil]

No. He's on a good run of form, but I'd think a majority of PL managers would pick Alderweireld ahead of him, but probably not Vertonghen. At least most of the top 6 managers would go for Alderweireld, as he's more assured on the ball, but Jose probably would chose Jones as he just shades Toby a bit as a pure defender. Other PL managers might chose one or the other, depending on how much they use their CB to initiate play vs having a solid bulwark at the back.

Of course, as noted above, he's not even the best CB on Utd, and could be 3rd best when Rojo comes back.

 

[Aidan Azar]

Where's Azpilicueta? Christensen and Rudiger are better than half the listed ones too.

 

[JMack1234]

I do really like his natural defensive instincts and the way he doesn't care how he does it as long as he manages to defend the goal (insert obvious Giroud ground header gif). I'll just be waiting to see if manages to keep this performance level up for the season and whether he'll manage to stay fit for the season the latter of which I seriously doubt.

He's probably been one of the best defenders in the first 6 games of this season but I don't think he's the best defender in the league and if i'm honest I don't think he's in the top 5.

 

[Ramshock]

Phil Jones has always been a good CB but unfortunately people equate injuries with talent

 

[Ramshock]

No.

Great post

 

[Rake]

Every time that Jones plays well, he subsequently gets injured. I think he has quite a bit of talent but he just can't stay fit enough. He needs to play a season with 45-50 games while performing at his current level or better to be considered of the best in the EPL.

If currently means since the start of the season- he is surely one of the best

 

[Deleted member 101472]

No. Delete the thread

 

[Minimalist]

He's been (overall) very good this season. Still has managed to have the odd gaffe already though so I'll wait to see how his season unfolds.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Phil Jones is the don. Bailly, Rojo and Smalling are merely foot soldiers in this war.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

Currently he's one of the best but it's been 6 games. Only have to look at Chris Smalling to see what happens when we overrate our defenders too quick. I'm still not convinced he's a better CB than Rojo.

 

[Slimcharles69]

Alderweireld is comfortably the best center back in the league but other than him I think Jones matches up well against the rest when healthy of course

 

[Attila]

How exactly is the last few years been the weakest on PL history? I'd say as a whole the last 2-3 years have been the strongest the PL has been. Look at the managers currently working in the PL? The money being spent? Really don't see how having 4-5 teams vying for the league rather than just 1 or 2 makes the league weaker.

As for the defender issue, just to note Vertongin has been easily our best defender this season.

PL was stronger 10 years ago. Between 06-09, 9 of the 12 CL semi finalists were English teams. How could the past 2 or 3 years be the strongest in PL history when you have a team like Leicester competing with 2 bottler teams like Spurs and Arsenal for the title

 

[The Brown Bull]

No.

 

[OL29]

He's definitely up there. I don't think there's a real standout amongst him, Bailly, Aldeweireld, Koscielny, Van Dijk etc.

 

[stu_1992]

Looks good at the moment, but not over a long enough period to make any real judgement.

 

[JJ12]

Needs to be revisited Christmas time minimum but probably better off looking back at this at the end of the year.

Started the season well though.

 

[#07]

Thread definitely needs a poll.

 

[meamth]

and how the heck John Stones in that list?

 

[Varun]

It's 6 games ffs. Even if you wanted to create a thread to appraise him, the word "form" has to feature there.

 

[2E_MUFC]

Mangala is in the that list but no Otamendi?

 

[andycolegangstainnit]

He played well last season with Rojo and so far this time (other than that mistake for Stoke's 2nd goal).
If he can stay fit them him and Bailly would be as good a pair as any in the Prem. I know the LvG era and last season weren't great but we've defended really well in that period despite not having a settled back line. Blind and Rojo have done well also when they've stepped in.
I think Bailly is our best CB though

 

[Bubz27]

Even this season, we were all over the place v Stoke.

If the best CB in the league has been part of that shambles, that's an issue for PL centre backs.

However, I can't exactly put forward a lot of others.

 

[Ramshock]

Every time that Jones plays well, he subsequently gets injured. I think he has quite a bit of talent but he just can't stay fit enough. He needs to play a season with 45-50 games while performing at his current level or better to be considered of the best in the EPL.

If currently means since the start of the season- he is surely one of the best

See what I mean OP?

 

[el3mel]

He's in a great form now but doesn't mean becoming the best in the league.

 

[GM K]

No. Delete the thread

Why?

It's a relevant question considering Jones' form in comparison with the other top defenders this season and it will still be worth looking at at the end of the year or the season.

 

[GM K]

See what I mean OP?

What do you mean?

 

[GM K]

It's 6 games ffs. Even if you wanted to create a thread to appraise him, the word "form" has to feature there.

'At the moment' = form.

Twenty games from now, it will still mean the same thing.

 

[AndyJ1985]

The knee jerk opinions and hyperbole on this forum are ridiculous.

 

[SwansonsTache]

No, not at all.

Probably would be by some margin if he wasn't suffering from the same syndrome as that guy in "Unbreakable" though.

 

[Frank Grimes]

A lot of Spurs fans maintain that Vertonghen outperformed Alderweireld last season.

 

[2 man midfield]

One of the criteria used when assessing the best centre back in the league is surely consistency and longevity. If he keeps this form up until the end of the season and plays each game, he's up there. But right now I wouldn't say he is.

 

[Camilo]

Best for me. Certainly there's not a team in the league he wouldn't start for. Not sure there's a team in the world who wouldn't want him.

 

[krazyrobus]

Nope, the Spurs' duo is still the best for me.

 

[Jaybomb]

On form? It would be hard to argue against United's back four. They haven't lost a game all season.

Talent wise? Nah. The likes of Luiz, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Kompany and Van Dijk are comfortably ahead of him in my opinion.

Phil Jones is in the same tier as the likes of Stones, Smalling, Michael Keane, Shawcross etc. A decent "proper English" CB but never in the elite category. He just doesn't have that special something about him. Too average and sticks out like a sore thumb in big European games that are packed with world class talent.

He's doing extremely well at the minute so I can't say too much about him when his current form is fresh in everyone else's mind. But if you ask me, Rojo is a much better CB than Jones and will more than likely regain his spot alongside Bailly when he returns from injury.

 

[Varun]

'At the moment' = form.

Twenty games from now, it will still mean the same thing.

You missed my point. 6 games is way too less to have any 'best in the league' discussion.

 

[Godfather]

No. Still too many brainfarts and not good enough in the air. He is in very good form though and I like him as a player. Good CB to have.

 

[Bobski]

How exactly is the last few years been the weakest on PL history? I'd say as a whole the last 2-3 years have been the strongest the PL has been. Look at the managers currently working in the PL? The money being spent? Really don't see how having 4-5 teams vying for the league rather than just 1 or 2 makes the league weaker.

As for the defender issue, just to note Vertongin has been easily our best defender this season.

Leicester City won the PL.

They were a decent team and deserve all the credit they get but they won it because of the collapse of all the big teams. The standard at the top of the league has been dreadful in these post Fergie years. Utd, Arsenal, City, Liverpool all having terrible spells, shown by CL performance and the turnover of managers. Fairly average Chelsea teams have won the league twice.

4-5 teams vying for the league has not happened, and it does not necessarily denote strength if it does, being the best of a mediocre bunch does not make a team great. It looks like Utd, City and maybe Chelsea could possibly and finally be turning the money spent into an upturn in quality. Standard of the league overall is still poor, bottom half will be a wasteland .

I like Spurs, but they will rarely get a better chance to achieve something tangible than they have had in the last couple of years. The top teams going through transition and Spurs with a strong starting line up. It is a missed opportunity.

 

[slored1]

Vertonghen has been quite underrated here. He has been imperious for Spurs in last couple months, probably even better than Alderweireld.

 

[Raoul]

Alderweireld
Vertonghen
Luiz
Cahill
Koscielny
Mertesacker
Mustafi
Stones
Kompany
Mangala
Lovren
Matip
Gomez
Bailly
Jones

Is Phil Jones currently the best center back in the Premier League?

Why do these threads keep appearing after only a few games in ? Why not wait until we have a half a season at least before asking the question.