Premier League best XI - centre-backs: vote for this season's best central defender

In the third instalment of our ‘Best of’ series, we choose the season’s best centre backs, with voters selecting the top two performers from this season.

Last week, Liverpool ’s Trent Alexander-Arnold bossed the competition, taking home more than 80% of the vote. His election alongside teammate Alisson means the 2021/22 Premier League Team of the Season is 2/2 for Reds...

Jurgen Klopp would not be surprised.

Vote for your centre back of the season below to include him in the 21/22 Best of XI.

There's a theory making the rounds that some strikers simply look at Virgil van Dijk and wonder what's the point.

This season, Van Dijk has played every league minute, the only Reds player to do so alongside Alisson. He has helped his side to 14 clean sheets, recorded three goals and ranks amongst the top 10 for clearances and interceptions. And on the weekend, he set a new Premier League record of 60 home matches on a non-losing side (52 victories and eight draws).

The figure is astonishing, and representative of the transformational nature of van Dijk’s £75million from Southampton in 2018. Where other big money moves have fallen short of their price tags, the Netherlands international continues to over qualify his.

The 24-year-old Portuguese defender has been an institution in Pep Guardiola’s title-hunting Manchester City, playing every league minute available to him whilst leading the league in pass success rate (nearly 95%) and ranking second in total number of passes.

With an 83% tackle success rate from 30 tackles, Dias' tactical awareness and aplomb belie his age, as does his confidence to step out of the backline, emphasised by his near 6,000 yards of progressive carries this season and three league assists, a stat