Top 5 Serie A Centre Backs for Defensive Stats Combined

The second installment of a feature looking at the best centre backs from last season with regards to purely defensive statistics looks at the Serie A's most dominant defenders.

Both Milan clubs are represented in the league's best 5, with champions AC possessing 2 of the leading centre-backs. Cagliari and Udinese are the remaining two sides with a player in the leader board.

Lucio
Leading the way in Italy last term was Inter Milan's Lucio, who topped the charts in shots blocked per game alongside Mario Yepes (0.73) and stood alone as the best in terms of interceptions (5.03). Considering the fact that Inter were under pressure significantly less than the league's lower sides, his stats in this regard are all the more impressive. His superior concentration levels meant that, despite making 30 appearances, he did not make a single error that led to either a shot or a goal.

Of the leading 5, Lucio ranked bottom in terms of clearances made despite notching 6.37 per game, highlighting the limited amount of opposition threats his side faced last season. An area in which he could have done better lays in his aerial success, as he lost more aerial duels per game than any of the other contenders in this regard.

Mario Yepes

Experienced AC Milan centre-back Mario Yepes was only called upon 11 times last season but when required he performed admirably. He equalled Lucio's leading figure of 0.73 blocks per game, impressive once again considering he played for the eventual league champions. His ability in the air was also a key feature to his success having won far more duels per game than his competitors with 3.18. In fact, he only won 1 less header than Lucio in almost a third of the appearances. In his limited game time he only lost 8 aerial contests.

His all round stats were very good, meaning he finished last in none of the defensive categories between the 5, though perhaps his most disappointing score lays in his interceptions per game, ranking 4th with 2.36.

Davide Astori
Cagliari's Astori is the only player on the list whose team finished outside the top 4, unlike the Premier League equivalent with 3 players represented from outside the European places. He made more appearances than any of the other contenders, missing just 2 games, and led the way in terms of clearances made (10.56), an impressive figure despite the circumstances of playing for a weaker side. His combined total of 87 aerial duels was far higher than the rest and having won 58 of those, he finished second in terms of headers per game to Yepes.

The defender's concentration could be called into question having been the only player on the list to make errors leading to opposition shots (2) and goals (1). He also ranked 4th in terms of fouls made per game but this could be attributed to the fact that he made the second most tackles out of the 5 with 106.

Thiago Silva

AC Milan's leading centre-back in their title chase was Brazilian Thiago Silva, who played in 31 games last season. His stand out statistics show that he lost less aerial duels per game than any of the other 4 players at (0.48) having been beaten to a header just 15 times over the campaign. Silva was also the least controversial in terms of fouls conceded having given away a minimal 25 free-kicks in 31 appearances, just 0.81 per game.

The fact that he played for the league winners held a bearing on his 5th position finishes in terms of blocks per game (0.45), interceptions per game (2.29) and tackles per game (1.94). However his statistic in the latter could suggest a slight weakness in his game, with the player's at fellow leading clubs such as Lucio and team-mate Yepes completing considerably more challenges a match on average.

Mehdi Benatia
Udinese's Benatia was arguably one of the league's toughest tacklers, completing 110 in all over the course of the season, despite his side finishing 4th in the league. His 32 appearances mean that this total gives him a considerable lead over his competitors in terms of tackles per game with an excellent figure of 3.44. The 24-year-old also proved his concentration levels by being the only other player alongside Lucio not to make any errors leading to shots or goals.

The facet in which he came out worst by some distance was his tendency to give away fouls, largely due to the amount of tackles he attempted. In conceding 76 fouls over the season he racked up an average of 2.38 fouls conceded per game, which is certainly a weakness in his defensive statistics. His other main fault lays in his aerial success, having won just 26 contests over the season, averaging 0.81 per game in comparison to Yepes' leading figure of 3.18.