How John Terry Compares to 13 other English Centre Backs

Having been stripped of his captaincy for a second time last week, ongoing rumours of potential international retirement for the Chelsea defender and debates whether he should be going to the European Championships or not, here is how John Terry matches up to 13 other English centre backs competing for a place in the England squad at Euro 2012:

 

Player	Premier League Games	Tackles	Interceptions	Fouls	Clearances	Dribbled Past	Blocks	Clean Sheets	Yellow Cards	Red Cards
John Terry	22	43	44	18	118	13	18	6	7	0
Gary Cahill	20	14	44	17	190	6	25	2	2	1
Michael Dawson	5	6	14	2	55	2	7	2	1	0
Anton Ferdinand	17	26	32	10	179	4	15	4	1	0
Rio Ferdinand	16	17	35	8	129	4	9	7	3	0
Phil Jagielka	19	37	46	9	155	6	9	4	2	0
Phil Jones	19	41	37	7	85	10	11	8	2	0
Ledley King	14	13	26	6	84	0	14	5	0	0
Joleon Lescott	21	33	29	23	104	8	15	7	1	0
Ryan Shawcross	22	30	16	25	299	6	19	7	5	0
Chris Smalling	14	16	18	18	4	7	7	5	1	0
Steven Taylor	14	11	14	7	110	2	28	4	1	0
Michael Turner	10	18	18	11	68	5	9	4	2	0
Matt Upson	7	8	10	5	54	2	6	2	1	0

As the table shows, only Ryan Shawcross has played as many Premier League games as the now former England captain this season, and no player has made as many tackles as the 43 John Terry has made for Chelsea in those 22 games.

However, he has been dribbled past on 13 occasions this season; 3 more than his the next closest rival Phil Jones, who has played in central midfield and right back this season; increasing this likelihood. Tottenham’s Ledley King is yet to be dribbled past in 14 games this season.

John Terry’s 7 yellow cards is a joint-Premier League high, with Wigan’s Gary Caldwell through 24 games.

Everton’s Phil Jagielka has been a ball hawk this season; intercepting 46 passes from opponents this season; 2 more than both Terry and his new Chelsea team mate, Gary Cahill. Stoke’s Ryan Shawcross does not fare too well in this category.

Here’s a table to show how these statistics average out per game:

 

Player	Tackles	Interceptions	Fouls	Clearances	Dribbled Past	Blocks	Clean Sheets	Yellow Cards	Red Cards
John Terry	2.0	2.0	0.8	5.4	0.6	0.8	0.27	0.3	0.0
Gary Cahill	0.7	2.2	0.9	9.5	0.3	1.3	0.10	0.1	0.1
Michael Dawson	1.2	2.8	0.4	11.0	0.4	1.4	0.40	0.2	0.0
Anton Ferdinand	1.5	1.9	0.6	10.5	0.2	0.9	0.24	0.1	0.0
Rio Ferdinand	1.1	2.2	0.5	8.1	0.3	0.6	0.44	0.2	0.0
Phil Jagielka	1.9	2.4	0.5	8.2	0.3	0.5	0.21	0.1	0.0
Phil Jones	2.2	1.9	0.4	4.5	0.5	0.6	0.42	0.1	0.0
Ledley King	0.9	1.9	0.4	6.0	0.0	1.0	0.36	0.0	0.0
Joleon Lescott	1.6	1.4	1.1	5.0	0.4	0.7	0.33	0.0	0.0
Ryan Shawcross	1.4	0.7	1.1	13.6	0.3	0.9	0.32	0.2	0.0
Chris Smalling	1.1	1.3	1.3	0.3	0.5	0.5	0.36	0.1	0.0
Steven Taylor	0.8	1.0	0.5	7.9	0.1	2.0	0.29	0.1	0.0
Michael Turner	1.8	1.8	1.1	6.8	0.5	0.9	0.40	0.2	0.0
Matt Upson	1.1	1.4	0.7	7.7	0.3	0.9	0.29	0.1	0.0

Only Phil Jones (2.2) averages more tackles per game than the Chelsea centre back. Alarmingly, Gary Cahill (0.7) is one of only three players to average less than 1 successful tackle per game.

Michael Dawson averages 2.8 interceptions per game – but the Spurs defender has only played in 5 games so far this season, with Ledley King being fit enough to play in 14 and Younes Kaboul coming into good form this season. Terry fares well in this category also.

Manchester United’s Chris Smalling is committing the most fouls and making the fewest clearances per game of the 14 English players on the list.

Steven Taylor was impressively blocking 2 shots per game before rupturing his Achilles at the start of December.

Statistics certainly aren’t the be all and end all of football, but they make interesting reading. Whether you take them into account or not, I would like to know which 4/5 centre backs you would like Fabio Capello to take with him to Poland/Ukraine in the summer. Please leave your choices with a comment below…

Data provided by Opta Sports