All Time Premier League XI - Centre Back (no.6)

Selecting this All Time Premier League XI is becoming increasingly difficult. Anyone can go away and select XI players, and the truth is within 30 minutes of first discussing this with my friend I managed to put together a reasonable side... but the more I attempted to justify the players' positions, the more I realised I'd got things wrong. For example... Dan Petrescu? What was I thinking?!

My two centre-back positions were filled on instinct, and hopefully in reading this you can agree that my instincts have been fully justified. The centre-back pairing is far more important than the pairing of the central midfielders, or the centre-forwards, that is... you could have two individual centre-forwards that didn't necessarily compliment each other but were still succesful, and in midfield the role is in linking the defence and attack, and the fluidity of the game allows any pairing to fulfill this link. However, in defence it is imperative that the two players work well together, as a unit. One should be the aggressor, that attacks everything in the air, and throws himself into challenges and blocks. The other, should be the cover, has a perfect reading of the game and knows when to intercept. This is evident at Chelsea with Terry and Carvalho, at Manchester United with Vidic and Ferdinand, and many more.

The first of the pairing I will select is the aggressor, and I will begin with the ulimate body stopper Colin Hendry. Hendry may have looked like Pat Butcher, and weighed about the same, but he was an extremely good Premier League defender (albeit at a time when the quality of attackers wasn't so high). Blackburn played a simple defensive game, they defended deep to allow no room in behind, and threw themselves at anything the opposition had going through the middle. At the time, Hendry was probably the best defender in the league for getting himself in the way. However, since then we've had the rise of John Terry.

There's not much left to say about Terry's ability, although no-one really speaks of his ability as a defender anymore, merely his abilities for leading his country. A strong candidate to be the full-time England Captain, Terry has become Mr. Chelsea - his whole career being dedicated to turning Chelsea into the greatest team in the world, the kind of loyalty that anyone can admire, and we all wish Gareth Barry could possess. Terry has a "never-say-die" attitude, willing to stop the opposition at all costs, and often risking personal injury for the good of the team (highlighted by the image). Most modern day football fans would have Terry as a dead cert for the All Time Premier League XI... however I have some reservations about Terry under pressure. Exhibit A would be the Euro 2004 defeat to Portugal, where I feel Terry lost his sense of positioning at a time of desperation, and Helder Postiga nipped in to equalise. Exhibit B is the Community Shield 2006 defeat to Liverpool when Peter Crouch made minimal effort in losing Terry to score the 80th minute winner. Finally Exhibit C-hampions League. You can make all the excuses you want about the pitch, and the rain, but the simple truth is Terry missed that penalty.

Given the evident case for John Terry, there can only be a few players that make the grade ahead of him, in fact only one. Tony "Mr. Arsenal" Adams. Back in the early 90s when Arsenal's ground was commonly referred to as "Highbury the Library", Adams was leading the most formidable defence that the country had ever seen, helping Arsenal to win the old First Division twice and the FA Cup and League Cup Double in 1993. However during a baron spell for Arsenal in the mid 90s, Adams still lead a very strong defence with his ability to hold a tight line, win the ball in the air, make key interceptions and play the ball out of defence. Adams had become England Captain in this time, and was unlucky not to lead England to success at Euro 96. At Highbury, eventually Arsene Wenger came in, and Arsenal's whole ethos of football was revolutionised. The team no longer were focussing on keeping clean sheets, they were focussed on beautiful football and entertainment. This didn't affect Adams' defensive unit. Adams continued to be a force whilst also being able to adapt to the new regime, and nothing epitomised this more than on the last day of the 1998 season vs Everton, when Steve Bould played through Tony Adams to chest the ball down and score the winning goal to confirm Arsenal as Premier League Champions.

Tony Adams was more than just a great player of his time, he has also left a legacy at Arsenal that year on year defenders are trying to live up to, the kind of legacy that inspired Arsenal to go the whole season undefeated in the Premier League 2003/04.

On-Football's All Time Premier League Centre-back (no.6) is Tony Adams.