With Gabriel and William Saliba being lauded by pundits, Liverpool fans have made a salient point when comparing their stats to those of Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez.
It is clear that Arsenal‘s partnership of Saliba and Gabriel is one of the best around at the moment.
Pundits and media have been praising them from the rooftops and while they do deserve credit, Liverpool supporters have been making the point that perhaps they are going overboard, especially when you consider the Reds’ centre-back pairings in recent years.
Just how good are Saliba and Gabriel as a Premier League centre-back pairing?
One of the best in recent times… pic.twitter.com/cepca76uuy
— Aurel Nazmiu (@AurelNz) September 23, 2024
This graphic shows the top 10 Premier League defensive partnerships of the last 10 years based on expected goals conceded over at least 17 matches.
The metric is good to measure teams and pairings by because it gives some indication of how well the defenders are reading the game and cutting out potential goalscoring opportunities.
As we can see, Saliba and Gabriel rank strongly, but it is Van Dijk and Matip’s partnership in 2021/22 that comes out at the top.
Joe Gomez and Van Dijk’s partnership in 2019/20, the year Liverpool won the league, is also ranked highly as they conceded less than one expected goal per game.
“Best in the league” comments
It would be wise not to listen to Man United legend Gary Neville too closely as a Liverpool supporter.
However, many fans made an objection to his comments when Arsenal played Man City, as he labelled Gabriel and Saliba as the two “best centre-backs in the league.”
We shouldn’t underplay their performances for the Gunners, but they are playing in a system that gives them plenty of support and doesn’t leave them massively exposed.
If you were to put them in Van Dijk’s shoes last year, when he was frequently left exposed, they almost certainly wouldn’t have been able to perform at the Dutchman’s level.
The Liverpool captain and his partner, Ibrahima Konate, have begun this season in excellent form also, something Neville should take note of.
So far in this Premier League campaign, Liverpool’s Frenchman has won 18 of his 20 aerial duels (90 percent) as opposed to Saliba who has won eight of 14 (57 percent).
Meanwhile, Van Dijk has won 21 of 29, with Gabriel winning just six of 11.
Liverpool have also conceded just one goal in five games while Arsenal have let in three.
It is, of course, early days and defences can’t only be measured in statistics as they require help from the rest of the team.
But to assert that Saliba and Gabriel are the best in the league while Van Dijk is playing at his current level seems wide of the mark, and that’s before you even consider Konate’s form.
