By Opta Analyst | Created at 2025-03-18 13:42:13 | Updated at 2025-03-20 15:40:42
2 days ago
It’s not uncommon to see rankings for the best dribblers in the Premier League, but what about assessing how good players are when defending against them? We look at the best and worst in the competition this season.
Everyone loves a player who takes the ball and runs at the opposition. There’s a surge of excitement when your star player picks up possession in space and begins a mazy run at a defender… but wait! They’re stopped in their tracks by a sensational tackle.
Dribbling is a statistic that’s often analysed and spoken about, but the ability to successfully halt a dribbler with a fair tackle is often undervalued by fans.
Of course, it’s possible to assess which players are the most successful at facing dribblers, too. To do that, we have to look at the total number of “true tackles” attempted by players, which is a sum of successful tackles (where possession is regained or when the ball goes out of play and is safe), challenges lost (where a player attempts a tackle and doesn’t connect with the ball) and fouls when attempting a tackle.
Firstly, we should explain how we define a dribble at Opta.
A dribble is an attempt by a player to beat an opponent when they have possession of the ball. A successful dribble means the player beats the defender while retaining possession; unsuccessful ones are where the dribbler is dispossessed.
We also collect attempted dribbles, where the player overruns the ball with a heavy touch when trying to beat an opponent, but these won’t be included when assessing the players that defend against dribbles.
The Best at Defending Against Dribblers
So, who have been the best at defending against dribblers in the Premier League this season?
While some of the top 10 players won’t come as much of a surprise, the top one-v-one defender in the competition in 2024-25 isn’t a name many would expect to see there.
When considering those who have faced at least 50 dribble attempts by opponents, Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Toti Gomes is the most successful player at dispossessing dribblers in the Premier League this season.
The Portugal international has played 1,805 minutes in the competition this season, with 88% of those in a central defensive role. He’s dispossessed his opponents with 42 of the 52 dribbles he’s faced (80.8%), with only six occasions of a player being able to dribble past him and the remaining four seeing him commit a foul to stop his opponent.
William Saliba is currently considered one of the best defenders in Europe, so it’s no shock to see him ranked second with a 78.1% success rate in dispossessing dribblers. He’s joined in the top five by another central defender in Fulham’s Calvin Bassey (73.3%).
Most dribbles occur on either side of the pitch rather than in the middle, so it won’t come as a surprise to learn that full-backs often face more than those who play centrally. Two of the top full-backs in the Premier League this season for dispossessing players in dribble situations both qualify to play for England, but neither made Thomas Tuchel’s first squad.
Crystal Palace’s Tyrick Mitchell has faced the most dribbles (95) of the top 10 but has kept up a 77.9% success rate in dispossessing his opponents, while West Ham’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka has prevailed in 76.1% of those challenges. Both Bassey (75.4%) and Mitchell (75.0%) featured in the top four players for defending against dribblers last season in the Premier League, too, while Wan-Bissaka has been in the top 10 defenders in each of the last three seasons.
Mitchell also had the best defensive performance against dribblers in a single Premier League match this season. Of all players who successfully dispossessed their opponent in 100% of dribbles faced in a given match, he faced the most when winning all nine of his one-v-one battles at Everton in September 2024. Six different Everton players attempted to dribble past Mitchell in this match but none succeeded.
Of the top 10, only one has played the majority of his minutes in central midfield. Mario Lemina’s Premier League career could be over now, however, following his move from Wolves to Galatasaray in February.
Which Players Get Beaten the Most Often?
Unsurprisingly, a collection of attack-minded players dominate the rankings for worst players at defending against dribblers.
Fulham’s Andreas Pereira has been the easiest player to beat with a dribble (of those to have faced 50+) in the competition in 2024-25, with the Brazilian winning the battle with just 22 of 66 attempts faced (33.3%).
Looking specifically at central defenders, Leicester City’s Wout Faes is the only player to have faced 50+ dribbles and lost out more often than he’s been successful in dispossessing the opponent. The Belgian has legally won 33 of 67 dribbles faced (49.3%).
Spare a thought for Trent Alexander-Arnold, too. The Liverpool player has been dribbled past a league-high 53 times in the Premier League this season, but he still wins more of his battles than he loses (54.9%). Nearly a quarter of those 53 came in a single game, when he was dribbled past 12 times away at Manchester City on 23 February (winning 2/14 overall), with 10 of those being by Jérémy Doku. No other player has been dribbled past more than six times in a Premier League game in 2024-25.
Since data collection on this metric began in 2013-14, this is the most dribbles past a single opponent by a player in a Premier League match. Liverpool won 2-0, though, as Doku ended on the losing side, so who’s the real winner?
Alexander-Arnold plays fair though, only committing a foul with two of the 122 dribbles that he’s come up against – the lowest proportion of fouls to dribbles faced by any of the 146 players to have come up against at least 50 this season (1.6%).
John McGinn is worth a mention here, too. The Aston Villa midfielder has committed a foul to stop his opponent in 38.7% of his 62 faced, a higher proportion than any other player. He might not win the ball, but he won’t let anyone easily drift past him.
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