We continue our comparison of the top performers in the Premier League and this time around we look forward to comparing a couple of defensive stalwarts for their teams. John Terry has been one of the best defenders in the league despite his age, he has led from the front for Chelsea and looks set to extend his contract at Chelsea.
While Terry will be enjoying his season as Chelsea look set to win another Premier League title, Laurent Koscielny has certainly been Arsenal’s best central defender this season despite a lot of doubts about his ability to deal with the Premier League.
England vs. France
Koscielny has played 9 games fewer than John Terry this season and we would be comparing the duo using Squawka stats with only averages from games being used as if we stuck to complete stats, Terry would run away with the title of the better defender, as per stats.
When it comes to tough tackling, it is Terry who wins the duel as he averages 1.14 tackles per game while Koscileny averages 0.85 tackles won per game. The trend of being better at tackling continues with the Chelsea captain, stamping his authority as he doesn’t lose as many tackles as the Frenchman. Terry loses just 0.59 tackles per game while Koscielny loses out on 1.15 tackles per game, more than double the amount when compared with Terry. Terry also averages more blocks per game when compared to the Arsenal defender. Terry averages 0.79 blocks per game while Koscielny averages only 0.5 blocks per game.
It is not all doom and gloom for the Frenchman, it seems that he is better in the air when compared with John Terry. Koscielny wins 3.05 aerial duels per game while Terry only wins on an average of 2.6 aerial duels per game, a slightly surprising stat. Koscielny seems to read the passes of the opponents better as well since he averages 3.55 interceptions per game while Terry has an extremely low figure for this stat as he averages only 0.72 interceptions per game. Koscielny also is better at clearances with him averaging roughly 6.3 clearances per game while Terry averages 5.6 clearances per game.
When it comes to passing out from the back, both players have an equal pass completion percentage with Terry just shading it with 89% completed passes compared to Koscielny’s 88%. It seems the Englishman is better defending on the ground while Koscielny is better in the air but surprisingly, Koscielny gets more interceptions per game, proving that he does read the opposition better than Terry.