Who should play centre back for England? Stats provide the answer

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Players from Everton, Manchester City, Burnley and Chelsea are currently competing for places.

Friday evening sees England taking on Scotland in their latest World Cup qualifying fixture.

They head into the game with a number of questions over the current squad and the team that Gareth Southgate should choose.

The centre back position is one in which there is plenty of competition, with many feeling the lack of quality makes picking a first choice pairing hard.

Everton’s Phil Jagielka in action

This current squad has Everton’s Phil Jagielka, Manchester City’s John Stones, Burnley’s Michael Keane and Chelsea’s Gary Cahill all competing to start.

So who should Southgate go with for the game against Scotland? Here’s how they compare in the stats.

It is Jagielka who has registered the most won tackles per game, with a score of 1.09 compared to the other three’s score of 0.6.

He also comes out on top in terms of defensive duels won per game, 6.1 compared to five for Stones, 4.9 for Cahill and 2.3 for Keane and aerial duels.

Keane is top for interceptions per game, with a score of 2.3 comparing favourably to Stones’ 1.9, Cahill’s 1.5 and Jagielka’s 1.4.

It is Stones who comes out on top in the other four areas, though, posting the most ball recoveries and winning the ball in the defensive third the most often.

He has also managed the most accurate passes per game and enjoyed the highest overall passing accuracy of the four.

With the City man topping four charts and Jagielka three, the answer is clear; Southgate should be reuniting the former Everton centre-back pairing in his England team.

Manchester City’s John Stones