Who are the Premier League’s best left-backs right now?

The Premier League is home to some of the world’s best left-backs.

Some of football’s most talented full-backs have graced the Premier League, from Denis Irwin to Ashley Cole to Leighton Baines and everyone in between.

But who are the standout left-backs right now?

With the 2024/25 season now underway, here are the best-performing left-backs in the Premier League ranked by their Squawka Score since the start of last season. Only players with 1,755+ minutes (half of the possible minutes since the start of 2023/24) under their belts are considered.

5. Antonee Robinson

• Team: Fulham

• Squawka Score: 58%

Antonee Robinson has been one of Fulham’s most consistent players since their return to the Premier League and he continues to post excellent numbers at both ends of the pitch. He made more interceptions than any other player across Europe’s top seven leagues last season and was the only full-back to make the top 10.

He also set the Premier League record for most interceptions made in a single game (13) against Liverpool earlier in the campaign.

4. Lucas Digne 

Now aged 31, Lucas Digne has a fight on his hands to be first choice left-back at Aston Villa this season with the arrival of Ian Maatsen. However, after already seeing off Alex Moreno last campaign he will once again be up for the fight. He was involved in 33 of Villa’s 38 league games last term, including 27 starts and has begun 2024/25 with a strong performance against West Ham where he won five of his eight duels, made two tackles and created a big chance.

3. Diogo Dalot

Diogo Dalot’s versatility has been crucial to Manchester United through their injury crisis, playing both right-back and left-back under Erik ten Hag. The Portuguese defender featured in 36 of United‘s 38 league matches in 2023/24, ranking in the top two for his side in tackles, interceptions, successful crosses, duels won and successful passes ending in the final third.

His performance against Spurs back in January saw him become the first full-back to contest 9+ duels and win every single one of them in a Premier League match last season. Now with the signing of Mazaroui from Bayern, the Portuguese full-back now looks let to operate on the left-hand side even more for the 2024/25 campaign.

2. Andy Robertson

• Team: Liverpool
  

• Squawka Score: 70%

Andy Robertson who has long excelled in Jurgen Klopp’s system, now gets to play under another attack minded manager in Arne Slot. The Scot obviously can defend to an elite level, he just rarely needs to, flying forward at every opportunity and there are few in the world better — if any — than the Scotsman, let alone in the Premier League.

He has provided more assists than any other defender in the competition’s history and needs just two more to become the first player to reach the 60 mark.

=1. Oleksandr Zinchenko 

• Team: Arsenal 
  

• Squawka Score: 73%

The Ukranian has once again proven to Mikel Arteta that he should be the Gunners’ first choice left-back despite the signing of Ricardo Calafiori. Despite some instances where his defending let him down last season, Zinchenko’s attacking abilities have proven to be key to Arsenal, with him recent being called ‘Arsenal’s Trent Alexander-Arnold’.

=1. Josko Gvardiol

After needing a little bit of time to settle after joining from RB Leipzig, Josko Gvardiol is now in full flow and has shown exactly why Pep Guardiola wanted him at Man City.  The Croatian international was an attacking phenom towards the end of last season, scoring five goals in his last 10 games across all competitions as City won the Premier League title for a record-breaking four consecutive campaign.

Infact, he has scored more goals than any other Premier League defender across all competitions in 2024 and this record becomes even more insane when you realise none of those goals were scored with his strong foot.

Squawka Score metrics and weighting

We used Twenty3 Sport’s Discovery Tool to run a customised search. The Discovery Tool rates a player’s per 90 output in the metrics detailed below to produce a percentage score, referred to above as the Squawka Score.

Each player’s stats are compared to the average output of left-backs across the past three seasons of big-five European league football. The higher the score, the closer they rank to the 95th percentile and above for each metric.

We also weighted each stat from 1 to 5 to highlight the most important aspects of a left-back’s play style, with five being the most important.

Here are the metrics used and weighting given to each metric to come up with the overall Squawka Score:

• 5 – Ground duel success (%), Percentage of sequences featured in ending in shots, Percentage of sequences featured in ending in final third

• 4 – Aerial duel success (%), Non-penalty expected goals, Open-play expected assists

• 3 – Ball recoveries, Challenge lost (-), Passes into the penalty area, Tackles made, Successful passes into the final third

• 2 – Clearances attempted, Dispossessions in own half (-), Interceptions, Shots, Open-play chances created

• 1 – Open-play crosses attempted, Blocked crosses effective, Through ball attempted, Touches in the opposition box

(-) indicates a weighting that favours fewer instances within the relevant metric (e.g. fewest fouls conceded from tackles made)

To be awarded a score, a player must have reached the automatically calculated minutes threshold, in this case, 1,710 minutes in the Premier League during 2023/24.

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