Nemanja Vidic, Manchester United legend, reveals his top five current Premier League defenders

According to Nemanja Vidic, Arsenal's William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes are among the top five central defenders in the Premier League right now.

Vidic is widely regarded as one of the best centre-backs of the Premier League era having won five league titles as well as the Champions League during his time at Manchester United.

Alongside Saliba and Gabriel, Vidic named Tottenham’s Micky van de Ven, Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk and Manchester City’s Ruben Dias as the other three best Premier League centre-backs in his top five in an interview with CGTN Sports Scene.

Van de Ven set the record for the fastest player in Premier League history in January as he clocked a speed of 37.38 km/h during Tottenham’s clash with Brentford.

Van Dijk has established himself as one of the best Premier League centre-backs since his £75 million move to Liverpool in 2017 and helped Jurgen Klopp’s side win six trophies, including the Premier League and the Champions league.

Dias has been a key part of the Manchester City team that has won nine trophies in the last four seasons, including four Premier League titles in a row.

Meanwhile, Vidic has revealed how he needed to adapt to the difficulties of facing different Premier League strikers following his £7 million move from Spartak Moscow to United in January 2006.

‘You have to adapt and change, if you go to Italy it’s not the same football,’ Vidic said in an interview with his former United teammate Rio Ferdinand.

‘If you expect always that players will adapt just to your game, like Berba [Dimitar Berbatov], because Berba believes people should adapt to his game because he understands the way he’s playing is the best way to play.

‘That was the issue for him, the players didn’t like that he always wanted the ball to feet and he would pass for people to run behind, but sometimes players would tell him to run. Sometimes you have to do both, to be accepted to the group you have to do both things.

‘When I came obviously I had an issue with not playing in Europe on a big stage, I played in Russia so people didn’t know about my game.

‘I didn’t start well, so I had to adapt, to train hard, to find my way, to pick up my confidence, first pass, header, slowly you win.

‘I was watching the games of the teams I would play in the next match to prepare because I didn’t know many players I was playing against. One game I would have Berba, who I know who would never run behind, then you have Peter Crouch, then you have fast players like Craig Bellamy, it was every game I would have a different player.

‘If you play in Italy more or less you have similar players, you have a No.9 who is going to come to the ball or run in behind, more tricky players, so I had to learn all players and try to understand the way they’re playing.’

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