Winning headers is a key part of a defender’s game, especially in the Premier League where crosses and long balls are still more prevalent than in other competitions.

The CIES Football Observatory has created an index (ranked from 0 to 100) that assesses the aerial play of every centre-half in the world.

To work out the ranking, they used five metrics; the number of aerial duels won, aerial win %, game time, frequency of aerial duels based on their club stature, and the level of football they are playing at.

Press the next page as we look at the best five Premier League centre-backs by aerial dominance (according to CIES‘s index).