Revealed: West Ham’s best central defender

There is no doubt that West Ham have three decent centre-backs in Winston Reid, James Collins, and James Tomkins. But with injuries aplenty, each combination has been tried and tested. But who is the best of the three, and which two make the most effective partnership? There’s only one-way to find out – Statistics!

We’ll start with individual statistics, ranking the three centre-backs in order, over the different aspects of performance. Premier League ONLY.

Appearances – including substitute

1st James Tomkins 30

2nd James Collins 24

3rd Winston Reid 21

Goals 

1st James Collins / Winston Reid 1

3rd James Tomkins 0

Tackles Per Game – Centre-back Rank / Squad Rank ( out of 22) / Premier League Rank (out of 279)

Total amount of tackles comes into effect when two or more players have the same tackles per game.

1st James Collins – 2 – 3rd – 82nd

2nd James Tomkins – 1.7 – 6th – 112th

3rd Winston Reid – 1.1 – 11th – 185^th

Interceptions Per Game – Centre-back Rank / Squad Rank (out of 22) / Premier League Rank (out of 279)

Total amount of interceptions comes into effect when two or more players have the same interceptions per game.

1st Winston Reid – 1.9 – 2nd – 43rd

2nd James Tomkins – 1.5 – 4th – 86th

3rd James Collins – 0.8 – 9th – 164^th

Fouls Per Game – Centre-back Rank / Squad Rank (out of 22) / Premier League Rank (out of 279)

Total amount of fouls comes into effect when two or more players have the same fouls per game. As fouls are a negative statistic, the totals will be placed into reverse order.

1st James Collins – 0.7 – 10th – 90th

2nd James Tomkins – 0.8 – 14th – 137th

3rd Winston Reid – 1.1 – 18th – 198^th

Blocked Shots Per Game – Centre-back Rank / Squad Rank (out of 22) / Premier League Rank (out of 279)

Total amount of shots comes into effect when two or more players have the same shots per game.

1st James Collins – 1.3 – 1st – 2nd

2nd James Tomkins – 0.6 – 4th – 32nd

3rd Winston Reid – 0.6 – 6th – 34^th

Now onto comparing the stats when they have played together. Which paring has been the most effective?

Reid + Collins 

Appearances – 5

Clean Sheets – 3 (60%)

Goals Conceded – 4 (0.8pg)

Reid + Tomkins 

Appearances – 12

Clean Sheets – 4 (33%)

Goals Conceded – 15 (1.25pg)

Collins + Tomkins 

Appearances – 16

Clean Sheets – 6 (37.5%)

Goals Conceded – 22 (1.37pg)

Other

Appearances – 4

Clean Sheets – 1 (25%)

Goals Conceded – 8 (2pg)

Verdict 

The most used centre-back partnership is James Collins and James Tomkins with 16 appearances as a pairing.

It is also, however (excluding ‘other’), the partnership with the most ‘leaks’, conceding an average of 1.37 goals per game.

The most effective partnership is also the least used. James Collins and Winston Reid have only played five Premier League matches together this season but have kept a clean sheet in three of those (60%) and conceded just 0.8 goals per game on average.

Reid and Collins started the season as the preferred partnership and picked up their three clean sheets in the first four games of the Premier League season. Winston picked up an injury shortly after and since his return, he has not been partnered alongside his effective teammate since.

Bar interceptions per game, Winston Reid was placed last out of the three centre-backs in all of the chosen fields. However, you cannot deny that the partnership statistics between himself and James Collins are far and away the most impressive, and it is perhaps entirely down to injuries that they haven’t played more together. Something of note for Big Sam.

A rotation of goalkeepers and also the opponents faced should be taken into consideration, but still, these stats are an accurate representation.