{"id":50479,"date":"2021-09-21T16:05:26","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T15:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?p=50479"},"modified":"2021-09-21T15:57:35","modified_gmt":"2021-09-21T14:57:35","slug":"epl-rio-ferdinand-names-best-centre-back-in-the-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-rio-ferdinand-names-best-centre-back-in-the-premier-league","title":{"rendered":"EPL: Rio Ferdinand names best centre-back in the Premier League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\">Nigeria<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Manchester United legend, Rio Ferdinand has named Chelsea defender, Antonio Rudiger as the best centre-back in the Premier League since the arrival of Thomas Tuchel at Stamford Bridge last January.<\/p>\n<p>Ferdinand stated this ahead of Chelsea\u2019s Carabao Cup clash with Aston Villa on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, both Rudiger and Manchester City\u2019s centre-back, Ruben Dias have been the standout defenders in the Premier League during the last year, but the Germany international\u2019s effect on his teammates means he edges it as the best in the English top-flight league.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince Tuchel has come, I think he\u2019s [Rudiger] arguably been the best centre-back,\u201d Ferdinand was quoted by Metro UK as saying.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think him and Dias would have been close, but the effect he has had on his team has been immense.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnder Frank [Lampard], it was evident he was not Frank\u2019s cup of tea. He didn\u2019t really like him. There were rumours they were trying to put him in the market to be sold.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn Germany, he\u2019s always been highly thought of. But when the manager doesn\u2019t rate you and you can feel that, I don\u2019t care who you are, your confidence takes a beating and it is hard to perform at that level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rudiger currently has less than a year left on his current contract with Chelsea.<\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old is currently in negotiations with Chelsea\u2019s board over a new deal, with Tuchel eager to keep him at the club.<\/p>\n<p>EPL: Rio Ferdinand names position Man United need to strengthen this summer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Manchester United legend, Rio Ferdinand has named Chelsea defender, Antonio Rudiger as the best centre-back in the Premier League since the arrival of Thomas Tuchel at Stamford Bridge last January. Ferdinand stated this ahead of Chelsea\u2019s Carabao Cup clash with Aston Villa on Wednesday. According to him, both Rudiger and Manchester City\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":50478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,18,26],"tags":[1570,2140,885,254,1996,3050],"class_list":["post-50479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-epl","tag-nigeria","tag-premier-league","tag-rio-ferdinand"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>EPL: Rio Ferdinand names best centre-back in the Premier League - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Manchester United legend, Rio Ferdinand has named Chelsea defender, Antonio Rudiger as the best centre-back in the Premi ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-rio-ferdinand-names-best-centre-back-in-the-premier-league\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EPL: Rio Ferdinand names best centre-back in the Premier League\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Manchester United legend, Rio Ferdinand has named Chelsea defender, Antonio Rudiger as the best centre-back in the Premi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-rio-ferdinand-names-best-centre-back-in-the-premier-league\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-21T15:05:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/09\/img-6149f2bfab6ee.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-rio-ferdinand-names-best-centre-back-in-the-premier-league#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-rio-ferdinand-names-best-centre-back-in-the-premier-league\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"EPL: Rio Ferdinand names best centre-back in the Premier League\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-09-21T15:05:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-rio-ferdinand-names-best-centre-back-in-the-premier-league\"},\"wordCount\":274,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-rio-ferdinand-names-best-centre-back-in-the-premier-league#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/09\/img-6149f2bfab6ee.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"EPL\",\"Nigeria\",\"Premier League\",\"rio ferdinand\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-rio-ferdinand-names-best-centre-back-in-the-premier-league#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-rio-ferdinand-names-best-centre-back-in-the-premier-league\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-rio-ferdinand-names-best-centre-back-in-the-premier-league\",\"name\":\"EPL: Rio Ferdinand names best centre-back in the Premier League - 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