Player roles · Premier League
Ranked against the job they actually do
Data providers label every footballer with one of four words: goalkeeper, defender, midfielder or attacker. A centre-back and a full-back share a label while doing close to opposite jobs, so a single “best defenders” table ends up measuring full-backs on duels they are rarely asked to win. TackleZone splits the pitch into eight roles and ranks each player only against others in the same one.
Top three in each role, 2026/27
After 6 matchweeks · minimum 270 minutes
Goalkeepers
21 ranked- 1
J. Trafford89 - 2
J. Pickford84 - 3
C. Kelleher82
Centre-backs
34 ranked- 1
J. Jacquet92 - 2J. Tarkowski85
- 3J. Branthwaite69
Full-backs
37 ranked- 1
J. Gvardiol82 - 2
L. Hall79 - 3
B. White79
Defensive midfielders
33 ranked- 1E. Anderson86
- 2
E. Palacios82 - 3
K. Mainoo74
Central midfielders
11 ranked- 1
M. Belloumi78 - 2
N. Williams64 - 3
T. Mitchell59
Attacking midfielders
19 ranked- 1R. Cherki92
- 2
M. Rogers75 - 3K. Dewsbury-Hall74
Wingers
23 ranked- 1C. Gakpo73
- 2B. Saka72
- 3A. Semenyo69
Strikers
18 ranked- 1João Pedro94
- 2E. Haaland87
- 3A. Isak84
How it works
1. Where each player lined up
Every Premier League team sheet comes with a formation and a grid position for each starter. We turn each position into one of eight roles (a wide player in the back line is a full-back, a central one a centre-back, and so on) and add up a player’s minutes in each across the season. Their role is the one where they spent most of them. Players with less than 60% of their minutes in any one role are left off the boards rather than forced into one.
2. Enough minutes to mean something
A player needs about a third of the minutes their team has played so far, and never fewer than 270 or more than 900 are required. Early in a season the boards are small and move a lot; last season’s boards stay available on every role page.
3. Judged on the job
Each role has its own measures: duels and interceptions for a centre-back, chances created for an attacking midfielder, saves for a goalkeeper. The data provider’s average match rating counts for 25% of every score; the rest comes from the role’s own measures. For each one we find where the player sits among everyone else in that role, and the score is the weighted average of those percentiles.
What it cannot see
The numbers come from API-Football. They do not include expected goals for individual players or a split of aerial duels, so neither is used. Substitutes have no grid position: a substitute defender’s minutes count as centre-back, a midfielder’s as central midfield and a forward’s as striker. The boards are rebuilt every day from the latest line-ups and season statistics.