2013-14 Premier League Preseason Rankings: Top Defenders

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Updated on July 28, 2013 12:05PM EST

For our 2013-14 Premier League rankings, we polled four of our writers to come up with a composite list for the upcoming year. We broke it down by position, listing our top-20 forwards, midfielders, defenders and top-10 goalkeepers.

Points were assigned to each player based on their ranking by each writer: 10 points for a first place vote, nine points for a second place vote, eight points for a third place vote and so on.

Petr Cech is the top choice in our Goalkeeper Rankings and Everton's Leighton Baines checks in at the top spot for defensemen.

The tricky part about ranking defensive players is that their stats are so volatile year-in and year-out. Players on top teams accumulate more clean sheets but goals and assists are still important.

With that said, here's what we think about this year's defensive crop:

RNK	LAIRD	RADUNE	PITNER	MOSINSKI	OVERALL	PTS
1	Leighton Baines	Jonny Evans	Leighton Baines	Leighton Baines	Leighton Baines	71
2	Branislav Ivanovic	Nemanja Vidic	Branislav Ivanovic	Branislav Ivanovic	Jan Vertonghen	64
3	Patrice Evra	Laurent Koscielny	Jan Vertonghen	David Luiz	David Luiz	61
4	David Luiz	Vincent Kompany	David Luiz	Glen Johnson	Branislav Invanovic	60
5	Jan Vertonghen	Martin Skrtel	Rafael da Silva	Patrice Evra	Glen Johnson	51
6	Per Mertesacker	Jan Vertonghen	Glen Johnson	Jan Vertonghen	Patrice Evra	50
7	Pablo Zabaleta	Pablo Zabaleta	Patrice Evra	Jose Enrique	Pablo Zabaleta	46
8	Glen Johnson	Phil Jagielka	Ashley Cole	Angel Rangel	Jose Enrique	40
9	Ashley Cole	Matija Nastasic	Vincent Kompany	Pablo Zabaleta	Jonny Evans	37
10	Jose Enrique	Leighton Baines	Per Mertesacker	Laurent Koscielny	Per Mertesacker	33
11	Ryan Shawcross	Per Mertesacker	Jose Enrique	Russell Martin	Rafael da Silva	32
T12	Daniel Agger	David Luiz	Jonny Evans	Rafael da Silva	Laurent Koscielny	31
T12	Steven Caulker	Nacho Monreal	Kyle Walker	Steven Caulker	Daniel Agger	31
14	Rafael da Silva	Daniel Agger	Gary Cahill	Garath McAuley	Vincent Kompany	29
15	Garath McAuley	Glen Johnson	Ryan Shawcross	Jonny Evans	Ashley Cole	25
T16	Angel Rangel	Jose Enrique	Pablo Zabaleta	Per Mertesacker	Nemanja Vidic	19
T16	Gary Cahill	Cesar Azpilicueta	Daniel Agger	Davide Santon	Angel Rangel	19
T18	Laurent Koscielny	Sylvain Distin	Per Mertesacker	Matthew Lowton	Ryan Shawcross	16
T18	Jonny Evans	Patrice Evra	Matija Nastasic	Gary Cahill	Steven Caulker	16
T18	Sylvain Distin	Gary Cahill	Angel Rangel	Phil Jagielka	Martin Skrtel	16

The next 11: Gary Cahill (14 points), Phil Jagielka (14), Matija Nastasic (14), Garath McAuley (13), Russell Martin (10), Nacho Monreal (8), Kyle Walker (8), Sylvain Distin (4), Cesar Azpilicueta (4), Davide Santon (4), Matthew Lowton (3)