How the United captain stands up against his team-mates in the Premier League.
Inter Milan have announced that Manchester United captain Nemanja Vidic will be joining them at the end of the season, ending an eight-and-a-half year spell with the club.
The defender joined from Spartak Moscow in January 2006 and has since won five Premier League titles, three League Cups and the Champions League.
However, this current campaign under new manager David Moyes has been a poor one in which five different players have been used in central defence, so here is a comparison of those players and if United will miss Vidic when he leaves for Serie A.
Statistics courtesy of Squawka.
Nemanja Vidic
League games played: 18.
Tackles won: 19.
Tackles lost: 15.
Blocks: 10.
Interceptions: 37.
Clearances: 196.
Defensive errors: 2.
It’s been an indifferent year for the Serbian, who is beginning to show telling signs of age along with the ever-present problem of injuries. This makes Inter’s decision to award the 32-year-old a three-year deal seem generous and it could well be the right time for the Red Devils to move on.
Jonny Evans
League games played: 16.
Tackles won: 16.
Tackles lost: 6.
Interceptions: 21.
Blocks: 10.
Clearances: 130.
Defensive errors: 2.
In what has been a bad year for the club, Evans has in fact enjoyed one of his best seasons since breaking into the first team and of all the choices on offer to Moyes, the Northern Irishman has been the most reliable and consistent.
Rio Ferdinand
League games played: 9.
Tackles won: 6.
Tackles lost: 5.
Interceptions: 15.
Blocks: 5.
Clearances: 64.
Defensive errors: 0.
Like Vidic this could well be the final year for the veteran at the Theatre of Dreams and Ferdinand’s continued lack of sharpness and technique on the pitch is becoming a problem, as shown by the woeful performance against Olympiakos in the Champions League first-leg.
Phil Jones
League games played: 16.
Tackles won: 31.
Tackles lost: 27.
Interceptions: 36.
Blocks: 6.
Clearances: 95.
Defensive errors: 0.
These stats are somewhat skewed by the fact that Moyes can’t seem to decide on a position for the 21-year-old, who has also played at right-back and in central midfield. Yet the England international’s best place still seems to be at centre-back.
Chris Smalling
League games played: 20.
Tackles won: 25.
Tackles lost: 17.
Interceptions: 19.
Blocks: 12.
Clearances: 139.
Defensive errors: 2.
Like Jones this fellow Englishman has also swapped between right-back and central defence, but as shown by perhaps the worst performance on the pitch in the loss to the Greek champions, Smalling is no full-back and is also perhaps the weakest of all five of these options.
Check out the top 10 best Manchester United players of all time.