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Football is no longer played the way it used to be a few decades ago. The Premier League hasn't been immune to those changes. The presence of some of the best managerial brains and the ever-increasing competition means that the need for innovation is high.
The players on their part are having to adapt themselves according to the demands of the game and their managers.
Premier League clubs demand more from their defenders now
The traditional concept of two-man attack is a thing of the past now. Managers look for scorers from all across the pitch and the defenders are no different. Full-backs are often assigned the responsibility of assisting the team in attack. Their ability to score goals comes as an additional advantage.
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Central defenders, on the other hand, do not have the luxury of throwing caution to the wind. Their chances mostly come from set-pieces.
In the list below we are going to discuss five Premier League defenders with the most number of goals in the last decade:
#5 John Terry: 19 goals
John Terry ranks high among the Premier League's greatest defenders. His composure at the back gave Chelsea's backline an unmatched solidarity, helping them win as many as five league titles.
Chelsea's former skipper didn't consider his responsibilities to be limited to just the defense. As it is with so many other central defenders, a number of Terry's goals came from headers.
In fact, as many as 11 out of the 19 Premier League goals he scored between 2011 and 2018 came from headers.
Standing at 6 feet 2 inches, Terry was a physical presence inside the opposition's penalty box. His managers hardly refrained him from going up during set-piece routines.
While those in the Premier League were important and helped him rank fifth on this list, the goal against Napoli in the Champions League round of 16 in 2012 stands out.
Chelsea were trailing 3-1 from the first leg away from home. They eventually went on to win the tie as Terry scored the second of their four goals on the night.
#4 Laurent Koscielny: 20 goals
The second of the two central defenders on the list is former Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny.
The Frenchman wrote his name in Arsenal's history books by becoming the first defender for the club to score 20 Premier League goals. His contribution towards Arsenal's victories was critically important in recognition of which he was handed the skipper's armband ahead of the 2018-19 season.
Statistics show that between August 2013 and May 2015, Koscielny helped Arsenal earn 2.33 points per game. The London-based club won 73 per cent of their matches with the 35-year-old in their line-up.
He had scored as many as six goals in between, the most important of which was in the FA Cup final against Hull City in 2014.
Unlike Terry, Koscielny did not rely that heavily on scoring his goals from headers and showed more skill with the ball at his feet.
Only seven of the 20 Premier League goals he scored between the periods mentioned came from headers.
Following his departure from London and the Premier League, the Frenchman revealed that the decision to leave Arsenal was taken to elongate his career. He feared that if he stayed at the Emirates any longer he would have to end his career due to injuries.
Koscielny had indeed suffered multiple injuries during his stay in London and his fears were not unjustified given the physical nature of the Premier League.
#3 Patrick van Aanholt: 21 goals
It wouldn't be too wrong to say that Patrick van Aanholt never got the dues for his contribution in the Premier League. Flourishing from Chelsea's youth academy, he was sold well before he could find a foothold at Stamford Bridge.
His chances of scoring in the Premier League only started to arrive from the 2014-15 season when he started working under Sunderland manager Gus Poyet.
The 4-3-3 formation used by Poyet allowed Van Aanholt to go out on attack and assist the striker. He ended his first season with five assists.
Premier League found out about the Dutch full-back's goal scoring ability the following season. He scored five and set up another three as Sunderland managed to escape relegation.
Van Aanholt found a sense of stability when he joined Crystal Palace. 13 of the full-back's 21 Premier League goals have come in a Crystal Palace shirt.
The full-back's ease with both right and left foot allows managers to use him at either end of the pitch. With his move to Turkey now being confirmed, the Premier League has lost out on a quality goal-scoring defender.
#2 Leighton Baines: 22 goals
Everton players have often come out to say how they consider the club as a family and their team-mates as family members. No other family member was as celebrated as the now-retired Leighton Baines.
The 36-year-old was often found inside the opposition penalty box, either setting up goals for his team-mates or taking the onus upon himself to score. He was good on the overlap and was Everton's free-kick specialist for a number of years.
Over the course of the 2012-13 season Baines created an astonishing 116 chances for his team-mates, the highest in the Premier League that term. This was in addition to the 353 crosses he had delivered inside the opposition penalty box.
His heroics that season prompted newly-appointed Manchester United boss David Moyes to sign him. However, the Toffees held on firm and the Scot ended up with just Marouane Fellaini.
Baines ended his Everton career with an average of 0.6 dribbles per game. His 0.7 shots per game also showed that the full-back was not afraid to shoot.
The Toffees had counted heavily on Baines to take spot kicks. Out of the 22 goals Baines scored between the periods mentioned, 15 came from penalties, showing the trust his managers had in him.
#1 Marcos Alonso: 23 goals
The top spot on the list of the Premier League's highest goal scoring defenders goes to Chelsea full-back Marcos Alonso.
The Spaniard speaks of a history somewhat similar to Patrick van Aanholt's. The Champions League winner started his career at Real Madrid but was forced out after just half a season in Spain.
He got his first taste of Premier League action at Bolton Wanderers. His three-year stint there produced just one goal before he was shipped out yet again.
There was another brief stint at the Stadium of Light with Sunderland in between. Alonso finally got the chance to show his real class when Chelsea came knocking.
Antonio Conte's 3-5-2 formation required the presence of attack-minded full-backs and Alonso fit the bill perfectly.
The 30-year-old's Chelsea career, though, went on a downward spiral after an infamous fallout with former manager Frank Lampard.
There has been an upsurge in his form this season though, helping him feature in all three of Chelsea's Premier League fixtures so far. Alonso even scored in the ongoing season during Chelsea's 3-0 win over Crystal Palace.
