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Centre-Back: Willy Boly – Wolves
Willy Boly signed for Wolves during their promotion season in 2017/18, but few people could’ve predicted how solid the French centre-back would prove to be during their debut season in the Premier League.
The season started well for Boly back in August as he scored his side’s equaliser against Manchester City, and from there he’s gone from strength to strength, appearing in 35 of Wolves’ 37 games.
Along the way he’s scored a further 3 goals – including an impressive one against Tottenham in a 3-1 victory in December – and has looked almost unbeatable in the air at times, winning 129 of his 189 aerial duels and making over 100 headed clearances. Boly has also performed 82 successful tackles, 160 clearances and 70 interceptions.
At 28 years old Boly is probably in his prime right now, and outside of the top 6 there clearly aren’t a lot of superior defenders to the Frenchman. Wolves will want to progress even further from their 7th place finish next season – potentially crashing the top 6 – and to do so Boly will undoubtedly be a key player again.
Right-Back: Matt Doherty – Wolves
It should come as no surprise that the entire defence in this team is made up of players from Everton and Wolves – after all, those sides have the best defensive records in the Premier League outside of the top 6.
Doherty though has had a truly phenomenal debut season in the top flight, as he’s been an ever-present for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side and has made a massive contribution from start to finish.
Doherty – an international for the Republic of Ireland – has been just as outstanding in attack as he has been in defence, scoring 8 goals and making 5 assists in all competitions, and his total of 35 key passes in 37 games is highly impressive. Doherty is also excellent in the air, as his average of 3.9 aerial duels per game shows.
The Wolves man had some heavy competition for his spot in this team – Crystal Palace’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka has also been outstanding throughout 2018/19 and has slightly favourable defensive stats when compared to Doherty, but the Irishman’s superior goalscoring abilities give him the edge for me, and so he’s the Premier League’s best non-top six right-back at the minute.
