You're underrating him. I know it's a crime on here to rate a young player over an older legend, but Evans has been better this season than Ferdinand. More solid defensively, and with an attacking vigour to his game that we haven't seen in our CBs since Ferdinand was much, much younger.
And the CBs that you choose to rate above him from other teams suggests that you haven't actually watched that much of them. Koscielny is indeed brilliant, and would get in ahead of Evans. But Vermaelen has been having a terrible season. My little gaggle of Arsenal supporting mates are actually losing patience with him, and he's been like this for two seasons now. As for Mertesacker, he's never been better than average. A tall, slow guy who's ok as long as he only ever has to stand in the penalty area, basically.
Luiz? Nope, sorry. Cahill's on a par with Evans, but Luiz is a disaster area in defence. Lescott, likewise, is reasonably solid defensively, but no more so than Jonny. Meanwhile, he brings absolutely nothing to balance Evans' attacking contribution. Only one goal, and he's very poor on the ball.
For me, Irwinwastheking overrates him slightly, but by less than you underrate him.
Can't agree with you on Rio, his reading of the game is still top notch and he's still got a lot of pace for his age. If it comes down to it I don't think we'll see Ferdinand on the bench for Evans for a big match when they're both fit for a while yet.
Vermaelen's not been great this season, in fact I don't think he's ever been great, I've always thought he's been a bit overhyped because of his goalscoring but he's still a good defender. It's no slight on Evans to say he's a bit better than him. Mertesacker offers something different to Evans, Evans is more talented but Mertesacker is physically better, I don't think there's that much between them.
Luiz fecks up a bit (not as much as his reputation suggests BTW), but he's still a good defender, look at him for Chelsea in the Champions League last season. Lescott is about the same as Evans, if they were at the same club they'd probably compete by rotated.
Then this is where we'll differ. I think a great player is a great player on their own merits. Being recognised or considered great comes secondary to that imo.
We're not differing, I agree with all of that, a player is better on his own merits, but if a player is clearly better then it must by definition be clear to people that he is better. If he's not recognised then it's not clear.
If you currently think Smalling is better than Evans you need your head seen to mate. There's a reason that Evans is playing every game and Smalling is a bit part player. That is unless you know more than Fergie. Smalling may well develop into a better player, but he isn't one now.
You we're having a pop at those above you for having their own view on things and now you claim that the Leage table is wrong. Everton are currently a better team than Liverpool, but regardless of that he's clearly a much much better player than Skrtel.
He's a better player than Lescott, but that's my view and they are the League champions and the richest cub ever so not getting in there is no shame.
He's playing week in week out at United. That is the facts, not opinion or otherwise. Until he's displaced by Smalling, Rio or Vidic then he's in the starting 11. That was the initial question.
Ivanovic is being played as a fullback so he's not relevent., Luiz is not a better centreback than him. Terry is finished and Cahill is debateable.
Of course he's be nailed on to start at Arsenal. Their defense is a shambles and has been for years.
There are a couple of reasons Evans pays every game and Smalling is a bit part player, Smalling is more dynamic than Evans, he can be deployed in other areas, Evans can't, Evans also has been fit a lot more and has had time to develop partnerships with Ferdinand and with the goalkeepers, and hasn't done much to deserve getting dropped. It'd be harsh to drop him out for a player who isn't senior when he hasn't done much wrong.
The League table is wrong, unless you're one of these people who thinks that West Brom are better than Liverpool and Everton are better than Arsenal. Skrtel is a good defender, I don't know what you have against him.
Them being Champions and the richest club is irrelevant, we're talking about competition between players.
He's in the starting 11 at United chiefly because of injuries, not talent.
Ivanovic has been played at centre back lately because of injuries and suspensions (much like Evans), Luiz I've already addressed, he's a very different player to Evans but not necessarily a worse one, Terry is well past his best but he's still go it, and Cahill is an impressive defender who is improving all the time, just as much if not moreso than Evans.
Our defence is an omnishambles this year.
Now to your list of players who are better than him;
Smalling - Not a chance is he better than him yet.
Ferdinand - in his prime no doubt, but now it looks increasingly like Evans is first choice. The next few months will be telling.
Vidic - OK
Kompany - OK
Cahill - Close, but I don't think so.
Terry - Not any more
Ivanovic - playing full back so not really that important
Skrtel - this is a joke yeah??
Agger - Don't think so, but close
Koscielny - Nope
Vermaelen - Nope
Shawcross - Nope - possibly a stronger defender, but Evans pisses on him in the other aspects of his game.
So that puts him comfortably in the top 5 in the country which is great for a lad still at the beginning of his first team career.
So there are two who are definitely better than him, one who might be depending on the next few months, one who you've ignore because he's playing at full back (even though he isn't), and two who are close to him, yet he's comfortably in the top 5 in the country? I think you're being a bit too kind to him even by your own methodology, if all that were accurate it'd still be debateable whether he's there.
He's been at United for a long time now and has played plenty of time and even took part of that clean sheet run.He's steadily improved as a player as he has been maturing, Evans is comfortably better than the average PL defender.
If he was as bad as you were saying kieto, I honestly don't think SAF wouldn't have bought a senior CB a couple of seasons back (when the duo Rio-Vida was starting to break up for injury reasons mainly).
I don't need medias, pundits or fecking journos to tell me when I see a quality player and when I don't.
I'm not saying he's a bad player, at all, I think he's a pretty good one, but he's never going to be at the level of Ferdinand or Vidic at their best. I imagine Ferguson hasn't bought a senior CB because he's already got Ferdinand and Vidic and he's counting on Jones and Smalling to be the future of the club. Evans is a sort of stop gap, he has improved though.
Just seen he has put David Luiz ahead of him. Well done.
Inaccurate.
