According to a poll on Newstalk.ie, Luis Suarez should be named Player of the Season, comfortably ahead of challengers like Robin Van Persie, Gareth Bale and Michu.

Suarez will certainly be the favourite when the award season kicks off in a few weeks’ time. But it is interesting to note that no defensive players are under serious consideration for inclusion, a trend that has existed for much of football history.

While attacking players like Suarez and Van Persie are deemed to be providing entertainment for fans and viewers, defenders cannot help but be seen as men who want to spoil the excitement.

But the truth goes deeper than that and it lies in statistics.

A centre-forward in the traditional sense, builds his reputation on goals. But with modern statistics one can glean their chance conversion rates, which appendage of their body they use to get the ball over the line and their shooting accuracy.

And in the first two thirds of the field, there are telling statistics like pass completion rates, cross success rates, assists, chances created, kilometres covered, as well as tackle completion rates.

Goalkeepers are also well covered due to the stats on saves-to-shot ratios, number of punches and catches.

Different beast

But the back four or three depending on the system is a different beast entirely. Of course there are numbers for tackle completion rates, duels won and number of interceptions per game.

But in modern football, they only tell half the story.    

Each outfield player on the pitch is somewhat reliant on the team-mates around him from the striker down to the goalkeeper.

But it is in defence and particularly at centre-back that statistics cannot reveal the true worth of a defender.  

Individually a centre-half may excel when it comes to his tackle completion rate, aerial duels won and the number of interceptions per game.

But if he bungles an offside line leading to a goal, that is not necessarily reflected in the post-game stats and even if analysts point it out there is no way of quantifying it especially when most defensive errors are team rather than individual mistakes.

Modern defending has increasingly moved away from tackling as a primary tool. It has become more about spatial awareness and making timely interceptions.

But even interception stats do not reveal the diligence of a defender. For example teams like Liverpool, Swansea and Arsenal will generally have lower interception rates as they tend to have more of the ball, meaning they have fewer opportunities to defend and consequently their defenders will have lower interception rates per game.