Central defenders rarely get their due in England when the prizes are handed out at the end of the season. In the 40 years since Frank McLintock was crowned the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year, only Emlyn Hughes and Kenny Burns have followed Arsenal's Double-winning captain and the merciless Nottingham Forest mainstay was given his accolade 33 years ago. If the writers have a blindspot, the professionals broadly share it. Only Norman Hunter, Colin Todd, Gary Pallister, Paul McGrath and John Terry have been recognised by the junior award over the past 37 years so the odds on Manchester United's Nemanja Vidic bucking the trend must be fairly slim.

Jack Charlton once split defenders into two categories, "players" and "stoppers", and the honoured few have tended to come more from the ball‑playing branch. McLintock spent more than a decade as a midfielder before, as he put it, being "demoted from the cavalry to the infantry". Hughes and Hunter were old-fashioned left-halves and even Burns, who once subdued Kenny Dalglish, according to Brian Clough, by simply pointing a finger at him and giving him a menacing glare, had three unruly years at centre‑forward before he was converted into the most ruthless of centre-backs.

Terry, at his best, was the quintessential "stopper", snuffing out attacks with keen anticipation and rugged challenges. One reason why Chelsea have struggled lately may be that he has too often been paired with Alex and Branislav Ivanovic, fellow destroyers who give the partnership little variety. Ricardo Carvalho brought composure and intelligence to Chelsea's back four and his measured distribution created a platform for Michael Essien and Frank Lampard to build attacks from deeper positions. The injuries that have taken their toll on Terry's body have left him too often straining to make death-or-glory interventions but for five years he formed pretty much the ideal combination with Carvalho and their contrasting strengths were almost equal to any challenge.

That alliance of silk and steel has been the template for the majority of the best central-defensive pairings of the past 50 years. Charlton and Bobby Moore, Tommy Smith and Hughes, Dave Watson and Kevin Ratcliffe have all flourished by compensating for each other's weaknesses to build something together greater than the whole. Alessandro Costacurta put his body on the line to allow Franco Baresi's more refined skills to shine for Milan and Fabio Cannavaro did the same for Alessandro Nesta with the national team. Barcelona and Spain use Carles Puyol and Gerard Piqué to similar effect, the former's brawn, courage and foresight freeing Piqué to showcase his astute reading of the game to nick the ball off opponent's toes and elegantly glide forward.

Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson were an unusual example of a successful centre-back partnership of players with similar attributes. Both were quick and agile, confident on the ball and perfectly happy to take a playmaking role rather than off-loading to the deepest-lying midfielder in the conservative fashion. They were occasionally troubled by fearless, strapping centre-forwards such as Peter Withe or a young Norman Whiteside but for the most part the way Liverpool played back then generally starved opposing strikers of service.

Arsenal's two title-winning campaigns under George Graham, by contrast, had a pair of stoppers at their heart in Steve Bould and Tony Adams. When Arsène Wenger took over Adams became a hugely more rounded player, cultivating a flair for bringing the ball out of defence and going on marauding runs. It is astonishing that in the second phase of his career Adams won neither of the player of the year awards because the realists among managers recognised his value even if his peers chose to overlook him. He won plaudits from Sir Alex Ferguson and Kevin Keegan and both coveted the Arsenal captain's indomitable spirit and mastery of the defensive arts.

Vidic is held in similar regard by managers who know that if they could take one player from Old Trafford who would destabilise Manchester United's chances while bolstering their own the Serbia centre-half fits the bill. And yet he was passed over on Sunday for Sky's man of the match award despite giving a masterclass of power, pace and positional awareness at White Hart Lane that held Tottenham at bay. You get the sense that when he tackles he does so with the full weight of his body, getting the ball but also rattling his victim's bones as a profitable side-effect. When added to his judgment this makes him such an uncompromising and difficult opponent and the league's most valuable player, whether he ends the season with an award or, like so many of his trade, is slighted by being ignored.