Daniel Passarella 5 foot 8 (an inch shorter than Roberts) did OK. Central defender and captain of Argentina's WC winning 1978 side!
I've mentioned him before but Baresi, arguably the best CB of all time, is "only" 1.76m. If don't think he'd have shone in a PL team, frankly, you're an idiot
And thats great. Really. But they and a handful of others, like Cannavaro, were exceptions. I think Haydon could turn into a fine player but I'll wait with the Baresi comparisons...