View: Ezri Konsa endures nightmare 90 minutes as Aston Villa lose v Tottenham
Aston Villa suffered a fourth consecutive defeat on Saturday as Tottenham won 4-0 against Steven Gerrard’s side at Villa Park.
It was a woeful performance and one that has sparked a story by The Mirror that claims Gerrard is planning a “huge shake-up” of his squad in the summer transfer window.
It is understood that numerous players are finding their place in the side at threat and one man who’s finding his spot “under scrutiny” is defender Ezri Konsa.
When you look at the stats on WhoScored, you can see why Konsa’s name would be thrown into the mix on The Mirror’s bombshell report.
Firstly, the 24-year-old’s match rating of 5.6 was the lowest of all the outfield players.
He failed to complete any tackles – or even attempt any – and won just one of the four aerial duels he challenged for during a horrific 90 minutes.
And that one aerial duel that Konsa won essentially assisted Tottenham’s opening goal when he managed to give up possession on the edge of Villa’s penalty area.
As you can see below, Konsa isn’t even being challenged for the header by Heung-min Son as he climbs up to reach Eric Dier’s hopeful long ball. He has the option of heading it down to Tyrone Mings or Lucas Digne to his left, or into a safe area on his right.
But, what Konsa does instead is miscue his header and after it loops up in the air, it lands at the feet of Harry Kane.
Kane takes a shot at goal, which is blocked, but the ball then ends up finding its way to Son, who scores.
Konsa’s mishap set the tone for Aston Villa’s afternoon as they ended up being brushed away with ease by Spurs’ relentless attackers.
During his time at Villa Park, Konsa has been a steady presence in our backline but if anyone is struggling to adapt under Gerrard’s reign after Dean Smith was sacked, it’s the former Brentford centre-half.
In other Aston Villa news, the Villans are hot on the heels of PSV winger Noni Madueke.