View: What is the best Aston Villa centre-back pairing after Ezri Konsa’s return?
Aston Villa were given a major boost on Sunday morning (17 July) as Steven Gerrard confirmed that Ezri Konsa has returned from injury early.
The England youth international sustained a knee injury in Villa’s draw with Crystal Palace and was expected to be out until the end of August.
However, Gerrard confirmed to the Birmingham Mail on Sunday morning (17 July) that Konsa will return this week, leaving him with a conundrum.
Villa have already signed Diego Carlos this summer and still have Tyrone Mings, leaving Villa with three centre-backs good enough to start.
This has left many fans wondering what their best partnership is going into the new campaign and who should start against Bournemouth.
Who is the best pairing?
Gerrard described Villa’s squad as “bloated” after their victory over Leeds on Sunday (17 July) and that statement is true of their centre-back options
Villa have Carlos, Mings and Konsa as starters while also having Calum Chambers and Kortney Hause as backups, although the latter is currently injured.
This leaves them with five first-team quality centre-backs, all of whom have their own strengths and weaknesses to consider.
Out of all of them, Carlos is the only one who is almost certain to start after his big-money arrival from Sevilla so now the issue is picking his partner.
While they are backups, Chambers and Hause both have strengths that the other players in their position do not have.
Chambers is the best at carrying the ball out from defence and is arguably the best passer of the five, while Hause excels in the air.
Of the four battling to be Carlos’ partner, Mings is the best leader, has the most experience at the elite level and is arguably the best defender on his day.
The issue with Mings is that he suffers from lapses in concentration that gifts chances to the opposition and sullies otherwise stellar performances.
That just leaves Konsa, but he struggled himself last season as his performances took a clear a noticeable decline from the previous campaign.
He struggled with discipline, getting sent off in two big games against West Ham and Leeds United, as well as form.
On balance, Mings is still the best option to pair with Carlos as having Konsa there to chase him down could help with his concentration.
However, he will have to be constantly looking over his shoulder as Gerrard will surely not hesitate in dropping Mings if he underperforms.
In other Aston Villa news, we told the story of Fabian Delph’s bizarre betrayal from seven years ago.