Pau Torres right to suggest Ezri Konsa deserves England recognition after bright start with Aston Villa
After Tyrone Mings picked up an injury in the opening game of the season, Aston Villa were always going to have to work with a new defensive pairing.
Despite the arrival of Clement Lenglet and the presence of Diego Carlos, for most of the campaign, Unai Emery has opted to call upon Ezri Konsa and Pau Torres to occupy the two positions at the heart of the defence, with the pair impressing so far.
Torres’ exploits have seen him called up to the Spanish national side for their October internationals, while Konsa has been made to wait to receive a call-up from Gareth Southgate, something his teammate believes should change.
As quoted by Birmingham Live (2 November) Torres said: “I’m playing more games now than in the beginning so I always speak with him [Konsa] about the different games.
“The structure in defence and he helps me a lot. He’s a good person and a really good defender. I think he can go now with his national team and I will be happy for him.”
There is no reason for Southgate to ignore Konsa when he names his next England squad for the November internationals, with the defender being ever-present in the Premier League as Villa have only conceded 14 goals so far.
The 26-year-old is one of the Premier League’s best centre-backs on the ball, completing 92.4 per cent of his attempted passes, better than 85 per cent of his positional peers have managed in the opening stages of the campaign (Fbref).
Konsa especially thrives when passing over a long distance, a tactic not often deployed by Southgate or Emery, with the defender placing in the first percentile for attempted long passes a game, but the 84th for his completion rate.
Out of possession, the Aston Villa man will rarely enter a duel and not come away with the ball, 92 per cent of defenders lose more challenges than him a match and he tackles an average of 85.7 per cent of players that attempt to carry the ball past him each and every game.
Given how often Emery’s side have played on the front foot this season, it isn’t a surprise to see that Konsa places above the 85th percentile for tackles in the middle and final third of the pitch, but the bottom 18 per cent for interventions in the defensive third. Demonstrating just how often he prevents possession from becoming a genuine threat.
The only area of the 26-year-old’s game that he could look to improve is his ability in the air, he only wins an average of 50 per cent of his aerial duels a game and places in the sixth percentile for battles won per match.
Villa don’t tend to face many long balls, but this is an asset of Harry Maguire’s game that Southgate has valued in the past and could well see the Manchester United defender preferred to Konsa once again this month.
However, the fact that he has been a regular in Emery’s side, playing 900 minutes in the Premier League this season and a further 301 in the Europa Conference League (Fotmob), compared to Maguire’s 296 league minutes should give Konsa the edge.
Hopefully, both Aston Villa centre-backs will be heading off on international duty this November and Torres will get his wish.
In other Aston Villa news, Emery has received another injury boost as Alex Moreno has been spotted back in first-team training