Dean Smith blown away by Aston Villa ‘Rolls Royce’ Ezri Konsa as he reveals secret message
It’s safe to say nearly every member of Unai Emery’s squad at Aston Villa have been in incredible form this season, as the Spaniard’s side sit fourth in the Premier League after 14 matches.
Ollie Watkins has stolen most of the plaudits this season for his excellent goal-scoring form, Moussa Diaby has caught the eye with his incredible dribbling ability while Leon Bailey has impressed every time he’s started in the Premier League.
But further back the field in defence, Ezri Konsa has gone from strength to strength after a difficult start on the opening day of the campaign against Newcastle United and former Villa boss Dean Smith believes he will only get better.
As quoted in The Telegraph (5 December) he said: “I was really pleased to see Ezri get in the last England squad. I’ve been banging his drum for a long time, I think he’s a Rolls Royce of a player.
“I signed Ezri for Brentford, from Charlton, and then for Villa. He made a big mistake against Newcastle in the first game of the season and I texted him after saying: ‘It’s always what you do next.. You don’t see too many mistakes from him, he just keeps improving.”
The 26-year-old defender has only made one error leading to a goal in the Premier League this season, that being the one that came in the opening weekend defeat at St James’ Park, but since then he has been almost faultless [Fotmob].
To earn that tag of a Roll Royce of a defender you have to be incredible both in defence and in possession and the Aston Villa man certainly ticks both of those boxes. On the ball, the defender has completed 735 passes in the league this season at an impressive completion rate of 93 per cent.
That completion rate puts him in the top 12 per cent of defenders in the Premier League this season. Perhaps his most impressive asset is his ability to spray the ball over the field, with a long pass completion rate of 76.4 per cent, better than 91 per cent of defenders [Fbref].
Konsa isn’t afraid to dribble with either and on average he attempts more take-ons than 92 per cent of his positional peers in the Premier League. When he tries to dribble he normally maintains possession sitting in the 92nd percentile for successful take-on percentage.
Out of possession, the 26-year-old is excellent in the tackle, typically coming away with the ball in 80 per cent of his tackles per match and he has only lost a single challenge in the Premier League all season.
Under Smith’s management in the 2019/20 campaign, Konsa only tackled 43.8 per cent of players who attempted to dribble past him and was losing a challenge every other game across the entirety of the campaign.
The only area in which Konsa still struggles is aerially where he is beaten often in battles. Currently, he sits in the 95th percentile of Premier League defenders for aerials lost a game and the third percentile for aerials won per match.
Smith is certainly right in his suggestion that Konsa has gone from strength to strength this season and if he isn’t a “Rolls Royce” of a defender it’s hard to really say who is.
In other Aston Villa news, Jamie Carragher believes Manchester City will find Emery’s side tough after the latest suspension news