After our chastening defeat to Tottenham on Sunday, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has an important issue to address in the coming weeks.
Admittedly there were two late goals in added time this past weekend which came as a consequence of the game getting away from us, but ultimately that’s still 11 goals conceded in our last five Premier League games.
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Eight of those have come at home, and when comparing it to our earlier form at Villa Park this season, there has been a negative shift in our defensive solidity which is impacting our results.
Injuries certainly haven’t helped as Emery has been forced into changes due to players being in and out of the squad at various points, but we’re now at a stage where he could go with a settled back four, and still have important depth on the bench to cover and rotate when necessary.
The question though, is which is the best defensive quartet to rediscover our defensive resilience and structure to rebuild a foundation on which we can win games consistently?
One of the key debates is the utilisation of Ezri Konsa. While his versatility is rightly praised and he’s undoubtedly offered a vital option at right-back when needed this season, it’s not his most natural role and we’ve seen how impactful he is as a centre-half in comparison to how he struggles at times when shifted across.
With Pau Torres being so influential for us since his summer arrival, the Spaniard would get the nod from the majority, if not all, Villa fans to start alongside him. As the pieces fall into place, Alex Moreno and Matty Cash would arguably slot in as the top choices in the full-back positions.
Diego Carlos, Clement Lenglet and Lucas Digne will all have arguments in their favour to be involved in the conversation, but Villa arguably need to get back to the defence outlined above in front of Emi Martinez, and consistently stick with it to rediscover our best form at that end of the pitch.
Regardless of whether it’s great play from the opposition or mistakes that have been punished in recent weeks, we haven’t been reliable or defensively sound enough to continue to set the standard and compete at the level we’re at.
Barring any further injury setbacks, Cash-Konsa-Pau-Alex Moreno is arguably the backline that Emery has to stick with now, as it offers balance and quality in both phases of the game, from the discipline needed to effectively implement our high line or building out from the back, we need that quartet in conjunction with Martinez to get back to being difficult to break down by complimenting each other’s qualities.
As we’ve seen under Emery, the defensive effort starts from the front, and so that’s not to say our midfield and frontmen haven’t got a role to play in that too. However, we need to tighten things up defensively in the coming weeks, and that will hopefully put our attacking players in a position to go on and win games rather than having to chase or fend off pressure as we continue to leak avoidable goals.
