During the summer, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery suggested that he would utilise Ezri Konsa in his more natural role as a centre-half this season. However, it appears as though the Basque coach could be adaptable again and willing to change his approach.
With the versatility to also play as a right-back, the 26-year-old proved to be an effective option in that role at times last season, as he shifted across and allowed Emery to field Pau Torres and Diego Carlos in the centre-half positions, thus having three centre-backs in his backline to play with a certain structure and style.
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It arguably didn’t work as effectively in the latter stages of the campaign as Konsa started to struggle with it, but we saw it return in midweek in the second half of our win over Young Boys in the Champions League.
That was somewhat forced on the Villa boss though with Matty Cash sidelined by injury, while the inexperienced young duo of Kosta Nedeljkovic and Lamare Bogarde are still learning and developing their respective games.
While Cash is expected to return this week and Tyrone Mings isn’t far behind either now, Emery has spoken about the idea of using Konsa at right-back, and how that impacts our way of playing, and the possibility that it could prove to be a decisive tactical solution again, as it has proven to be in the past.
Further, he also believes that the England international still has levels to go in his development, while he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of even fielding four centre-halves at the back, as we’ve seen the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal do to great effect.
“Konsa’s potential is better even than he is showing,” Emery told the media, as per BirminghamLive. “He is a very good player. His capacity physically, technically and tactically is a lot. Mentally, we are pushing this year trying to get more from him. This year he has started very well. He is smiling, he is positive and has started playing as a centre-back very good. I spoke with him about starting to play with Diego Carlos a little bit on the right side, trying to build up from there. His response was fantastic. He played the second half against Young Boys very focused to play in this position.
“Last year he was playing there but not 100 per cent focused like I wanted. Sometimes he did, in some very important matches, against Arsenal and Manchester City. But he was not finishing the season really convinced to play there and be successful in this position. But he has the capacity to do it and on Tuesday he did.
“We were speaking about how we managed pre-season and the transfer window with the possibility to change something. One possibility was Diego Carlos leaving because he had an offer. But he decided to stay and we wanted to keep him here and work, creating and building the structure in different, tactical ways. One of those is to play with Carlos and Konsa and Pau, those three centre-backs building up. Of course, we have Tyrone Mings coming back.
“With Lamare Bogarde we have a young player helping us in our structure. I think we can feel stronger with those centre-backs playing together, Diego, Konsa, even Tyrone Mings and Pau Torres. Last year we used this structure and were successful winning a lot of matches but you have to keep working, building it. The mentality to get stronger and focus like we want, explaining to the players what we want.”
“I spoke a lot with him about it. He played before as a right full-back. But he is not properly a right full-back to play high. He is playing, managing the structure and the build-up, with the capacity he has to help us keep possession. Defensively his job is to help us physically, getting wide and doing a lot of man-to-man.
“We are building the team with our structure because Matty Cash is injured. Kosta is here, 18 years old, trying to adapt to us tactically and do one process, understanding, getting confidence to play minutes like we want. He has to work to get it. But he is ready to play and maybe tomorrow he will. But he needs time to understand tactically what we want. Lamare Bogarde is versatile. He can play centre-back, right full-back doing the same work as Konsa. He can play too as a midfielder.
“This versatility is very important in our squad, the versatility Konsa has is very important. Last year he was preferring to play as a centre-back, a right centre-back getting wider and being successful. My challenge is to get the best performances with the structure we have and the players we have.
“One of our powers in the structure is to play with the centre-back, even three or four of them, in case we need it. The process in a lot of teams like Arsenal and Manchester City, with centre-backs playing wider, they are giving a new structure for other teams.”
It’s a fascinating idea and discussion, and ultimately it gives the Villa boss another tactical option and solution, depending on the opposition and circumstances, which is always useful for him to formulate a winning gameplan.
With Lucas Digne and Ian Maatsen also involved in this conversation, it shows our strength in depth with the versatility that we have when everyone is fit, and it will be fascinating to see what either eventually emerges as the norm and our winning formula, or if it will indeed be a case of chopping and changing it regularly to fit the way we want to play in certain games.
Deploying Konsa at right-back has an important impact on our structure and set-up, as if he were to tuck inside and form a back-three in and out of possession, it gives the license for Maatsen to maraud forward and add a different dynamic and threat to our attacking play.
Conversely, if he’s put alongside Torres in the middle, Emery can start one of Cash or Nedeljkovic to give us more attacking impetus and width down the right side to add a better balance, while also using that as an in-game change if needed to change the pattern of a particular encounter if we’re behind.
Provided we see it work as effectively as it did against the likes of City and Arsenal last season and less so towards the end of the year, it’s another strength of this Villa squad, and Emery will undoubtedly meticulously prepare and plan for when to use it and when it will be most effective for us.
