A knee injury to Ezri Konsa in the 5-0 victory over Sheffield United has forced Unai Emery into making a change to his side for tomorrow night’s clash against Chelsea.
Ezri Konsa is one of several players who have significantly improved under the watchful eye of Unai Emery. The Englishman is now widely regarded as one of the best ball-playing defenders in the Premier League and is surely on the mind of Gareth Southgate ahead of EURO 2024.
Konsa has shown real maturity since the Spaniard tookover in November 2022 and has demonstrated his versatility this term, slotting into the centre of defence, on the right of a back three or at right back.
Emery has preferred to use 26-year-old instead of Matty Cash in the big matches as he provides Villa with more defensive stability.
In the 1-0 victories over Manchester City and Arsenal, Konsa started as a right back in both fixtures and his defensive awareness, great ability on the ball and tough tackling nature were crucial ingredients in their success.
According to Sofascore, the former Brentford star has produced consistently good defensive performances throughout this campaign, winning 77% of his total duels, 1.5 tackles and recovering an impressive 4.1 tackles per game.
For their FA Cup replay against Chelsea, not having Konsa is a huge blow and while Cash can almost certainly fill that void at right-back, Emery is also boosted by the return of Pau Torres.
Why Matty Cash must start v Chelsea
Ahead of tomorrow night’s clash, Emery can either switch to a three at the back and move Boubacar Kamara into the back three when Villa have possession or start Cash on the right side of a four-man defence.
In either system, the £80k-a-week ace is most likely going to play and as he did in the first game, he can cause the Blues huge problems down the right.
The 26-year-old arguably offers more attacking threat than the injured Konsa having ranked in the top 1% against his positional peers in the top flight for non-penalty xG and top 2% for total shots, as per FBref.
After being praised as ‘outstanding’ for his transition into a right winger this term, Cash’s attacking threat isn’t in doubt, but his ability to defend has often come under question.
Given Villa are the home team, however, they are likely to enjoy more possession and that’s where the Poland international can thrive.
Whether he’s overlapping Leon Bailey or offering an outlet as a right winger, Emery’s side can find joy by feeding the ball to Cash and instructing him to whip crosses into the box.
While Konsa being ruled out for three to four weeks is a devastating blow, his replacement can certainly inflict further misery onto a Chelsea side that were beaten 4-2 by Wolves.
