Unai Emery must resist the urge to continue with one tactic he used regularly towards the end of last season to give Aston Villa better balance.
Aston Villa enjoyed an incredibly successful campaign last season, finishing in the Champions League places in the league alongside a run to the Europa Conference League semi-final.
Manager Unai Emery deserves enormous credit for that achievement and the club have undergone a meteoric rise since the Spaniard took charge in late 2022.
Almost every Villa player has improved under Emery and he has squeezed the absolute maximum out of his squad, but next season he must refrain from continuing with a tactic that affected the balance of his side last season.
- READ MORE: Ollie Watkins reveals what Unai Emery told him when he first arrived at Aston Villa came true
Unai Emery should avoid playing Ezri Konsa at right-back for Aston Villa
Villa had a relatively small squad last season, particularly when you consider the Villans were competing in Europe.
This threatened to derail the end of the campaign, as a number of players showed signs of fatigue and injuries blighted the squad.
That, combined with a drop off in form of right-back Matty Cash, led to Ezri Konsa being deployed at right-back for the last couple of months of the season which led to Villa’s attack being skewed towards the left.
Konsa is a centre-back so naturally did not get forward as much as a more natural right-back, which harmed Villa’s attack given Emery tends to want his full-backs to play high and wide.
Given he is arguably Villa’s best centre-back, Emery must find a solution that allows Konsa to play there on a weekly basis.
With the returning Tyrone Mings and Pau Torres both left-footed, Konsa being right-footed also ensures a more naturally balanced central defensive duo rather than playing with two left-footers.
Emery must sign a right-back to allow Konsa to play centrally
Emery will be keen to move Konsa back centrally for the reasons mentioned, but part of the issue is that he did not appear to trust Cash towards the end of last season.
This has been backed up by Villa’s interest in right-back targets such as Denzel Dumfries and Jeremie Frimpong this summer.
- READ MORE: Three Matty Cash replacements Aston Villa could sign, including player compared to Kevin De Bruyne
Cash has been a solid player since arriving in 2020, but Villa need to take the next step and it is up for debate as to whether the Poland international is capable of being part of that.
Konsa is more than capable of playing right-back, but in an ideal world Emery wants an attack-minded full-back on both sides and Konsa is never going to be that.
Therefore, it looks as though the only real solution is for Villa to bring in a new right-back this summer.
