Aston Villa have heavily rotated the team in their last two Premier League games against Brentford and Southampton giving Unai Emery a headache going into the Champions League tie with RB Leipzig.
Emery has been experimenting particularly with the defence this season and nine first-team players have all seen Premier League minutes as the Villa manager still searches for his consistent four-man back-line.
Clean sheets have been hard to find for Villa’s back line so far this season with Unai Emery’s men having just two in the Premier League so far.
With a crucial Champions League fixture against RB Leipzig on the horizon, Emery will have to make a call on his two centre-backs at the heart of the defence.
Emery’s Champions League headache
Tyrone Mings, who had featured just once this season for Villa in the Champions League, looked impressive in Villa’s 3-1 win against Brentford and his physical presence and aerial ability helped to contain a dangerous pairing of Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo.
Ezri Konsa has been deployed at right back for the majority of the season and hasn’t exactly looked at home in the role. However, a return to central defence against the Bees saw him look solid and complement Mings with his pace and ball-playing ability.
Pau Torres started the following 1-0 win against Southampton and was named Villa’s player of the match on the club’s ‘X’ account. His ball-playing ability has also been recognised by fans with his ability to break the lines and start attacking moves.
Diego Carlos partnered Torres in the win against the Saints and has had a rollercoaster season so far, fantastic performances throughout much of the Champions League campaign have been overshadowed by mistakes leading to goals against Wolves and Ipswich. The Brazilian has seemed to have found his feet now and has delivered strong performances in the last few weeks.
Aston Villa defender’s stats
Looking at all four defenders with data gathered by FBref.com, there are strengths and weaknesses to each candidate that Emery will have to take into account against Leipzig. Mings’ limited game time means that looking at Per90 stats gives a better indication.
| Defender | Tackles won Per90 | Blocks Per90 | Interceptions Per90 | Aerial Duels Won Percentage |
| Mings | 0.37 | 1.76 | 1.48 | 50% |
| Konsa | 0.81 | 0.75 | 0.75 | 68.2% |
| Torres | 0.82 | 0.87 | 0.38 | 37.1% |
| Carlos | 0.24 | 0.86 | 0.71 | 57.1% |
With these stats, we can see that Emery has the option to look towards Torres and Konsa who across the majority of games this season have performed consistently well.
