Aston Villa manager, Unai Emery has spoken out with plenty of praise for Ezri Konsa and his performances this year.
It has been a great season for Aston Villa which has seen many of their players get better and better in the past year.
The influence of Unai Emery has been clear to see as the Villans have flown up the Premier League this campaign.
This has seen iconic wins over Manchester City and Arsenal, while Villa occupy third in the league at the time of writing.
Many names stand out on a page after some superb performances this season. There has been great goalscoring performances from Ollie Watkins. This has been matched by great defensive performances from Pau Torres.
There are yet to be any January signings made so it is clear that Emery is backing the squad he has right now.
Now he has spoken out about Ezri Konsa who has been one of those shining lights. The Spaniard has been full of praise for the Englishman.
Unai Emery on Ezri Konsa
Despite not being favoured by Gareth Southgate in his spell on the England national team, he is loved by Villa fans.
His performances at centre half and right back this season have been superb and well deserving of that call-up.
Now the Villa boss, Emery, has spoken out about how good he thinks Konsa is. He spoke to Sky Sports, transcribed by Birmingham Mail.
He said: “When I arrived at Aston Villa and I analysed all the players, Konsa was a player who is good, sometimes not good, now I can tell him that he is better than he believes. I believe in him more than he believes in him.
“Sometimes the problem being focused 100 per cent and be concentrated more than he was doing. He can be ambitious himself to improve, develop but through every training session practising.”
There has been a constant improvement from the Villa defender ever since his move from Brentford in 2019. This has made him a key name in the squad for many a season.
He can still improve
With that all being said, Emery was keen to point out that the Englishman can get even better moving forward.
Discussing that point, he added: “Sometimes he was being comfortable playing better, playing worse, but when we were trying to explain to him the capacity to go up, he was progressively taking it. Now, still a lot of work to do to improve and this is my challenge of him, tying to get better.
“He is a better player than he is playing now and he is a better player than he thinks he is. He is still young, but now he is taking more experiences, for example in Europe, playing in the top ten, playing in the top five. Also playing for his national team now as well.”
It is top praise from his manager for Konsa who can see the top potential that the Englishman has in his future.
Fans will be glad to hear the praise from Emery and given that he has been so good this season, it is exciting to think that he could even get better.
