Ezri Konsa deserved a call-up to the England squad.
In the form of his life and part of a rock solid Aston Villa back line, this felt like the right time for Gareth Southgate to take a closer look at him.
The Konsa-Tyrone Mings connection is also the strongest all-English centre-half partnership in the Premier League right now. The way the pair complement each other’s game is a major reason why Villa have already kept 14 clean sheets this season.
Aside from Manchester City’s rotating trio of Ederson, Ruben Dias and John Stones/Aymeric Laporte, and Chelsea’s new-look set-up, there isn’t a stronger defensive triangle than the one which includes the excellent Emilano Martinez at Villa.
Admittedly, it hasn’t come cheap. Villa spent £50 million assembling the unit but they have certainly got value for money. Combined, the three key players are now worth double what they were signed for.
Konsa, who Villa hope to tie down to a new deal to put off an admiring Tottenham, is now very much the man of the moment. His fine form merited a call-up to the England squad for the first time as the findings from his season in this report highlight.
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The former Charlton and Brentford defender picks his moments to commit to tackles, blocks and interceptions carefully. Ex-England captain John Terry, who has worked closely with the defender at Villa in his role as assistant manager, offered up some wise words of advice early into his time at the club. He told Konsa that, to be a top centre-half, he needed to stay calm and not fly into challenges.
Twenty months after signing, that approach is clearly working.
Out of 60 centre-backs with 900 or more minutes played in the Premier League, his 1.4 “true tackles” (which are tackles + challenges lost + fouls) per 1,000 opponent touches puts him 59th in the group. Likewise, his 1.5 blocked passes and interceptions per 1,000 opponent touches puts him 52nd in the group.
Together this highlights he is not a front-foot defender who is going to go haring into tackles and make a high volume of “typical” defensive actions.
Rarely flustered in his play, Konsa defends the space rather than the man. When you do see him crunch into a last-ditch challenge, it is typically because he knows he is going to win it.
His true tackle win rate of 81 per cent shows this. This metric effectively picks out the “cleanest” tacklers and Konsa ranks second for defenders in the Premier League, behind only Antonio Rudiger, and it also makes him the highest-performing Englishman in this category.
As highlighted by smarterscout — a site which uses analytics to evaluate player performance — Konsa is also comfortable on the ball, playing simple passes and keeping possession, while also providing an attacking threat from set plays at the other end of the pitch.
Konsa is not quite at the same level of Juventus defender Matthijs de Ligt just yet but he is very similar in style.
They do not engage hugely in defensive actions but are effective when called upon.
It has not been the easiest of transitions from the Championship with Brentford to life as a top-flight footballer, though.
Last season Konsa was in and out of the Villa team and very much learning on the job.
Against Watford last season, Troy Deeney had scored to put Watford in front and Konsa was caught unaware by the striker’s presence in the six-yard box. The image below shows how the striker gets the better of him to score.
It was this moment that sparked detailed analysis sessions with Terry and a few more wise words. Konsa was reminded to always look over his shoulder when faced with such a situation in the future.
This season his positioning and reading of the game has improved considerably and is certainly one of his strong points.
The image below shows a similar situation where he prevents West Ham’s Michail Antonio from latching onto a cross from Ryan Fredericks.
There are other examples, too, like the brilliant recovering block to deny Joelinton after he had got the better of Mings in the first half of the 1-1 draw against Newcastle United last week.
A year on, he is learning from his previous mistakes. It has made him one of the toughest centre-halves in the division to play against.
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He averages 1.4 shot blocks per 90 minutes — the fourth highest of all centre-backs in the division — and there was a time up until early into 2021 where he had not been dribbled past once as well.
Attackers this season have only dribbled past Konsa 15 per cent of the time. In that department, his record is also better than his England rivals. Southgate decided on Conor Coady, Eric Dier, Harry Maguire, Stones and Mings, but Konsa can feel very unfortunate to miss out.
His improvement in a short space of time shows both the high level of coaching at Villa, and Konsa’s own willingness to improve.
“He’s a top player,” head coach Dean Smith says, having now worked with him at both Villa and Brentford. “He’s not anywhere near his ceiling yet but we’ve always believed he is capable of getting into the international scene.”
The blossoming relationship with Mings has also been one of many positives at Villa this season.
As outlined above, Konsa complements his more creative and forward-thinking defensive partner as he is content to play a simple ball while Mings takes on the responsibility of starting off attacks.
Ex-Villa captain Gareth Southgate’s favoured 3-4-3 system means Mings is perhaps better suited as he is left-footed, so adds balance to the back three.
Although it now seems unlikely, if Konsa is to force his way into the England squad before the Euros, he will have to continue to impress for Villa.
Aged, 23, time is still on his side, although this will feel like a setback in an otherwise excellent season.
(Top photo: Neville Williams/Aston Villa FC via Getty Images)