After throwing away a positive result this weekend, more questions will be asked of the Aston Villa defence following our 2-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest.
Villa have now conceded 25 goals in our 16 Premier League games so far this season, as we continue to hold the unwanted tag of having the second-worst defensive record of the top 13 teams in the standings currently.
READ MORE: Five key talking points as Villa collapse late to fall to Nottingham Forest defeat
After conceding 61 goals in our 38 league outings last year, it’s an ongoing issue that must be improved if we are to continue our progression and compete at the top level, and it may well need a reshuffle of personnel at the back for an extended run of games.
Despite controlling the game for 75 minutes on Saturday evening, Villa were unable to deal with the late pressure applied by Forest, and even after the warning of a goal ruled out for offside, we still managed to collapse in the latter stages and drop all three points against a side emerging as a direct rival in that battle for European qualification spots.
Boubacar Kamara made an excellent point after the game in that we lacked calmness and didn’t keep our heads in those final 10 minutes, and that is the mental side of the game that we must also improve, but from a personnel perspective, it may also be time for Unai Emery to make an important change.
With Manchester City, Newcastle Utd and Brighton our next three games over the Christmas period, we’ll face three sides with plenty of attacking quality, and if we don’t start to consistently keep clean sheets, we’ll likely encounter the same problems over and over again.
In turn, our best defensive performance in recent weeks arguably came in our win over Brentford, and that was a game in which Tyrone Mings started alongside Ezri Konsa, in a throwback to their successful partnership in previous seasons.
Mings had been in line to start at Forest, but illness ruled him out in the warm-up in what proved to be a decisive and costly setback for us given the way in which the game eventually played out.
While it’s hard to say given it would likely mean Pau Torres is dropped until Emery can make a partnership with him and Mings playing alongside each other work, with the Villa boss noting this week that it’s something he’s still working on, but it could be a necessity if we want to start building a more solid foundation and become harder to beat. The Villa stalwart’s steeliness, aerial prowess, physical presence and reading of the game with his defensive mind make such a vital difference for us.
What is arguably clear is that Diego Carlos is not a consistent solution, nor is playing Konsa at right-back, as although that set-up may look good at times, it’s also a factor in our undoing in equal measure, and that up-and-down nature isn’t sustainable.
A settled back four of Matty Cash, Konsa, Mings and Lucas Digne could be the way forward over Christmas, with Youri Tielemans and Boubacar Kamara operating in front of them as often as possible to give us consistency and familiarity in that area of the pitch.
Villa need to be stronger in tough moments when the opposition is piling on the pressure, but also tactically switched on and concentrated for the full 90 minutes to stop gifting goals away. Ian Maatsen will have his say, while hopefully Pau can develop an understanding with Mings to perhaps work in a back-three with Konsa at some stage in the coming months, but for the immediate future, could Villa going back to basics and an old combination in the heart of our defence be the solution?
Think we might need a run with Konsa-Mings in heart of backline again. Hard one as don’t want to see Pau dropped, but might give us a more solid foundation for a while, as intended tonight before Mings was ruled out. Man City, Newcastle & Brighton next, our best back four?#avfc
— Talk Villa (@thetalkvilla) December 14, 2024