Manchester City are closely monitoring Ezri Konsa, with it being revealed Aston Villa may now be forced to cash-in on the defender.
Despite the 1-0 loss against Villa last time out, Bernardo Silva was impressed by City's performance in possession of the ball, but the attacking midfielder made it clear he thought they struggled at the opposite end of the pitch.
Silve said: "I would say we played quite well with the ball. Our offensive concepts were quite good. Even if we didn't score, we had chances. We made them defend deep, and they struggled in some moments. On the other side of the game, we were really bad defensively."
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That performance may have been a one-off, considering the Blues have conceded just two goals in their last five matches in all competitions, while also keeping a total of seven clean sheets already this season, which suggests they are relatively strong at the back.
However, John Stones is well-known to be injury-prone and Abdukodir Khusanov struggled against Swansea City in the EFL Cup on Wednesday night, making one error leading to a shot and receiving a 6.1 SofaScore match rating, the lowest of any Man City player.
Man City now closely monitoring Ezri Konsa
Consequently, it could make sense to bring in a new centre-back, and City are now closely monitoring Konsa, according to a report from Caught Offside, which states Aston Villa may be forced to cash-in on the centre-back due to financial issues.
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Villa are reluctant to sanction the departure of one of their key players, but PSR regulations may force them into a sale, at which point they would be looking to receive a fee of around £40m - £45m.
A whole host of Premier League clubs are in the race for the England international, however, including Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea, so there may be fierce competition for his signature.
The centre-back recently put himself in the shop window with a solid performance against City, keeping a clean sheet and bringing Erling Haaland's remarkable 12-game scoring streak to an end in his side's 1-0 win at Villa Park.
The 28-year-old made 12 defensive contributions, the joint-highest number of any player, which kept Haaland at bay, while also recording a pass-completion rate of 95%, indicating he could be an ideal fit in a Pep Guardiola system.
Konsa vs City Number completed
Clearances 6
Blocked shots 2
Interceptions 3
Tackles won 1
The Villa star, who is also capable of playing at right-back, received high praise from Jamie Redknapp last year too, with the Sky Sports pundit saying: "I think he’s shown he’s a versatile player. He’s got a great appetite for the game. He’s also got a lot of desire, tremendous work ethic."
Konsa, who is represented by the same agent as Omar Marmoush, could be a solid addition to Man City's backline, but there are doubts over whether he would be a necessary signing, given that Guardiola already has the likes of Stones, Khusanov, Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol to choose from.
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