Ezri Konsa

[villa4europe]

1 hour ago, M_Afro said:

Caught ball watching again for the goal. Don’t attack the ball and then wave my arms trying to blame someone else. Really has to be more aggressive in his play.

That's what I thought too, saw comments that it was mings (shocked...) but he's ghosted in behind mings who can't see him, konsa can and does nothing 

Terrible from Luiz not tracking but konsa has to take control after 

[VillaChris]

He's not the best in the air.

Genuinely think though he's one of the best at reading opposition attacks. You just take for granted the amount of times in a game he'll be well positioned and get his toe to ball when opponents have a good counter attack.

Going to keep improving aswell.

 

[Mazrim]

1 hour ago, villa4europe said:

That's what I thought too, saw comments that it was mings (shocked...) but he's ghosted in behind mings who can't see him, konsa can and does nothing 

Terrible from Luiz not tracking but konsa has to take control after 

"Ghosted in behind Mings, who can't see him."

Or Mings went walkabout for some odd reason and the ball sailed over his 6'5" head. I appreciated some might get on Mings' back too much. But you're doing the opposite here and blaming anybody but. Blaming Luiz is just bizarre to be honest. 

Mings makes mistakes. And this was one of them. I'd put a large sum on Gerrard seeing it that way too. Again, you can also see exactly who is to blame from the players reactions too.

[TomC]

2 hours ago, Indigo said:

Yeah, strange behaviour. Mings is with Varane and the ball is crossed over both of them, Konsa has full view of McTominay's run but reacts too late and proceeds to have a go at Mings about it.

100% agree. He had just passed off his previous mark to Cash. He wasn't marking anybody at that point and totally failed to react to McTominay's run.

 

[KentVillan]

2 minutes ago, Mazrim said:

"Ghosted in behind Mings, who can't see him."

Or Mings went walkabout for some odd reason and the ball sailed over his 6'5" head. I appreciated some might get on Mings' back too much. But you're doing the opposite here and blaming anybody but. Blaming Luiz is just bizarre to be honest. 

Mings makes mistakes. And this was one of them. I'd put a large sum on Gerrard seeing it that way too. Again, you can also see exactly who is to blame from the players reactions too.

Don’t think it was Mings’s fault. He had his own man (Varane I think?) and McTominay makes a late angled run towards Konsa who could probably have stepped over to him without leaving anyone unmarked, and challenged more forcefully for the header.

Not sure it was a howler from Konsa either, though. Our entire shape was wrong (too deep, too wide) and we were inviting that kind of goal. Hard to say who exactly was at fault.

[Spoony]

Not really impressed with what I’m seeing from him. Not sure if it’s because there’s just no competition? Both him and Mings can be replaced IMO but at the very least they need competition and a kick up the arse. 

[Mazrim]

Before the ball comes in, you can see Konsa and Mings lined up correctly and then Mings steps out towards Varane and it goes over his head. Its Mings duty to clear aerial balls into the box from that position. But look, Its shit defending all around. Firstly, the they were in the corner with an obvious outlet in space and Ings was slow to move to him. It could have been snuffed out there.

Maybe Konsa could have moved in front of or put McTominay off but one centre half should attack the aerial ball in and one cover. That's why Konsa was so annoyed.

[KentVillan]

17 minutes ago, Mazrim said:

Before the ball comes in, you can see Konsa and Mings lined up correctly and then Mings steps out towards Varane and it goes over his head. Its Mings duty to clear aerial balls into the box from that position. But look, Its shit defending all around. Firstly, the they were in the corner with an obvious outlet in space and Ings was slow to move to him. It could have been snuffed out there.

Maybe Konsa could have moved in front of or put McTominay off but one centre half should attack the aerial ball in and one cover. That's why Konsa was so annoyed.

One CB attacking and one sweeping is what you do higher up the pitch on stuff like goal kicks, long balls, etc.

When the ball’s going into the box like that, both CBs have to be winning headers. Can’t pin the blame on Mings here. Varane was a threat who needed marking.

I really rate Konsa, and think he’s a superb defender, but he’s definitely more comfortable dealing with the ball on the floor.

[Mazrim]

19 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

One CB attacking and one sweeping is what you do higher up the pitch on stuff like goal kicks, long balls, etc.

When the ball’s going into the box like that, both CBs have to be winning headers. Can’t pin the blame on Mings here. Varane was a threat who needed marking.

I really rate Konsa, and think he’s a superb defender, but he’s definitely more comfortable dealing with the ball on the floor.

I have to disagree there. You dont leave your position as one of the last line iof defence to follow a player. So, if Varane wanders back to the edge of the box, Mings follows him? Jesus, no. Centre halves must always work as a pair. Not get dragged apart.

Otherwise, I agree Konsa is much better on the deck of the two and Mings us better in the air. Then again he's 5 inches shorter or something. In any case, this wasn't just Mings fault, the whole defensive shape was wrong. It often is. But Mings is the most experienced and the leader and he often has a brainfart on positioning. Again, just look at his reaction after the goal. He knew he **** up.

For balance,  Konsa totally made a bollocks of a clearing against Brentford which cost us. They both need to sharpen up.

[Indigo]

 

[ozvillafan]

1 hour ago, Indigo said:

 

That's how I saw it at the time.

Mings moves to cover Varane - the ball sails over him but the decision to cover was made as the ball was kicked. Good defending seeing as Varane also thought the ball in was for him (why else move that way?). Hard to fault Mings there.

Konsa marks no-one and doesn't cover the run of McTominay.

To be fair to Konsa, it was a great ball in and a good run from McTominay - but Fred has the ball and all the ManUre players are pushed up. It's the time to concentrate and be aware of what is around, not to hold a loose position and hope someone else cleans up.

I was disappointed in his reaction mostly - it seemed as if he thought it was someone else's fault.

[M_Afro]

2 hours ago, ozvillafan said:

That's how I saw it at the time.

Mings moves to cover Varane - the ball sails over him but the decision to cover was made as the ball was kicked. Good defending seeing as Varane also thought the ball in was for him (why else move that way?). Hard to fault Mings there.

Konsa marks no-one and doesn't cover the run of McTominay.

To be fair to Konsa, it was a great ball in and a good run from McTominay - but Fred has the ball and all the ManUre players are pushed up. It's the time to concentrate and be aware of what is around, not to hold a loose position and hope someone else cleans up.

I was disappointed in his reaction mostly - it seemed as if he thought it was someone else's fault.

Or, he knew it was his fault and he was trying to divert attention away from it. Jamie Carragher made some comment about it on Twitter along the lines of “Every time I see Villa concede recently It seems like Konsa just stands there blaming someone!” Spot on.

[Zatman]

2 hours ago, M_Afro said:

Or, he knew it was his fault and he was trying to divert attention away from it. Jamie Carragher made some comment about it on Twitter along the lines of “Every time I see Villa concede recently It seems like Konsa just stands there blaming someone!” Spot on.

The Schmeichel school of thinking, always blaming somebody else 

[Indigo]

5 hours ago, ozvillafan said:

That's how I saw it at the time.

Mings moves to cover Varane - the ball sails over him but the decision to cover was made as the ball was kicked. Good defending seeing as Varane also thought the ball in was for him (why else move that way?). Hard to fault Mings there.

Konsa marks no-one and doesn't cover the run of McTominay.

To be fair to Konsa, it was a great ball in and a good run from McTominay - but Fred has the ball and all the ManUre players are pushed up. It's the time to concentrate and be aware of what is around, not to hold a loose position and hope someone else cleans up.

I was disappointed in his reaction mostly - it seemed as if he thought it was someone else's fault.

I'm with you, to be honest I was just posting because there was some debate over it and I think the guy that runs that account usually has quite good and insightful takes so thought it was worth sharing. Considering the quality of the ball in and how perfectly it matched McTominay's run, if anyone in the box had managed to prevent the goal we'd be lauding how fantastically it was defended, so I think it's harsh to be too hyper-critical of anyone in that situation even though that's generally what people look to do when a goal is conceded.

Only issue for me is as you say is Konsa himself acted in that way when if anyone there had the opportunity to deal with it and failed to it was him. Wasn't really a fan of that.

[Mazrim]

You can see from that thread that everybody has differing opinions on whose fault it was. Haven't changed mine. Mings holds his position and heads that clear every day.

But the whole sequence was bad, from everybody.

[sparrow1988]

6 hours ago, ozvillafan said:

That's how I saw it at the time.

Mings moves to cover Varane - the ball sails over him but the decision to cover was made as the ball was kicked. Good defending seeing as Varane also thought the ball in was for him (why else move that way?). Hard to fault Mings there.

Konsa marks no-one and doesn't cover the run of McTominay.

To be fair to Konsa, it was a great ball in and a good run from McTominay - but Fred has the ball and all the ManUre players are pushed up. It's the time to concentrate and be aware of what is around, not to hold a loose position and hope someone else cleans up.

I was disappointed in his reaction mostly - it seemed as if he thought it was someone else's fault.

How I saw it too. However I also thought the defence was way too deep so Konsa was probably right in that sense.

[bobzy]

With most (most) of our defending against free kicks, we have one centre back pushing up and one dropping deep.  I think Mings is generally the one who pushes up because he's so good in the air whereas Konsa will cover for any last ditch defending.

I don't think either cover themselves in glory there, but Mings is watching the ball the entire way.  He knows where it's going, there's absolutely no need to be following Varane - it isn't a corner!  At the very least he should try and make an impact on McTominay's header by jumping or something.  He gets caught under it.

[gilbertoAVFC]

12 hours ago, Spoony said:

Not really impressed with what I’m seeing from him. Not sure if it’s because there’s just no competition? Both him and Mings can be replaced IMO but at the very least they need competition and a kick up the arse. 

My word...he's the best defender we've had at the club for years. 

[TomC]

5 hours ago, Mazrim said:

You can see from that thread that everybody has differing opinions on whose fault it was. Haven't changed mine. Mings holds his position and heads that clear every day.

But the whole sequence was bad, from everybody.

The question is not just what should Mings and Konsa have done, but also what instructions Gerrard had given them and whether they followed that.

Your argument that Mings should have left his mark is interesting and not entirely implausible, but I'm sure they've worked out their marking schemes in advance, and they should know what each other are going to do.

I don't thing Mings would have stuck with his mark if he hadn't been told to do so in that situation. Konsa clearly passed off Cavani to Cash. He was then free and didn't pick anyone up. That looks more like a mistake on his part.

Of course, none of us know for sure, because Gerrard hasn't revealed the fine points of his tactics to us.

 

[Mazrim]

Just now, TomC said:

The question is not just what should Mings and Konsa have done, but also what instructions Gerrard had given them and whether they followed that.

Your argument that Mings should have left his mark is interesting and not entirely implausible, but I'm sure they've worked out their marking schemes in advance, and they should know what each other are going to do.

I don't thing Mings would have stuck with his mark if he hadn't been told to do so in that situation. Konsa clearly passed off Cavani to Cash. He was then free and didn't pick anyone up. That looks more like a mistake on his part.

Of course, none of us know for sure, because Gerrard hasn't revealed the fine points of his tactics to us.

 

Again, it wasn't a set piece, the situation was fluid, and the centre halves should have zonal responsibilities. At least that's how I see it.