Ezri Konsa: Aston Villa need to get back to basics

The defender expressed his frustration at the manner of Sunday’s 2-1 defeat at Brentford, where Villa paid the price for lacking conviction at both ends of the pitch.

Boss Steven Gerrard later called on his team to rediscover their aggression in defence and Konsa, part of a backline which has now conceded five goals in two matches agrees.

Villa next face a double-header against Manchester United in the FA Cup and Premier League.

Konsa said: “It’s about going back to basics, going over the game, seeing where we went wrong and where we can do better going into the next game.

“As defenders, looking at how we were last season being hard to beat, that is something we need to go back to quickly.”

Villa, who have lost two on the spin for the first time in Gerrard’s reign as boss, led early through Danny Ings’ 16th minute strike but were pegged back by Yoane Wissa’s equaliser before Mads Roerslev struck a late winner for the hosts.

Konsa said: “I felt we should have killed the game in the first half. We dominated that half.

“We didn’t really create enough clear-cut chances in the second half and we know in the Premier League if you give away chances you will get punished.

“That is what happened. In the first half they had one chance which they scored and in the second half two. We have conceded five goals in two games now and it is something we need to improve on.

“Against Chelsea in the first half we showed what we can do. It was the same at Brentford but in the second half there we still had a lot of the ball.

“But we didn’t create enough. If we want points on the board we need to be more ruthless in front of goal and become harder to beat.