Exclusive: Aston Villa's Ezri Konsa is back on track but eager to keep learning

If Ezri Konsa is to be believed, that has most undoubtedly been the case for Villa’s players since the arrival of Unai Emery at Bodymoor Heath a little over two months ago.

The Spaniard’s attention to detail is unlike anything the centre-back has previously experienced.

“There’s a lot of information,” says Konsa, with a smile. “We have meetings now which are really long – I couldn’t tell you how long exactly – but we are talking hours.

“But as a player, that is what you want. You are always looking at where you can improve and that attention to detail is key.”

It would be reasonable to assume this week’s meetings have contained their share of tough conversations.

Sunday’s FA Cup defeat to Stevenage ranks among the most humiliating in Villa’s history and Konsa, who watched the third round tie from the stands after being rested, knows the team has some making up to do with supporters, starting with tonight’s visit of Leeds in the Premier League.

“Do we owe the fans? I’d say so, 100 per cent,” he says. “We haven’t won an FA Cup tie for seven seasons now and for them to come out and see us lose to Stevenage...we have to give them something to cheer.

“It was a competition we wanted to go far in, especially for the boss, who was really determined to do that. But we have to accept it and take responsibility. If anything, it should give us added hunger.”

What made the Stevenage defeat even more jolting was the fact Villa’s general outlook had improved significantly since Emery took charge.

A return of 10 points from his first five league matches moved a team hovering just above the relegation zone into the calmer mid-table waters and with the club poised to strengthen this month, a first top-half finish in more than a decade feels an increasingly realistic target.

Several times during a round of broadcast interviews prior to speaking to the Express & Star, Konsa outlined his ambition of helping put Villa back “where they should be”. Yet in a Premier League already featuring an established Big Six and now an emerging Newcastle backed by Saudi billions, precisely where that place is feels an increasingly pertinent question.

“Villa is a massive club. Everyone knows that,” says Konsa. “I think everyone knows what I mean when I say we should get it back to where it should be.

“There are a lot of players in our changing room who have played European football and that is something we want to strive to. But it is all about focusing on the next game, taking it one game at a time. Nothing is a given, we know that.”

The importance of taking it one step at a time comes partly, you sense, from experience.

Konsa dismisses the suggestion Villa might in the past have been guilty of looking too far ahead. But there is also no point pretending things haven’t quite panned out how either he or the team would have wanted since the end of the 2020-21 season, when his consistently excellent form had made a senior England call-up feel like merely a matter of time.

Last year, at times, was a struggle. Konsa went from one of the first names on the team sheet to at one stage being out of the starting XI altogether under Steven Gerrard.

The 25-year-old is candid when talking about his loss of form and honest enough to admit while this season has seen an improvement, he still has some way to go to get where he really wants to be.

“It was a difficult period in my career,” he says. “I wasn’t performing. My performances weren’t anywhere near good enough, so it was understandable why I came out of the team. I had to accept that and fight for my place.

“In football you have those moments when things aren’t going right for you. It is about how you bounce back and staying mentally strong, staying focused on what you can do to stay in the team. This season I think I have shown that strength to come back and keep my place.

“There is still a lot of room for improvement. It has been a good start but there are still a lot of things which I need to work on and want to work on.

“With the help of the boss and his coaching staff. I am starting to see some improvements. I think the main thing for me is trying to stay consistent, game by game. I’m a man who wants to learn.”

Signed for £12million from Brentford in 2019, Konsa clocked up his 100th Premier League appearance for Villa earlier this season and is among a group of players who have been mainstays of the team for the past three-and-a-half years.

Staying in it, you suspect, will require making the improvements he and his new boss desire. Competition for places will be increased next month by the return to fitness of £26m summer signing Diego Carlos, while the appointment of four-time Europa League winner Emery, a head coach with a CV more impressive than any Villa Park predecessor, adds further to the sense the time has arrived for players to start delivering on the big ambitions of which they so often speak.

“Two seasons ago we finished 11th and everyone thought the next season was going to be it,” says Konsa.

“We were going to finish in the top half and try and get into Europe. But it didn’t work out. Sometimes in football things just go that way.

“As players we know where we are and where we want to be. It has been a good start under the new boss and we just have to continue doing it, continuing improving and adapting to his style of play.

“It’s a process and one which is going really well so far. Before it was about consistency and we did not have enough of that. The boss has brought that within us. Each day is a new learning day out there. It is great to learn from a manager who has such a CV and trophies under his belt.”