Diego Carlos: An honest assessment of Aston Villa's underperforming defender

Aston Villa have struggled to keep the goals out so far this season, conceding ten goals from eight games across all competitions this season and securing just one clean sheet. The summer transfer window proved a difficult one for Villa who, despite making several signings in the opening stages of the window, were unable to improve the depth and quality in defence.

Ian Maatsen was signed at left-back from Chelsea for £37.5 million, but the key areas for development at centre-back and right-back were not addressed, largely due to financial restrictions. One individual who has had a poor start to the season is Brazilian centre-half Diego Carlos. The 31-year-old has struggled to string together positive performances since signing for the club and fans are beginning to lose patience with the experienced defender.

Why Steven Gerrard signed him

Carlos was signed by former Villa boss Steven Gerrard in the summer of 2022 for a fee in the region of £25 million. He came to Villa for a large fee and on significant wages, reportedly £100,000 per week, and much was therefore expected of the defender. He also came to Villa having played 136 times for Spanish giants Sevilla, which included 14 appearances in the UEFA Champions League and being part of the team that won the Europa League in 2020.

After signing the Brazilian Olympic Gold medal winner, Gerrard said:

"Diego’s going to be a really big man and a leader for us at the back. You can see that straight away"

With an impressive resume and physical profile that seem well-suited to Premier League football, it was deemed by most that this was an impressive coup for the club.

Carlos's stats in his final season at Sevilla were also impressive, where he started 34 of the club's 38 La Liga matches in 2021/22. Carlos was a key member in the team that finished fourth and secured qualification for Champions League football.

Before his move to Villa, Carlos had possessed some impressive statistics. In 2019/20 he was ranked as the top defender in La Liga for clearances and in 2018/19 he ranked first in La Liga for headed clearances and eighth across Europe's top five leagues for the number of dribblers tackled.

In February 2022, 'breaking the lines' analysed Diego Carlos's all-round game and concluded with the following assessment:

"Carlos presents some impressive physical characteristics which are great for a centre-back as he is tall and physically quite powerful. He is not afraid on the ball, putting emphasis on his long balls which help the team play out in a more direct way. Moreover, he presents some good defensive abilities like aggressiveness and anticipation but needs to improve in his 1vs1 situations and defensive positioning, as sometimes the attackers get the best of him."

Stats by numbers for Aston Villa

The Brazilian international suffered a horrible injury during the match against Everton in August 2022, in just his second appearance for the club. A ruptured achilles tendon meant Carlos would miss the entirety of the 2022/23 season.

He made his comeback during Unai Emery's first pre-season in charge at Aston Villa and the initial thoughts from many was that he might not be the player he was prior to his awful injury. During the 2023/24 season Diego Carlos played 38 times across all competitons for Villa, starting 28 of those. Despite some notably impressive performances during the two wins over Arsenal and the 1-0 victory over Manchester City, Carlos struggled to maintain consistency in his performances.

After performing fairly well in La Liga in the air, his heading stats for Aston Villa are a huge concern. Winning only 44.7% of his aerial battles last season, Villa's vulnerability at defending set pieces and crosses was widely exposed. In the absence of the injured Tyrone Mings, it was expected that Carlos would provide the intimidating presence and dominance in the air to clear the majority of crosses that came into the Villa penalty box. Instead, Villa conceded 16 goals from set pieces last season and only Nottingham Forest and the three relegated teams (Burnley, Luton and Sheffield United) conceded more.

The new season hasn't been a good start for Villa's defence or Diego Carlos either. This past week has seen Carlos be at fault for two of the goals conceded and fans are beginning to run out of patience with a player described as a 'liability'. His sloppy pass given away in the direct build-up to Wolves' opening goal last weekend and his poor attempt at dealing with Liam Delap's run and finish on Sunday spelt a very poor week for the South American defender.

Aston Villa legend describes Diego Carlos as an 'issue'

Former Aston Villa striker Stan Collymore desrcibed Carlos as an 'issue' in his post-match assessment on 'X'. The former Premier League forward said:

"Carlos is an issue, Konsa back at centre back a must. The habit of conceding first is a concern, eventually, it'll cost more than 2 points today. "

Ezri Konsa's performances while playing at right-back as opposed to his more favoured centre-back position have split the opinion of the Villa fan base. Konsa has performed positively in the right-back position on previous ocassions for both Villa and England, but the game against Ipswich as well as multiple examples from last season makes it clear that Villa's system and play suffer more often than not if he is playing on the right hand side of the defence.

The former Brentford man made the initial mistake in the build-up to both of Ipswich's goals on Sunday, mistakes that would not have been made if he had been playing at centre-half. Previously described as one of the Premier League's best centre-backs, Konsa's shift to right-back changes the dynamic of Villa's play. Due to his lack of attacking intent as a full-back, Konsa will not make overlapping runs to support the attack and despite several chances to burst forward with the ball against Ipswich, he did not do so, and in doing so killed Villa's attacking opportunities.

Konsa is playing at right-back due to the lack of quality and depth in the squad in that position. Matty Cash, Villa's regular right-back, has been sidelined through injury for the past four weeks and in that time Emery has experimented with Lamare Bogarde, Kosta Nedeljkovic and Ezri Konsa. There appears to be a lack of trust in the two youngsters, Bogarde and Nedeljkovic, hence why the more experienced Konsa has moved across from his usual centre-back position.

As a result, Diego Carlos has found himself in the starting XI and he has struggled massively already this season. His attempt at defending the 1-v-1 situation against Liam Delap that resulted in Ipswich's equalising goal was nothing short of dreadful. Rocking back on his heels and with his body position all wrong, Carlos was exploited by a simple stepover and taken out of the equation completely before Delap's shot seconds later ended up in the back of the net. The first half also saw Carlos give away several needless free-kicks in dangerous positions for the Tractor Boys and that is a theme that has been seen regularly since the start of his Villa career.

His sending-off in the pre-season match against RB Leipzig appeared to spell the end of his Aston Villa career as a move to Fulham loomed large. Unai Emery had previously admitted that Carlos was a player he had been willing to listen to offers for, but the move fell through and he remained at the club.

With Diego Carlos struggling for form and Aston Villa facing two monumental challenges in the week ahead against Bayern Munich and Manchester United, Emery must find a solution to his defensive problems quickly.

In my opinion, Diego Carlos was someone that should have been sold in the summer. The centre-half has struggled to settle at Villa since the start, not helped by injury, and is not good enough in or out of possession to be playing for a team that is competing in the Champions League. I would like to see Nedeljkovic, who has Champions League experience, given the opportunity to start and Konsa moved back to the heart of the defence where he is one of the best in the business. This will help Aston Villa's system and style of play, even if Nedeljkovic takes time to adapt to life at the club.

UTV