Taylor Harwood-Bellis has been confirmed as an Aston Villa player in a transfer worth up to a reported £30m, joining from Southampton on deadline day as Villa’s 10th transfer of the summer.
The 24-year-old’s signing was announced after the acquisition of Ibrahim Mbaye from PSG, and the pair are expected to be Villa’s final incomings of a very busy window.
Harwood-Bellis has big boots to fill as he looks to replace Ezri Konsa at centre-back, so does he have what it takes?
There are similarities between the two players, but also some key differences. A fair starting point to compare the two is their respective percentile ranks from the last time they were both playing in the Premier League in the 2024/25 season.
From a defensive point of view, they are quite similar profiles in many ways, so Harwood-Bellis should be able to match Konsa’s output for the most part, which was far from spectacular. There are some question marks though, specifically in terms of ground duels.
Konsa won 68% of his duels in the last two years, while Harwood-Bellis was down at around 50% in the Premier League in 2024/25, although this did improve to nearly 61% in the Championship last season.
The caveat which must be mentioned is that Konsa actually did not partake in that many duels, and it is easier to have a high success rate in those circumstances.
In fact, he only ranked in the 7th percentile among Premier League centre-backs for number of duels won last season. Despite a higher success rate, his 2.96 duels won per 90 minutes were nearly half of the 5.83 from Harwood-Bellis in the Championship.
Harwood-Bellis has been dribbled past at a much higher rate than Konsa, 0.51 times per 90 minutes compared to 0.15 in the 2024/25 season. Even though this rate did drop to 0.24 in the Championship, it was still not close to Konsa’s 0.12 in the Premier League last year.
Another difference between the two is discipline. Harwood-Bellis is aggressive and front-footed, and this has resulted in significantly more fouls and yellow cards than Konsa, who is more calculated and conservative.
Some technical defensive work may be needed for Harwood-Bellis, but he is not going to be a liability compared to Konsa.
What really separates Harwood-Bellis as a centre-back is his ability with the ball.
On the surface, it may look like Konsa has the edge here due to his higher pass completion rate, but he benefitted from playing much simpler, shorter passes than Harwood-Bellis, indicated by the latter’s higher rankings for chances created and long passes.
He also is used to taking responsibility with the ball and setting the rhythm of the game, averaging 84.8 touches of the ball over the last two years, compared to 66.6 for Konsa.
These strengths are where his background at Manchester City’s academy and working under the likes of Pep Guardiola, as well as Vincent Kompany at Anderlecht, comes to the fore.
Harwood-Bellis frequently plays passes that break the lines and bypass the midfield of opponents, as well as raking long diagonal balls from one side of the pitch to the other.
The progressive passing ability of Harwood-Bellis is likely a huge part of what appealed to Unai Emery. He represents an upgrade on Konsa in that sense and along with Pau Torres, should make a strong pairing in possession.
On the other hand, perhaps the best part of Konsa’s game was ability to keep the ball under pressure, whether by finding a pass or invariably suckering opponents into fouling him.
Whether Harwood-Bellis can replicate that ability remains to be seen, but he was dispossessed less often than Konsa in the 2024/25 season. Of course, situation matters, and Konsa may have been in situations where the ball was at risk more regularly than Harwood-Bellis.
An important benefit of Harwood-Bellis is his threat in the opposition box. He scored seven goals for Southampton last season, six of which were headers. That is almost as many goals as Konsa has scored in his entire Premier League career (eight).
Away from the statistics, Harwood-Bellis brings a visible passion to the pitch and a level of leadership experience which defies his age and will be an asset to Villa as they transition to a new era.
Compared to the more docile Torres, Harwood-Bellis should give Villa’s defence a certain edge, and has the potential to be a future captain, having worn the armband for Southampton, as well as various England youth teams.
Making the step up to playing regularly in a Champions League team will be a test, but Harwood-Bellis has plenty of tools which make him a potentially fitting replacement for Konsa, even if he plays in a different way.
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