Gregg Evans admits that Gerrard's recent decision on £22.5m-rated Aston Villa ace 'feels weird'

Aston Villa journalist Gregg Evans has admitted that it was “weird” to see Steven Gerrard  leaving Ezri Konsa on the bench. 

The 24-year-old has watched Villa’s last two Premier League games against Leeds United and West Ham United from the substitutes’ bench.

He had started 22 of their first 23 league matches before he was sent off against Leeds on 9 February and had to serve a two-match suspension. He then returned to the starting line-up against Brighton, only to miss the win over Southampton through illness.

Despite Konsa regaining full fitness, Gerrard has opted to stick with Calum Chambers and Tyrone Mings as his centre-back partnership of late.

Evans wrote a piece for The Athletic in which he said that Gerrard faced a difficult decision over whether to restore the £22.5m-rated Konsa to the starting line-up.

The journalist shared a link to that article via Twitter, with the caption: “I think Chambers-Mings has worked quite well for #AVFC but it still feels weird seeing Konsa on the bench. Not since the Carabao Cup Final + last game before Project Restart has Konsa lost his place to a team-mate on form.”

Chambers struggled somewhat against West Ham on Sunday, winning only one of his three ground duels, committing two fouls and misplacing six of the 10 long passes he attempted. That earned him a SofaScore rating of just 6.5/10, the joint-second lowest in the Villa ranks.

Perhaps that offers a pretext for Gerrard to restore Konsa to the team, but it may not be quite that simple. A recent report from Football Insider suggested that the 41-year-old has actually sanctioned the sale of the defender in the summer amid concerns over his reliability and consistency.

Once considered undroppable, the 24-year-old may now face a