Steven Gerrard hails the ‘character and guts’ of Tyrone Mings for his strong start to the season after he lost the Aston Villa captaincy… as the Liverpool legend admits he took away the armband to help him block out the ‘noise that affected his performances’
- Steven Gerrard has praised the performances of defender Tyrone Mings
- Mings has responded impressively after having captaincy taken away from him
- Gerrard revealed he wanted Mings to perform with greater consistency
Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard has expressed his delight with the way in which Tyrone Mings responded after losing the captaincy.
Gerrard elected to take the armband away from Mings, with John McGinn being appointed skipper instead.
Mings was on the bench against Bournemouth in the opening game of the season but has stepped up since then and was impressive in Villa’s 1-0 victory against Southampton on Friday night.
Steven Gerrard praised Tyrone Mings’ character following his impressive recent performances
Gerrard revealed that he wanted to ensure that Mings could perform with greater consistency, and that has proven to be the case.
Gerrard told Sky Sports: ‘I’m extremely pleased. He’s showed a lot of character and a lot of guts. I put that noise on Tyrone so that was my situation. The reason I did that is because when I came into this job I inherited the boys I did there was a lot of noise around him and I felt that affected his performances and consistency.
‘The idea was to take that away from him so he could focus on him more and not worry about other players in the team or other roles, just solely focus on you and bring your attributes to the table consistently. He has got them, I still think he can do better but Tyrone needs to focus on Tyrone.’
Gerrard hailed Mings’ character after the centre-back had the captaincy taken away from him
Mings has been capped by England on 17 occasions but hasn’t been called up by Gareth Southgate since March and is in danger of missing out on a place in the World Cup squad this Winter.
However, if the 29-year-old can continue to impress for Villa then it is possible that he could regain his place in Southgate’s squad.
Jacob Ramsey’s goal proved to be the difference as Villa prevailed against Southampton, with the victory seeing them move up to 13th place in the table.
Mings has often been praised for his performances since joining Villa, initially on loan, in January 2019.
Gerrard elected to give the Villa captaincy to midfielder John McGinn instead of Mings
There had been speculation regarding Gerrard’s future as Villa boss earlier in the season but the win over Southampton represents a step in the right direction.
Although it wasn’t a vintage performance from Villa, the result brought an end to a run of three games without a win.
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