Journalist Pete O’Rourke has dropped a behind-the-scenes claim regarding Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings and the impact that having the captaincy taken off him by Steven Gerrard has had on his game.
Speaking to GIVEMESPORT, O’Rourke had this to say on the matter: “Maybe Gerrard was right in the end that taking the captaincy off him would free him up to concentrate on his football and everything else because it does look like he is getting back to his best form, which can only be positive news for Villa.”
Villa originally signed the defender on a loan deal from AFC Bournemouth before securing a permanent £20m deal for him in the 2019 summer transfer window.
Overall, the Englishman has made 134 appearances for the Midlands club across all competitions, chipping in with seven goals and nine assists.
After being an unused substitute in Villa’s opening Premier League game of the season against Bournemouth where they lost 2-0, the centre-back has played the full 90 minutes in all of their league matches apart from the 1-0 defeat against West Ham United.
Across those five appearances, the 29-year-old has racked up more clearances (25) than any other Villa player as well as more interceptions (8) than any other defender at the club, highlighting the clear defensive talent he has.
In fact, his overall performances have earned the defender an early season rating of 6.76/10 making him Villa’s highest-rated outfield player according to WhoScored, which further backs up O’Rourke’s point about how impressive he has been in this campaign so far.
Taking all of this into account, it’s safe to say that Mings has had a very good start to the season and that not having the weight of the captain’s armband and the pressure of leading a massive club like Villa could be a factor in how good he has been so far.
Moving forward, if the England international can keep up this sort of level throughout the campaign, it would surely have Gerrard and the Villa supporters buzzing.
