Steven Gerrard has shed a light on why he opted to strip Tyrone Mings of the captaincy at Aston Villa, and why he still believes it was the right decision to help the centre-half thrive.
Gerrard urged Mings to ‘solely focus on you’ after losing Aston Villa captaincy
Steven Gerrard has revealed he told Tyrone Mings to focus just on himself after losing the captaincy at Aston Villa, via quotes by Birmingham Live. He felt the noise that comes with the role had started to be a burden that was weighing heavy on the defender’s shoulders.
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John McGinn took over skippering the ship at Villa Park on the eve of the 2022/23 Premier League campaign. Mings had held the armband since last summer when Dean Smith opted to promote the defender after Jack Grealish finalised a £100m transfer to Manchester City.
Yet Mings is now no longer a part of Aston Villa’s core leadership group, with Emi Martinez the vice-captain and Ashley Young acting as club captain. Gerrard’s decision to demote the 29-year-old also came with a seat on the bench at the start of the season at Bournemouth.
Since then, Mings has worked his way back to being a mainstay of the defence at Villa Park with 90 minutes in five of their following six top-flight affairs. He only sat out as Aston Villa lost 1-0 at West Ham United due to illness, with Ezri Konsa and Calum Chambers featuring.
Mings delivered his performance of the season so far against Southampton
Gerrard admits he put a spotlight on Mings ahead of the Premier League season kicking off by stripping the defender on the captaincy. But the Aston Villa coach is confident he made the right call as he saw it as a chance to help Mings focus on himself and what he provides.
“I put that noise on Tyrone,” Gerrard said. “The reason I did that and, when I inherited the boys when I did, there was a lot of noise around Tyrone Mings and I felt it was affecting his performances and his consistency.
“The idea was to take that away from him so he can focus on him more and not worry about other players in the team and other roles within the team.
“‘Just solely focus on you, Tyrone, and bring your attributes to the table consistently,’ because he’s got them, without a doubt. He can get better and better. But Tyrone needs to focus on Tyrone and that will help him, in my opinion.”
Mings delivered arguably his best performance of the season so far as Aston Villa edged a 1-0 win at home to Southampton on Friday night. The 17-cap England ace – not in Gareth Southgate’s latest 28-man squad – was an imposing presence on the ground and in the air.
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