Tyrone Mings may have only been on the pitch for 11 or so minutes yesterday, but the Aston Villa man impressed Jose Mourinho.
The former Premier League boss told talkSPORT on Tuesday evening that the Villa defender was ‘happy’ to come on as a substitute, with England beating the Czech Republic 1-0 at Euro 2020.
Mings was dropped for the final group game at Wembley, despite the towering defender helping his country to back-to-back clean sheets against Croatia and Scotland last week.
And whilst it was Mings’ club teammate, Jack Grealish, who stole the Villa limelight yesterday, Mourinho was keen to pin-point out the man who came off the bench.
“I have said Mings is doing a fantastic job,” said Mourinho. “Even tonight when he came on, you could feel on the touchline that he was happy to come for 10-15 minutes.
“He’s a team player. The spirit is good. And England behind (the defence) is more than safe with these top players.
“Media has to understand that a player performing well is dropped even though he is deserving to play. The coach can have a different option for the good of the team, and that’s the case.
“Mings is doing a fantastic job. He’s also a leader. He’s vocal. He gives not just football to the team. He gives also a certain kind of emotion and mentality.
“I won’t be surprised (for potential Germany/knockout clash) England plays three at the back – Stones, Maguire and Mings).”
There’s no doubt that Mings will feel hard done by for being dropped, but in the end, it was justified.
England secured yet another clean sheet, and his replacement, Harry Maguire brought a sense of positivity with his passing from the back.
It will be interesting to see if Gareth Southgate now sticks with Stones and Maguire as his back two.
And if he perhaps considers changing to a back three and playing Stones, Maguire and Mings because it seems as though either Germany, Portugal or France await them in the next round.
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