Journalist Mat Kendrick has given his view on Aston Villa’s decision to leave out defender and captain Tyrone Mings from the starting lineup for their loss at home to West Ham United.
Mings, who was named captain this past summer by manager Dean Smith following the departure of Jack Grealish, had started in all bar one of Aston Villa’s Premier League games so far this season, but found himself on the bench for their defeat to the Hammers, only coming on following the red card to Ezri Konsa to restore the defensive line.
And speaking about the decision to drop Mings on the latest edition of Claret and Blue, Kendrick expressed his surprise at Smith’s call, saying that it was arguably the biggest mistake that the team as a whole made on the day:
“It still surprised me massively that Mings was dropped, to be honest. I think you can pore over lots of different performances, but I think that was the one mistake.
“I think it was a mistake, because I think he’s the glue that holds Villa together, even when he’s having a bad personal performance, I think people can underestimate what he can do in terms of a galvanising effect.”
TIF Thoughts on Mat Kendrick’s comments about Tyrone Mings and Aston Villa…
Has Tyrone Mings had a good season so far?
Yes
No
The decision to drop Mings becomes all the more surprising when you take a look at the numbers that he has put up this season. With the exception of tackles, where he ranks joint-15th in the side with 0.4 per game, he ranks very highly in a number of other statistical categories.
He is fourth in terms of interceptions with 1.2 per game, joint-second in terms of aerial duels won at 3.2 and leads the team in both clearances and blocks with 3.3 and 1.3 respectively (all stats from WhoScored).
Smith did state after the game that he dropped Mings in an attempt to nullify West Ham’s threat from set-pieces, noting: “They are very powerful from set-pieces and Kortney [Hause] is very good from them. Tyrone has probably not been playing at the top of his game.”
However, to drop someone based on one aspect of the game rather than looking at the overall picture seems like a pretty odd decision to make, something Smith certainly found out the hard way, and you doubt he’ll make the same mistake again anytime soon.
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