Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard’s decision to take the club captaincy of Tyrone Mings may not have pleased everybody, with some players in the dressing room potentially wanting the England international to remain as skipper.
That is according to journalist Pete O’Rourke, who was speaking to This is Futbol about the latest at Villa Park, following the Premier League’s kick-off.
It was announced in July that Gerrard had made John McGinn his on pitch captain, with Emiliano Martinez taking the role of vice-captain, and Ashley Young becoming the club captain.
Following that decision, the former Rangers manager also made the decision to omit Mings from Villa’s starting eleven in the opening Premier League game of the season, in a 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth last weekend.
However, he did bring him back into the starting lineup against Everton.
And O’Rourke believes that the decision may have garnered a mixed reaction in the dressing room.
“Yeah, there might be people inside that dressing room who would have preferred Mings to stay captain.
“Gerrard having to deal with Mings and sort of get him back onside is going to be pretty interesting as well to see how he does that.
“I think that could be a key thing for Gerrard as we said, this is the life of a manager, you can’t please everybody so it’s going to be one of those ones where you either live by the sword or die by the sword.
“He’s made the decision, he’s got to stick to it now.”
TIF Thoughts on O’Rourke’s comments
We agree with O’Rourke’s comments and believe that in any dressing room, there are going to be people that disagree with stripping somebody of the captaincy.
We also think that this is a big gamble from Gerrard, and he will hope this decision garners results, rather than the dressing room turning on him.
Therefore, we think it will be an interesting season ahead for both Mings and Gerrard, with the manager now under even more pressure to succeed this season.