Why Tyrone Mings warrants England call and what he'll offer Southgate
Fans of Aston Villa will have been hoping to see at least one of their players called up to Gareth Southgate’s latest England squad, with calls for Jack Grealish’s inclusion for some time now.
It wasn’t the captain that was rewarded with a place this time but rather the player that has arguably been the club’s truest natural leader ever since he set foot through the door.
Tyrone Mings’ arrival on loan at the start of the year would ultimately prove to be the end of a torrid spell at Bournemouth. His impact at Villa Park was instant in organising a back four that up until his first appearance for the club - a 0-0 draw at Reading - had only conceded fewer goals (46 from 29 matches) than Ipswich and Rotherham, both of whom would go onto be relegated.
From the 17 league matches that followed only Sheffield United conceded fewer (15). While the signing of Kortney Hause and return to fitness of Axel Tuanzebe were both important factors there was no question as to the main cause for such a substantial shift in fortunes.
You only needed listen to his first interview for the club to realise that Mings - who previously had played his best football at left-back with Ipswich - was confident of making an impression at the heart of the Villa defence.
That confidence has been evident on and off the pitch ever since and the swagger with which he plays the game drew lofty comparisons to Virgil van Dijk. That was in the Championship of course, where Mings would play his part in a club-record ten match winning streak on route to the play-offs, but the 25-year-old has looked equally comfortable back in the top-flight.
That swift adaptation is what no doubt inspired Southgate’s decision, but perhaps more pertinently Mings is a left footed centre-back and those have been in short supply for some time as far as England have been concerned. For Dean Smith and his desire for defenders to play out from the back having both left and right footed options is valued highly.
It enables players to step out more comfortably on their stronger side and also to switch play quicker and usually with greater accuracy. Given Southgate adopts a similar mindset in terms of liking his defenders to have an influence both with and without the ball, Mings arguably has an advantage on many of the centre-backs that have come before him.
The likes of Michael Keane, James Tarkowski and Lewis Dunk have all been in and out of the team under Southgate and with neither Joe Gomez or John Stones guaranteed first team football, Harry Maguire is arguably the only guaranteed starter in the back four for England.
Given Maguire’s one weakness is arguably his pace - not slow but certainly not quick to balls that manage to find their way over his ‘slab head’ - Mings’ strength in that regard will also stand the Villa man in good stead. He’s as lean a centre-back as you’re likely to find and very quick too, which when combined with his height make him the complete package from a physical standpoint.
It’s ironic, then, that injuries set back the career of a player that was Bournemouth’s club record signing four years ago at around £10m. When Villa agreed to double that and more - with international recognition believed to be among the add-ons in a fee that could surmount to £26m - many scoffed.
He was, to those taking his struggles on the south coast at face value, Bournemouth’s fourth or fifth choice centre-back. A little over a month on and it’s Mings that is in the England squad and not Steve Cook, which should go some way to proving that one coach’s opinion of a player can be very different to another.
Mings is a natural leader that will throw his body on the line and everything that England’s last left footed centre-back Joleon Lescott wasn’t for Aston Villa. The Villans have taken Mings to their heart to an extent that isn’t particularly common for centre-backs for good reason.
Top of the Premier League after three matches for both clearances (32) and blocks (seven), the 6’5” defender is a magnet to the ball in his own box and will carry a threat in the opposition one too.
That’s not to say he isn’t without fault, and while composed in possession and under pressure, his distribution will need to improve to nail down an England berth. He does look long too quickly at times but does try to play forwards rather than sideways, while there’s a natural aggression to his game that can and has led to controversy in the past.
Discouraging that altogether would be to the detriment of both the player and team, though, and working with John Terry is certainly developing the mental side of his game.
That said, the raw materials were all there. Tyrone Mings has the heart of a lion behind the one that graces the Villa crest. Why not make that three?
