Ty Bracey Exclusive: Aston Villa need leaders all over the pitch amid Tyrone Mings captaincy focus
We’re delighted to welcome Villa View host Ty Bracey as our exclusive Aston Villa columnist each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the club…
Aston Villa lacked leadership on the pitch without Tyrone Mings in the side but that is a problem the whole team must address believes Ty Bracey.
After manager Steven Gerrard chose to take the captain’s armband off the defender for John McGinn he also left the England international on the bench for the disappointing loss at Bournemouth in the opening game.
He made a fairly triumphant return to the line-up for the win over Everton on Saturday (13 August), and with Diego Carlos now injured he will surely remain there, but Bracey believes the squad all need to show the sort of vocality that the centre-back does and doesn’t believe there as a falling out behind the scenes.
Speaking exclusively to Villa News he said: “There’s a lot that we don’t see. As fans we only see 90 minutes on the pitch, with some occasional snippets off it, little clips behind the scenes and whatnot.
“So there’s so much more to being in a football club that the fans just do not see. I’ll always back the manager and their decisions, but one thing we definitely didn’t have against Bournemouth was a leader on the pitch.
“You could visibly see there was no leader and nobody taking responsibility for how we were playing. So I’ll always back the manager to an extent, but it’s one of those things where I feel like some comments [haven’t helped]. ‘When he looks me in the eye and shows me he’s ready to play,’
“They’re not things that are welcome, I think those things should most definitely be kept off the pitch.”
On McGinn’s prospects as the new captain he added: “There’s so much more to a captain than just the 90 minutes on the pitch and I think it’s very important that we have 11 leaders out there.
“Everybody needs to support each other if somebody makes a mistake, those type of things. I think it’s very important that everybody gets behind each other and it doesn’t really matter to me who’s wearing the captain’s armband, it’s about who’s leading on the pitch, that’s visibly and vocally.
“You know, who are you hearing on that pitch? I think that’s really important.
“We definitely missed that [in the first game] without Mings, so I think we need more vocals on the pitch and the lads really sticking together.”
Finally, on the subject of disputed reports after the Bournemouth loss that there had been a falling out Bracey said: “I don’t think it’s true. Tyrone Mings has publicly come out and said that he was really happy for John, and he’s a great character in who he is as a person. I don’t believe that the guy has a bad bone in his body.
“I don’t think he’s about confrontation and stuff like that. If Steven thinks stripping him of the captaincy and being on the pitch he needs to concentrate on his game more then that’s part of the things that we don’t see, that goes on behind closed doors.
“I’d like to think that there isn’t unrest in the dressing room. From when we were promoted back to the Premier League, we’ve waited until now, it’s been three years, this is the season where we’ve got to progress, so I just hope that there isn’t unrest in the dressing room.”
Whether it was a mistake from the manager to drop Mings or a masterstroke to motivate him back to his best is impossible to tell from the outside, but with the Three Lions man back in the team and three points on the board there is a more positive feel to things.
The injury to Carlos dampens that however and likely cements the returning former captain’s place in the side going forward.
It is perhaps a twist of fate that has turned in his favour, and very much against the new signing’s, but he is going to be needed as much as ever for the coming weeks.
In other Aston Villa news, Richard Keys thinks Mings proved Gerrard wrong with this performance.