Unai Emery may be handed pre-season boost at Aston Villa as Tyrone Mings update emerges
Aston Villa and Unai Emery are up and running in pre-season and attention is already firmly focused on the start of the new campaign.
There are still a handful of preparation games to get through before the Premier League starts again, but the curtain-raiser against West Ham United at the London Stadium is now only weeks away.
While Emery will likely be hoping for one or two further additions to his squad, he could well be handed an early season boost after a new update emerged around the fitness of Tyrone Mings.
According to John Towley (1 August), Mings is expected to return to full first-team training sooner rather than later and he could even be able to start matches at the start of September if all goes to plan.
Is Tyrone Mings injured?
Mings’ last appearance in a Villa shirt came in last season’s opening match against Newcastle United at St James’ Park, where his game and campaign came to an end after only 31 minutes of action.
Even in that match, the 31-year-old showed a few moments of quality as he completed 100 per cent of his attempted passes and even created a scoring chance with his only pass into the final third, according to Fotmob.
Defensively, it was a disaster for Villa who were already 2-1 down when Mings got injured, but the defender did win 100 per cent of his duels in the contest while registering two ball recoveries.
The England international certainly gives Emery’s side a greater aerial presence in both penalty areas, which they occasionally lacked last term.
When compared to other centre-backs in the Premier League in the 2022/23 campaign, Mings placed in the 88th percentile for percentage of aerials won per 90 minutes, with an average of 71.8 per cent, according to Fbref.
Mings’ height helped the Villans create multiple chances from set pieces as well. In that season, he sat in the top 20 per cent of defenders for assists per match and the 77th percentile for expected assists per game.
On the ball, he played a major part in Emery’s possession-based style, as he wasn’t afraid to carry the ball up the field, placing in the 73rd percentile for progressive parrying distance.
That would occasionally even see him burst into the opposition’s penalty area to try and kickstart an attack, something he does more often per game than 85 per cent of the league’s centre-halves.
Defensively, Mings could occasionally be accused of being slightly suspect as he sits in the second percentile for tackles made per game and the third for dribblers’ tackles per match.
But he did manage to stop attacks more often than not with his positioning, rather than a big sliding tackle. On average, he completed 1.54 interceptions a game, a figure which sees him place in the top 18 per cent of his peers.
When he did have to tackle, he more often than not came away with possession, only losing an average of 0.31 duels a game, better than 71 per cent of Premier League centre-backs.
Are Aston Villa close to any new signings in the summer transfer window?
There is no guarantee Mings will immediately take back his place in Emery’s starting XI, such has been the excellent form of Pau Torres and Ezri Konsa over the last season.
But with Diego Carlos struggling for consistency and Clement Lenglet’s loan not becoming permanent, the England international will still have a massive role to play in the Premier League and Champions League this term.
His return to fitness can only be a good thing for Emery. Hopefully, he can remain fit and available for the entirety of the season.
In other Aston Villa news, Morgan Gibbs-White could hand Emery a headache after a new summer transfer update at Villa Park
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