Tyrone Mings: Unai Emery's methods have given me a new lease of life at Aston Villa
Tyrone Mings claims working under Unai Emery has given him a new lease of life at Villa – to the extent he’s even celebrating catching opposition forwards offside.
The England international centre-back says Emery’s methods are unlike anything he has previously experienced in his career and he believes he is becoming a better player because of it.
Friday’s 2-1 win over Leeds was Villa’s fourth victory in six matches since the Spaniard took charge and Mings said: “Individual games are so tough at the moment because we are learning new ways to play and I think that has really given me a new lease of life.
“Along with, obviously, how the team are doing. When the result is positive everyone looks on your performance in a better light. But I’m really happy with my performances so far.”
He continued: “I’m being exposed to a whole new different way of coaching - not better or worse - just different. It’s the first foreign manager I’ve worked under - I don’t think Mick McCarthy counts - and his coaching staff have such an impressive attention to detail that I’m learning every day.
“That’s what you want. If you are focused on absorbing information and trying to improve when you have people around who are pushing that and you are able to soak it up, I think it’s really key for me at this stage of my career.
“Most of the games I’ve had in the Premier League, I’ve been learning on the job. When I signed for Villa, I’d played maybe 20 games at centre-back. Now I’m tuning into what an elite centre-back should be.”
Emery’s attention to detail is legendary and Mings explained how the boss has impressed on players the importance of keeping the right body shape, depending on where the ball is on the pitch.
Defenders, meanwhile, are drilled on staying in line to help catch opposition forwards offside – something which paid off against Leeds when Rodrigo saw a first half effort chalked off.
Mings said: “You see us celebrate offsides - quite heavily - because that’s what we are focused upon. If we hold our line and the attacker is offside, it’s dead. You saw that against Leeds with their disallowed goal.”
Mings, who missed out on England’s World Cup squad having won 17 caps since 2019, remains hopeful of an international recall but insists his primary focus is on improving his game and maintaining his impressive club form.
Villa are now behind 10th-placed Chelsea on goal difference alone but Mings insists no-one is getting carried away.
“I don’t think teams like Chelsea and Liverpool are guidelines for us. They’re maybe in a false position, the league is all over the place at the moment.
“Some teams have fantastic starts to the season. We are so blinkered in terms of what we’re doing. Everything else is external noise. We’re pushing in every game and that’s our focus.
“Sometimes you look at the table and think ‘ah, if we win a couple of games we’ll be there’. But that’s the quickest way to trip up, isn’t it?
“When you were looking at the run of fixtures when the manager came in, would people have given us 13 points from those six? Maybe some of the most avid Villa fans would, but probably not.
“Anything can happen. We could have beaten Liverpool. We could have drawn on Friday night. Every game is tough so, honestly, I know it sounds cliched but we are just taking every game as it comes.”
