Tyrone Mings makes 'no excuses' admission in brutally honest Aston Villa interview
Tyrone Mings held his hands up and took his portion of responsibility for Aston Villa's defeat to AS Monaco in the Champions League on Tuesday, a defeat which means that a top eight finish in the group stage is now out of their hands. Villa were beaten 1-0 after Wilfried Singo opened the scoring early, and that proved to be enough to settle the fixture.
Mings self-administered blame in the lead up to the corner from which Singo forced the ball home after an initial good save from Emiliano Martinez, after the Villa centre half conceded possession and invited pressure. The narrow defeat - only Villa's second in what has otherwise been an impressive European campaign - has opened the door for Brest, Bayern Munich and AC Milan to leapfrog the Lions on Wednesday night.
England defender Mings, whose role in the side under Unai Emery has become all the more pivotal after the injury to teammate Pau Torres and the impending sale of Diego Carlos to Fenerbahce, adopted a no excuses attitude when he reflected on the defeat and he is of the belief that the dressing room intends to give themselves the best chance of a top eight finish by beating Celtic next Wednesday.
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"Frustrating," Mings told TNT Sport. "Football is a very simple game and we weren't good enough. It definitely wasn't a lack of effort, there were no excuses. I gave a poor ball away leading to the corner, didn't defend the corner very well, couldn't get back in the game.
"We couldn't take the chances we had, and they are the fine margins of football. Especially when you're coming away to a European team like this, who were as desperate to win as we were, I think it's very simple the way that the game went - we just weren't good enough.
"We'll take the positives that came from the game, but absolutely we have to be better. We have to stay balanced, we have to be exactly the same as if we'd won or lost. We need to keep a consistent mood, a consistent attitude towards where we are. It wasn't a good night, and there isn't a person who feels good about it.
"Fans have travelled a long way and not to take something from the game for them is really disappointing, but we will go again. I have no excuses, honestly - we were well equipped to have enough to win the game. The game is one of very fine margins and, in the big moments, we came out on the wrong side of them. Nobody in there has any excuses.
"It's obviously a very big game next week, but they all are in their own way. We'll look forward to it, but we have a big game at the weekend which is our main focus. We won't think too much about this game before the weekend, but we will comprehensively debrief it before the next Champions League game."
