Steven Gerrard has claimed that Tyrone Mings must show significant improvement if he is to return to the starting line-up while also questioning the attitude of the England defender.
Before the start of the season, the 29-year-old was stripped of the captaincy in favor of John McGinn.
Mings was an unused substitute in his side's 2-0 opening day defeat to Bournemouth with Ezri Konsa and new signing Diego Carlos - who both played the full 90 minutes - preferred by Gerrard. That's a stark contrast from last season when Mings started and played the full 90 minutes in all but two Premier League matches.
Gerrard's approach to Mings has been a top storyline for Aston Villa this summer after the centre-back parlayed his previous club form over the last two years into a pair of starts for England at Euro 2020.
MORE: 2022/23 Premier League top goal scorers | Table & standings
What did Gerrard say about Mings after the Bournemouth defeat?
"When I made the decision over the captaincy, I set him that challenge," Gerrard told BBC Radio West Midlands.
"We said to Tyrone 'if you get back to your consistent best, you'll be back in the team'."
At the time of announcing McGinn as the new Aston Villa captain, Gerrard claimed that there had been no negative reaction to the news from Mings. However, that had seemingly changed by the time the first game of the season came around.
Asked if his decision to leave the centre-back out of the team had been brought about by the player's reaction, Gerrard responded: "It's a little bit of that. He's also missed some training time with an injury and there's a niggle in the background as well.
"When Tyrone is back at his best and looks me in the eye and shows that he's ready to play, he'll get opportunities."
MORE: Best stats from Premier League opening weekend in 2022/23 season
Premier League 2022/23 TV channels, live streams
| UK | USA | Canada | Australia | |
| TV channel | Sky Sports, BT Sport | USA Network, Telemundo, Universo | — | — |
| Streaming | NOW TV, Sky Go, Amazon Prime | fuboTV, Peacock | fuboTV | Optus Sport |
UK: Matches are carried across Sky Sports and BT Sport streaming and TV platforms, with select matches on Amazon Prime.
USA: Select matches are televised on USA Network (English) and Telemundo or Universo (Spanish), and all three channels can be streamed on fuboTV. The rest of the matches are streamed on NBC platform Peacock for subscribers.
Canada: Every Premier League game streams live and on demand exclusively via fuboTV.
Australia: Fans in Australia can stream matches live and on demand on Optus Sport.
