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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Vincent Whelan

Paul McGrath calls out Steven Gerrard over treatment of Aston Villa star

Saturday saw Aston Villa start their season off on a real low by all accounts as they were completely outplayed by newly-promoted Bournemouth in a 2-0 defeat.

And while it's only one game, there is already widespread dispirit among the Villa faithful given how poorly they tailed off towards the end of last season.

Although he did lead Rangers to their first SPL crown in 10 years, the jury remains very much out on Steven Gerrard's capabilities as a manager.

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He's come under-fire for a few decisions in particular such as stripping the captain's armband from Tyrone Mings in favour of John McGinn in spite of the Scottish midfielder's form having deserted him since the start of the year.

And one Villa supporter to voice their displeasure at this move is club legend Paul McGrath.

The 1993 Player's Player of the Year took to Twitter to express his frustration at seeing a former core player in Mings on the bench for that shapeless performance at the weekend.

McGrath's tweet (Twitter)

He said: "Tyrone Mings is good enough for Aston Villa. In my opinion he ticks all the right boxes, so how do you lose the armband and your place in seconds?

"You don’t, so who said what to who, no one cares get him in the team. Respect."

New £26million signing Diego Carlos started in place of Mings at centre-back and afterwards, Gerrard issued a cold response when quizzed on his former captain's predicament.

The England centre-back has publicly stated he has no issue with Gerrard over the whole controversy ((Photo by Matthew Ashton - AMA/Getty Images))

Asked by BBC WM if his decision to bench Mings was any consequence of the player's reaction to being replaced as skipper, he revealed: "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."

The Liverpool legend then made sure that his comments would make national headlines by adding: "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."

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