Former Leeds United and Coventry City striker Noel Whelan has hailed on loan Bournemouth centre-half Tyrone Mings as being the Championship’s equivalent to Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk given the commanding performances he’s put in for Aston Villa since arriving on his loan spell back in January.
Speaking to Football Insider this week following last Sunday’s tasty encounter between both sides, where we ultimately shared a point and dominated the football news cycle for a bit, Whelan rightly pointed out just how massive a player Mings had become for us as we made our charge into the Play-Off spots.
“He is brilliant, I would love to have him in my team. He has everything you want in a defender – physical, aggressive, great build, dominant in the air, quick good feet, dominant in both penalty boxes. He is like a Championship Virgil van Dijk. He has changed Villa’s defensive line-up and been a great signing. When you are up against a defender like that, it is a hard 90 minutes. He wants to bully you in a good way, and you end up dropping a bit deep, or going wide, because you know you can’t get past him.”
With 15 appearances to his name, everyone is hoping we can make the ‘matching fee’ clause work in our favour over the summer as he’s definitely put himself in the spotlight after his injury problems at Dean Court, and whilst he’s not solely alone for our recent record breaking run of good form, the 26-year-old has been a key part in it.
