Tyrone Mings believes Aston Villa are in good shape heading into 2023.
The defender has enjoyed working with head coach Unai Emery since the Spaniard’s arrival in October, embracing a new tactical style.
A first Premier League defeat of Emery’s reign, a 3-1 loss to Liverpool on Boxing Day, has failed to dampen Mings’ spirits ahead of a trip to Tottenham Hotspur on New Year’s Day.
“We’re in really good shape,” he said.
“We have a healthy learning environment here, so it’s not catastrophic if we lose - it’s more about, ‘how can we be better against Tottenham?’.
“Whatever the result against Tottenham, it will be, ‘how can we learn from that and be better against Wolves?’.
“The season is so long. The manager has a lot of experience in winning games, losing games and being in different positions, whether it be at the top of leagues or in the middle.
“He has a lot of experience that he can give us, in terms of not being too high or too low.
“Whenever you lose a game in the Premier League, you always want to get back out and get a win or a point in the next game.”
Mings felt Villa deserved more against the Reds last time out but has quickly shifted his focus onto securing a positive result in north London.
The 29-year-old says lessons can be learned as they continue their quest to push up the table.
He said: “It was a great first game back for us because, ultimately, these are the teams we want to be challenging against in the table.
“Liverpool have been on the journey of trying to perfect what their manager wants a lot longer than we have, so it was good to test ourselves against them.
“They’re one of the best teams in the world. We felt confident going into the game with what we’d done in the warm-up games and the ideas we wanted to implement from the manager.
“It still feels like we’re in a good place. It was a great opportunity to get straight back into it against one of the best teams in the world in a competitive fixture and show where we were.”
