Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings cut a frustrated figure on the bench as his side toiled against Bournemouth on Saturday. 

That's according to Sky Sports' live coverage from David Richardson.

The lowdown

Villa's Premier League season got off to the worst possible start as they fell behind within two minutes at The Vitality Stadium, with Jefferson Lerma putting the newly-promoted side ahead.

Mings was almost ever-present for the Villans last season, starting 35 of their 38 Premier League matches.

But Steven Gerrard has taken the captain's armband away from the centre-back ahead of the new season, instead handing it to John McGinn.

And he named him amongst the substitutes for the first match of the campaign as Ezri Konsa and new signing Diego Carlos got the nod.

The latest

Richardson noted that Villa were shambolic at the back in the first half and questioned whether the presence have Mings would have shored them up.

"Aston Villa are all over the place defensively," he said. "FPL [Fantasy Premier League] managers with Lucas Digne or Matty Cash in their team will be watching through their fingers."

The reporter then spotted an unhappy figure on the bench: "Tyrone Mings is sat on the bench looking pretty miffed. Would things be different if he was in the team?"

The verdict

You can see why Richardson raised the point.

Villa's lack of organisation seemed to cost them for Lerma's goal, with podcaster Dan Bardell tweeting that 'you could see we were going to concede from that corner as soon as the ball came in'.

Perhaps the thinking was that Mings, who evidently has leadership experience, could have marshalled the troops a little more effectively.

Carlos and Konsa also somewhat struggled in the air during the game, winning just two out of seven aerial duels combined (via SofaScore).

Mings, for his part, won 64% of those battles in last season's top-flight, so perhaps he could have helped them in this department too.