Tyrone Mings pulls no punches with honest Aston Villa verdict

Tyrone Mings admits Aston Villa must stop conceding 'such poor goals' as Steven Gerrard's side aim to get back to winning ways against Leicester City this weekend.

Villa are currently on their longest losing streak since Dean Smith was sacked for losing five matches in a row back in November. A defeat to the Foxes on Saturday would equal that run of results with West Ham, Arsenal, Wolves and Tottenham all beating Villa in recent weeks.

And the club captain says there has been some soul searching at Bodymoor Heath during a two-week break in fixtures, after last weekend's scheduled game against Liverpool was postponed due to their involvement in the FA Cup semi finals. Mings told VillaTV: "As a defence, we have to look at not conceding such poor goals.

"The league is hard enough and unforgiving enough without us giving the opposition a leg up or a goal advantage. We want to be better in both boxes.

"Both attacking-wise and defending, we have to be more ruthless and more clinical. I don’t say that to single out the attackers, I say that as a team we need to serve the attackers better and get them some good goalscoring opportunities. As defenders, we need to keep the ball out of our net way more than we have been doing."

While Villa sit in a lowly 15th position on the Premier League table, this weekend provides an opportunity for Gerrard's side to kick-start a positive ending to the season. Saturday’s opponents were beaten 2-1 at Villa Park back in December, and Mings is eyeing the double over Brendan Rodgers' men.

He added: "When you’re talking about these local games, while it’s not a direct derby, it’s certainly one that we want to win. It’s certainly one that’s important to the fans; it’s certainly one that if we