England face Bulgaria on Saturday and Kosovo on Tuesday
Thursday 5 September 2019 00:07, UK
Tyrone Mings has praised the positive impact John Terry has had on his development as the Aston Villa defender prepares for a potential England debut.
Mings has been called up to the England squad for the first time by Gareth Southgate ahead of the European Qualifiers double-header against Bulgaria and Kosovo at Wembley.
The 26-year-old has been working with former England and Chelsea captain Terry - now assistant manager at Villa Park - since January.
Mings' loan spell with Villa was made permanent in the summer and he feels Terry has been a key influence on him.
"He has developed my game for sure," said Mings.
"I've been fortunate to work with some really good coaches over the years - [former Ipswich boss] Mick McCarthy; [Bournemouth manager] Eddie Howe; [Villa boss] Dean Smith.
"John Terry is just another great example of somebody I can learn from, who has been there and achieved everything I would want to achieve in the game.
"To learn from him and take little pieces of advice from him is something I feel really fortunate to be able to do.
"We do a lot of work on clips and reviewing my performances. So I feel like I'm in a really good place and I have a really good mentor to learn from."
Terry has told Mings he can gauge how good a game he has had by how little people are talking about him.
"He tries to tell me to go through a game without being seen or without being mentioned," added Mings.
"He says that is a good reflection of a centre-back's performance - if they come off the pitch and nobody really knows what they've done and they've quietly gone about their business. So that is something I am trying to do more.
"After a game we'll watch clips of my game back and he'll then tell me what he likes and what he doesn't like.
"He's worked under such great managers and he's obviously got all the experience that I would love to have, so things that he tells me really stick and we then try to implement that on the training pitch and work through different things.
"He gives me a little bit of criticism but at the moment it's a lot of positivity."
