John McGinn crucial to helping Aston Villa fight on all fronts, ace tops key statistic
Aston Villa enjoyed a superb run under Unai Emery last season, but they now have it all to do next season as European football approaches.
Conserving energy levels will be key as the club look to fight on all fronts, and one major way this can be achieved is by drawing fouls, allowing the players to reset and, perhaps often more importantly, take a breather.
Fortunately, Emery’s men are very good at doing just that, with Aston Villa drawing more fouls (498) than any other team in the Premier League last season, as per The Athletic.
The figure was 19 higher than second-placed Crystal Palace (479) in the list, and over 200 more than Premier League giants Manchester United (297).
And one key player to that statistic was midfield ace John McGinn, whose expert dribbling abilities and low centre of gravity helped him win more fouls (66) than any of his teammates.
The Scotland international is superb at relieving pressure and helping his defenders get out of sticky situations, and he will look to do more of the same next time out.
But it wasn’t just McGinn who proved crucial to such a welcome statistic, with his fellow midfielders Jacob Ramsey, Emi Buendia and Douglas Luiz also in the club’s top-five most-fouled players last season.
The major negative amid this positive, however, is that Aston Villa managed just 10 goals from set plays last season, putting them joint-11th in the Premier League in this regard.
Therefore, there is clearly much to be done on the training ground this summer in order for the club to fully take advantage of the numerous free-kicks that they are winning, particularly when it comes to attacking half fouls.
In other Aston Villa news, one player has been predicted to feel the heat as a big-money bid is submitted for his potential replacement.