John McGinn making waves at Aston Villa as Hollywood actor shares Real Madrid and Barcelona admission
Aston Villa midfielder John McGinn’s “brilliant” performances so far this season are certainly bringing global recognition after his display against Manchester City during the week.
Aston Villa recorded their 14th home win in a row as they triumphed 1-0 over Premier League champions Manchester City at Villa Park on Thursday (6 December).
In-form Leon Bailey’s deflected shot gave the Villans a fully deserved victory over Pep Guardiola’s men as their recent slump in form continued.
The result meant Aston Villa usurped Thursday’s opponents into third place in the Premier League table with 32 points from a possible 45 on offer.
The Villans face another huge test in their lofty Champions League spot ambitions when they take on Arsenal on Saturday evening (9 December) for which McGinn will be central once again after his complete and stunning display against the treble-winning champions.
The Scottish international is making that left-sided role his own and his stats on the night make for some thrilling reading for the Aston Villa faithful.
As per SofaScore, McGinn registered four key passes from open play, completed 100% of his dribbles (5/5), won six tackles, won 14 of his duels, won three fouls and completed 50% of his long balls in one of his best performances of the campaign so far.
McGinn has become a master of his craft under Emery and his ability to use his strength and size to retain possession, especially in dangerous areas makes him such a unique and irreplaceable commodity in the Aston Villa team.
The former Hibernian maestro will be a central figure when they take on the Gunners at Villa Park.
Ahead of the game, Scottish Hollywood actor Dougray Scott, who is a Hibernian fan and has starred in films Mission Impossible 2, Hitman and Liam Neeson’s Taken 3, shared his admission on the Scottish international as he took on Chris Sutton in his predictions for BBC Sport (8 December).
He said: “We had him at Hibs and he is a brilliant player, doing a great job for Villa. This is no disrespect to Villa, who are having a brilliant season, but I think he will end up at Manchester City, Liverpool or Manchester United – or he will go to Real Madrid or Barcelona; he is that good.”
McGinn has truly shown himself as a versatile, hard-working player who’s constantly setting the tone with Villa’s press and defensive efforts from the front and is so reliable at squeezing out of pressure and using his size to hold up the ball.
The 28-year-old is also excelling in the final third, ranking eighth out of all Premier League footballers for through balls (8) and seventh for successful take-ons.
Amongst his positional peers in Europe’s top-five leagues, McGinn ranks in the 97th percentile for successful take-ons per 90, 83rd percentile for shot-creating actions, 96th percentile for through balls, and 92nd percentile for goal-creating actions [FBRef].
Every elite-level team in Europe needs a player of McGinn’s class, endeavour and calibre, and the fact that he is getting worldwide acclaim now from Hollywood actors certainly tells its own story.
To be lauded as a player who could play for Barcelona or Real Madrid, or even any of the biggest clubs in the country certainly shows you’re an elite-level footballer and McGinn’s development under Emery makes those lofty clubs a huge possibility for him.
However, such is the humanity and humbleness of McGinn, Villa Park is his very own Santiago Bernabeu.
In other Aston Villa, one forgotten player may be losing patience with Unai Emery as his bags could already be packed ahead of a January exit.