Unai Emery gets John McGinn decision all wrong in Aston Villa draw v Sheffield United as torrid 23% stat emerges
Aston Villa let an unprecedented opportunity slip against Sheffield United and Unai Emery may regret a crucial decision he made on key player John McGinn.
The Villans missed the chance to go top of the Barclays Premier League table after they were disappointingly held to a 1-1 draw against the Blades at Villa Park on Friday (22 December).
Cameron Archer, sold by Villa to the Blades in the summer, stunned the hosts by opening the scoring in the 88th minute from close range but were pegged back by Nicolo Zaniolo’s equaliser in the seventh minute of added time.
The result means Aston Villa go joint-top with Arsenal in the Premier League table but missed the chance to go two points clear at the summit and also saw their 15-game winning run at Villa Park come to an end.
The Villans were also frustrated by VAR, which corroborated on-pitch official Anthony Taylor’s decision not to award an 11th-minute penalty when Ollie Watkins was bundled over by Vinicius Souza.
VAR continued to deny Villa after the break, with Jacob Ramsey judged to have fouled Wes Foderingham from a corner before Leon Bailey swept home just before the hour.
Emery will be disappointed by his side’s lethargic display, in comparison to their recent displays at Villa Park and their performance may well have been impacted by his strange decision to deploy McGinn in midfield and axe Leander Dendoncker who was a sure bet to replace the suspended Boubacar Kamara.
The Spaniard may well have hinted at the Belgian starting the match against the Blades during the week but Dendoncker was nowhere to be seen with McGinn partnering Douglas Luiz – a decision which failed miserably.
The Scot has been an absolute revelation when deployed on the left-flank providing defence with serious issues when he drifts in and out of his flank to flummox his opposition defence, as shown through his goal against Arsenal.
Jacob Ramsey was deployed in that role but never made the same impact McGinn does in the role.
The former Hibernian man had become a crucial tool when driving into the box from crosses and cutbacks but his deep deployment alongside Luiz in midfield completely took away that threat.
Friday’s encounter certainly showed why McGinn should no longer be considered just as a traditional central midfielder but a crucial auxiliary midfielder who is a tremendous penalty box-crasher and wide-playmaker.
And his stats from the fixture highlighted how much his influence waned when deployed deep.
As per SofaScore, McGinn registered two key passes but from his usual wide-left role, he’s registered six key passes from his last three Premier League games (four against Man City).
Other than that, the Scot completed just 50 per cent of his two dribble attempts, completed just one of his four crosses, lost possession of the ball 23 times which is relatively poor for a deep-lying midfielder and won just three of his 13 ground duels at a torrid 23 per cent.
Emery certainly got that decision all wrong on Friday night and will almost certainly revert back to type against Manchester United on Boxing Day which should see Dendoncker start in his usual defensive midfield role.
The Belgian always seemed like the smart bet for the role given his own stats from the position.
Perhaps it is fairer to instead use Dendoncker’s figures from last season, in which his pass-success percentage was 88.2, which is in line with the likes of Boubacar Kamara (89.8) and Douglas Luiz (88.5) this time around.
Dendoncker was often tidy in possession last season, in fact, as he completed 93 per cent of his short passes [FBref] – no Villa midfielder boasted a better return – and likewise his passing over what is defined as “medium” range (91.7 per cent).
In the 1-1 draw with Zrinjski Mostar last week when he completed 92% of his 77 passes and won two of his three aerial duels at 66 per cent [Sofascore].
None of this is to say that Dendoncker will all of a sudden become a key player under Emery in this unexpected Premier League title challenge but he should have played a role against Chris Wilder’s men.
Emery’s decision on McGinn was further compounded by the way he defended Archer’s opener when being completely fooled by Gustavo Hamer’s tremendous skill before assisting the former Aston Villa hitman.
McGinn must never start in a midfield-pivot role again unless it is absolutely necessary for him to.
In other Aston Villa news, a star player has justified his British record price tag already this season.