Aston Villa: Unai Emery to axe John McGinn v Manchester United, Gabby Agbonlahor worried
Gabby Agbonlahor fears for Aston Villa ahead of this coming weekend’s Premier League showdown with Manchester United.
Villa have been sensational this season, but they fell to a poor 3-1 home loss at Chelsea on Wednesday (8 February) in the FA Cup.
The Villans produced arguably their worst team performance of the campaign, with no player coming out of the match with any real credit.
While it would be unfair to single out any individual, John McGinn in particular was poor and that could leave Unai Emery with a big call to make.
As Agbonlahor said on talkSPORT Breakfast [8 February, 07:13am], McGinn “looked tired” and “in need of a rest”.
“This high line. I look at Manchester United and they killed us on Boxing Day. Do that again and we’re in trouble.”
Reporter Adrian Durham added: “McGinn disappeared from the game. If he’s not at his best, it’s ‘no McGinn, no party’ for Villa.”
In McGinn’s defence, he did at least try to make things happen for Villa – nobody bettered his two key passes – but there were more negatives than positives on a disappointing night.
John McGinn struggles against Chelsea laid bare
There was one example when possession was turned over but he could not get the ball out of his feet to find an isolated Ollie Watkins.
McGinn was taken off in the 71st minute with a pass-accuracy percentage of 67 – only Leon Bailey (64) and Youri Tielemans (60) fared worse.
The Scotland international also had just 32 touches of the ball [WhoScored], while two of his three attempts were off target.
As per Sofascore, he also won just three of his 10 ground duels and did not contest any aerial duels, and he also lost possession 10 times.
There has been a general consensus that McGinn is in need of a breather after a slog of a season that has also included the European exertions.
His 1,961 minutes is the third most of any Villa outfielder in the Premier League this season, behind the now-injured Ezri Konsa (1,999) and Watkins (2,033) [WhoScored].
With the Man United game coming into focus, supporters will think back to the second-half horror show on Boxing Day when somehow losing 3-2.
Villa’s players struggled to cope, including McGinn, whose six unsuccessful touches in that game were the most he has registered in a single match this season.
Emery needs to look to add some steel to central midfield for the reverse fixture against United by including a ball retainer in there.
As someone who attempted just 15 passes against Chelsea, and completed only 10, McGinn does not tick that box unfortunately.
The fan favourite still has a huge part to play for the Villans this season, but Emery cannot afford to run him into the ground, which is now a real risk.
In other Aston Villa news, Ian Wright has delivered his verdict on the Douglas Luiz to Arsenal transfer talk.
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