Lee Hendrie wrong to call John McGinn ‘Poor’ as star shines for Aston Villa v Olympiacos
Lee Hendrie was wrong to call John McGinn “poor” during the Europa Conference League clash between Aston Villa and Olympiacos.
Unai Emery’s side crashed out at the semi-final stage after a shock 6-2 aggregate defeat to the Greek giants, losing both home and away in the tie.
And during the second half of the game it was the captain and Scotland international who was the target of former midfielder Hendrie, after a bad free-kick delivery with the team chasing the game.
“They’ve [Aston Villa] just had a free-kick about 40 yards out, it’s a poor delivery from John McGinn looking for Matty Cash on that right-hand side just to try and play that ball back across,” he said [Sky Sports News, 9 May, 9:10pm]
But in a disappointing performance McGinn was one of the better performers on the night as the stats show according to SofaScore.
Aston Villa lost to Olympiacos despite brilliant John McGinn performance
The central midfielder started in a box-to-box role alongside Douglas Luiz, with a back-three behind them and wing-backs on either side supporting Moussa Diaby, Leon Bailey and Ollie Watkins.
The 29-year-old racked up a 93% pass accuracy, completing 57 of 61 passes on the night, and lost possession just seven times over the 90 minutes.
He also made three key passes, more than anyone else on the pitch (level with Bailey), completed 100% of his crosses (2/2) while defensively he also won five of his six ground duels.
It was overall a complete performance and had his teammates been able to match that level of display then Villa could well have found themselves overturning a deficit from the first leg and preparing to face Fiorentina in the final in Athens at the end of the month.
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