Why 'overcooked' John McGinn is a big worry for Aston Villa as Scotland media slam display vs Slovenia

John McGinn will return to Aston Villa in the coming hours after a rather poor end to his international stint with Scotland.

Sebastien Pocognoli's first four games in charge of the Tartan Army yielded just one win, which came against North Macedonia on Saturday.

Scotland's international fixtures ended on Tuesday night with a 2-1 loss at Hampden Park against Slovenia, who they'd drawn 0-0 with in the opening Nations League game.

McGinn, 31, played 87 minutes before being replaced by Robbie Ure in the late stages of the fixtures.

It was by no means a good night for the Scottish team.

And the same can be said about McGinn, who faced criticism for his performance.

Why the Scottish media slammed John McGinn's performance vs Slovenia

After Ryan Christie put Scotland ahead in the 31st minute, Aljosa Matko and Danijel Sturm were both on target in the second half to secure a win for Slovenia.

McGinn wasn't involved in much of the action despite playing almost the entire game, and that was pointed out by The Herald in their player ratings, where they award the Aston Villa midfielder a 4/10 for his display and said: "The Tartan Army hero answered some recent criticism with a big display in North Macedonia, but was back to having a quieter night again here at Hampden."

The Edinburgh News pointed out that the former Hibernian ace "occupied a deeper role compared to recent games", while adding that he had a goal-bound shot early on before being booked late in the first half.

Scottish Daily Mail journalist Gary Keown scored McGinn 4/10 but wasn't impressed with how he faded through the game. "Looked more like himself in the first half, but struggled with the rest of the side as the game wore on. Must do better," said Keown.

The Daily Record's match blog highlighted a couple of moments where McGinn was fouled but when the game was still goalless, the Aston Villa man was criticised. They said: "It's been a bit more promising from Scotland in the last few minutes, as they look to impose themselves on this one, but McGinn's ball into the box is overcooked and out of play."

What were McGinn's stats in the game?

Sofascore says that McGinn had just 37 touches of the ball against Slovenia, compared to an average of 41 per game in the previous three Nations League fixtures this international break.

With that, you can see why he was criticised for being quieter than usual.

Off the ball, Scotland didn't press Slovenia anywhere near as much as they could have and, as a result, McGinn made just one defensive contribution by the way of winning a tackle.

He did, however, win six out of nine ground duels he contended but was booked for the only foul he committed.

Disappointingly, McGinn didn't make any key passes despite a solid pass accuracy of 84 per cent on the night.

Neither of his two shots hit the target, either, with one going well wide and another being blocked to generate a meagre xG of just 0.09.

Clearly, it wasn't a classic display by McGinn, who might have seen the rigours of the three-week/four-match international break catching up with him on Tuesday.

Aston Villa fans, however, will be hoping that he's not too exhausted for a run of seven fixtures in 21 days, starting on Saturday when they take on Brentford at Villa Park in the Premier League.

Brentford, Fenerbahce, Newcastle, Viking, Manchester City, Bournemouth and Fulham all lie in wait for Villa in October, before November starts with games away against Barcelona and Manchester United ahead of the next international break.

McGinn's tepid display against Slovenia suggests that he might need resting for one of two of those upcoming fixtures.