Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Brentford has left Unai Emery’s team with just one point from their opening two Premier League matches, while they have failed to score in either.
Villa have endured a difficult transfer window with their spending severely restricted by the need to comply with both the Premier League and Uefa’s financial rules.
McGinn has been publicly critical of those regulations, claiming they give other clubs an unfair advantage. The skipper also voiced his disappointment at the sale of Jacob Ramsey to Newcastle earlier this month, a deal Villa had to do in order to meet the requirements.
But speaking after Saturday’s defeat, McGinn denied any off-field negativity had impacted performances over the opening weeks of the campaign.
“It is a separate situation,” he said. “We are professional footballers and it is what it is.
“Once you go out on a Saturday, you should have enough to compete.
“We do have enough. We knew going to Brentford we needed to compete and I think over the game, it was pretty even. It could have been a draw, it could have gone either way. But we need to be better.”
Asked for his general view on the fairness or otherwise of the spending rules, McGinn replied: “We have spoken about it before. It is up to whoever is making those decisions to decide.
“I’d rather talk about it after a win or a positive performance. It feels like we can make too many excuses and I don’t want to add to that.
“On Saturday we weren’t good enough and we know in this league if you are not at your best, you can get beat.
“We can use it as an excuse but we don’t want to. The manager is not one for excuses.
“We have spoken about it enough and I don’t want to keep talking about it. I think we need to just focus on what we have in the dressing room and on the pitch. That should be enough to play better than we did on Saturday.”
Dango Ouattara’s 12th minute goal was enough to earn Brentford victory, with Villa having now failed to score in their first two matches of the season for the first time since 2002.
Asked what had been missing from their performance against the Bees and in the 0-0 draw with Newcastle, McGinn replied: “We aren’t creating clear chances, we’re not opening up teams and players are not playing at their best.
“It is very early on, we can’t panic but we need to improve, definitely.
“We know we are still a very good team. It is very easy to start panicking and changing what we have built over the past few years. We need to stay strong.”