Unai Emery believes John McGinn could hold the key to Aston Villa qualifying for the Champions League
Aston Villa's John McGinn
Aston Villa's John McGinn(Image: PA)
View Image
Unai Emery is confident that if John McGinn can sustain his goalscoring form, Aston Villa will return to the Champions League.
The Aston Villa captain has scored in each of the last two matches, four days apart, against Lille and West Ham, marking his return to the squad in perfect fashion.
McGinn had missed nearly two months of action due to a knee injury suffered during the 1-0 home defeat to Everton back in January.
His return has helped galvanise Villa, who have now won three of their last four matches following a run of just one win in seven across all competitions.
McGinn’s recent strike against West Ham put Emery’s side on their way to claiming successive home wins for the first time since the start of January.
He received the ball on the edge of the box from Jadon Sancho, who had been picked out by Matty Cash in what was a training-ground routine, before the Scot curled the ball into the far corner, leaving Mads Hermansen with no chance.
McGinn’s goal was Villa’s 18th from outside the penalty area this season across all competitions, the most of any team in Europe’s big-five leagues. Only Ashley Young (12) has scored more Premier League goals from outside the box for Villa than McGinn (11).
“John McGinn, his challenge is to add numbers,” Emery insisted in his post-match press conference. “Two years ago I told him at the beginning of the season, if you add numbers this season, 10 goals and 10 assists, we can achieve our objective.
“This year is something similar. He is adding numbers and with those numbers we can keep the position we are in now.”
After scoring Villa’s opening goal against Lille last week, McGinn admitted that increasing his goal involvements is a key objective, as it also helps take the pressure off Ollie Watkins, who doubled Villa’s lead against West Ham in the 68th minute.
“Ollie has given us so many goals through the years that when it isn’t quite clicking in top gear for him, and I think he played a lot better tonight with a great assist for the second goal, but we need to rack up more numbers,” McGinn stressed after beating Lille.
“The manager touched on that a couple of seasons ago when we finished fourth that Douglas got 10 goals. That’s been my aim for a few seasons. I never used to, but the manager sets targets for the forward players. I feel a little bit hard-done-by because sometimes he pushes me back and forgets that!
“I want to target 10 goals because I haven’t managed to do that yet, so hopefully this year is the year. It is up to us as forward players and wide players to take the pressure off Ollie.”
McGinn and Morgan Rogers are two versatile players for Emery, a key aspect of their games that he sees as a real weapon.
“McGinn is versatile. He played fantastic on the left side during the season,” Emery explained on Sunday. “Morgan, he is a versatile player as well. Sometimes he achieves his good performance inside and outside.
“He played a fantastic game today. Even sometimes he can play on the right side, and he performs fantastic there. His mentality is the most important. If he keeps it, and I speak to him about being in different positions, he does not refuse.
“He can play here, here or here. When he doesn’t play a good match, he can also play a bad match left or right.”
Content Image
Content Image