BBC Sportsound pundit Tam McManus was left drooling over the performance of Aston Villa ace John McGinn as Scotland won 2-0 against Albania at Hampden Park on Monday night.
Although some Celtic fans savaged the Villa midfielder for his display, McGinn was able to play a key role in helping the Tartan Army win their opening UEFA Nations League fixture after the disappointment of defeat to Belgium last week.
And ex-Hibernian player McManus was full of praise for McGinn when he saw criticism aimed at the midfield maestro.
“McGinn has been tremendous has bossed the game on the ball and set the tempo to press Albania off the ball. As I said amazing what people see,” said McManus via his personal Twitter account on Monday night in response to Aston Villa’s summer signing being called “horrific”.
https://twitter.com/The_Tman10/status/1039239090938564608
OPINION
McGinn is never as bad as Celtic fans make him out to be. They were linked with him for a long time and for whatever reason they thought that their club was above him. Villa fans will be the first to say how wrong the Celtic faithful were though because he has been sublime since quitting Hibs to join Steve Bruce’s side. Against Albania on Monday, he was not at his best but he was nowhere near as bad as some of the Scottish supporters were making him out to be. McManus, who has a lot of admiration for McGinn, is near enough spot on with his views on the player’s performance on Monday, but he did misplace a few paces. However, playmakers, especially young ones like McGinn, aren’t going to finish a game with a 100 per cent pass ratio – not even Andres Iniesta could manage that. People expect too much of players sometimes while others simply just have an agenda against them for no good reason.