OPINION
Charlie Nicholas hit the nail on the head by revealing the frustratingly flaw he had spotted in the game of Aston Villa midfielder John McGinn when watching him play West Brom and Villans supporters are surely pulling their hair out as a result.
The Sky Sports pundit was covering the Villans’ 2-0 defeat to West Brom on Saturday and it’s fair to say he had many players he could have focused on.
However it was his remarks on McGinn that will have Villans fans venting their frustrations as they will undoubtedly agree with the pundit now he has brought the player’s flaw to the forefront.
“McGinn is a little fighter, a little battle guy but he gets his head down too often and because of that he doesn’t see the big picture,” said Nicholas on Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday (February 16th 17:23).
It’s fair to say the 24-year-old has been one of the Villans better players this season, as he has shone bright in several of his 35 outings this season, but that doesn’t mean Nicholas’ verdict isn’t correct.
McGinn regularly seems to miss what looks like an obvious pass forward to make and it does see the Villans miss opportunity to launch promising attacks.
While the midfielder clearly has the defensive side of his game down and is capable of playing a defence splitting pass, this flaw does really make him hard to watch at times.
Also with the Villans struggling across the ball, when he does miss an opportunity due to not looking at the big picture, another one might not come along in the same game and it cost Dean Smith’s side.
The other issue with Nicholas rightly highlighting this flaw, is the fact it is probably hard one to train out of him as by now, it’s probably a bad habit that will be hard to stop him doing.
Therefore it does seem that many Aston Villa fans are surely pulling their hair over hearing Nicholas remarks as not only he is right about McGinn, it’s debatable whether the issue can be worked out and made not part of his game.