Aston Villa journalist Dan Bardell has been sharing his thoughts on Villa midfielder John McGinn.
This comes after Bardell recently made an appearance on The Villa View to discuss everything related to the Birmingham club.
On the topic of McGinn and his season for Villa so far, Bardell shared his thoughts on the midfield man.
He said: “He’s a top-class player, and he’s a Premier League player undoubtedly, which I don’t think you can say about everyone in our squad. If you think back to the start of the season, he scored three goals in the first seven or eight games. He was doing really well and I think he was one of those players that neutral fans were really liking. He’s just naturally someone that you look at and you like him, John McGinn, I don’t care who you support – I think most people will like John McGinn.
“If you remember just before his bad injury, he’d been playing with a knock. And he was he wasn’t quite at his best. So we haven’t actually seen McGinn’s best for a long time now, so we need it back. And that’s probably been one of the major players in us having a bad season, is the amount of time we’ve missed a fully fit McGinn because I think people forget before Christmas that he was going a bit quiet in games because he wasn’t fit.
“We were still playing him because we need him and we haven’t seen probably the true John McGinn since maybe October, that’s a hell of a long time to be without your Player of the Year of last season and someone who is undoubtedly a Premier League player, so I think people overlook that and forget it. We need him back firing fully.”
Would Villa still be in danger of relegation if McGinn had stayed fit all season?
Yes
No
McGinn, who is currently valued at £14.4 million, first signed to the Birmingham club back in 2018 from Hibernian for a fee of £2.79 million.
Since then, the 25-year-old midfielder has gone on to make 72 appearances for Dean Smith’s side in which he has managed to score 11 goals and provide 12 assists along the way.
Despite missing a large portion of the season after picking up a serious ankle injury back in December, McGinn has impressed in the 25 Premier League appearances he’s made so far this season, earning himself a season rating of 7.04/10.
This rating puts him as Villa’s second-highest-rated player for this campaign, only below Jack Grealish (per WhoScored).
TIF Thoughts…
It’s a shame that McGinn suffered such a serious injury earlier on in the season. As Bardell spoke about, McGinn’s absence could have been the difference between Villa being in a relegation battle, like they’re in now, or being safe from the drop.