John McGinn

[Made In Aston]

5 hours ago, Delphinho123 said:

I’m not sure it’s spoken about enough just how good he has become. I remember 12 months ago, I posted something along the lines of ‘it might be best for both parties if he moves on’. (Yes, sometimes Delphinho does get it wrong!) Since Emery has come in, he’s become the player we all knew he could be from those early days in the championship.

It was always there with McGinn, he just couldn’t stay quite fit enough at times, nor could he properly nail down his best position within the team. But we all knew ‘it’ was there. Perhaps that’s why we got so frustrated as fans with him. We saw the potential but he wasn’t quite unlocking it.

Now look at him. We talk about Luiz and Kamara a lot and how good they are, but for me, McGinn is just as important if not more important to this team. He’s become THAT good. If he hadn’t started last season as badly as he did, there’s no question he would have been POTS. His performances since Xmas time have been phenomenal - particularly at home to Spurs and Newcastle which for me, were arguably the two best individual performances from any player last season.

Right now, he’s our best player. If he stays fit, I don’t think any other player is getting near him for POTS. That’s how highly I rate him and what he’s been doing on the pitch this past 7/8 months. 

I think he is close to club legend status now (along with Mings and Martinez). Just needs to lift a trophy for us and then it will be confirmed. 

[villarule123]

He's well on course to go down as our best player/biggest legend of the 21st century so far. It could even happen this season if we win a trophy. If you think of where we were when he first joined the club, to where we are now. It's a shame because I would have probably said the same about Ty before his injury 

[Steero113]

5 hours ago, Captain_Townsend said:

Our midfield is just unreal. So good.

Also love how under the radar it is. 

All I see on Twitter is Polls of who has the best midfield. Options are always Chelsea/City/Utd (lol)/Newcastle/Arsenal and even Spurs.

Never a mention of Villa's whom I would take over every single one of those sides except City and Arsenal and its not even close. 

We are going to upset a lot of teams this season. We have Youri Tielemans as a bench option in midfield for gods sake. 

[Delphinho123]

1 minute ago, Steero113 said:

Also love how under the radar it is. 

All I see on Twitter is Polls of who has the best midfield. Options are always Chelsea/City/Utd (lol)/Newcastle/Arsenal and even Spurs.

Never a mention of Villa's whom I would take over every single one of those sides except City and Arsenal and its not even close. 

We are going to upset a lot of teams this season. We have Youri Tielemans as a bench option in midfield for gods sake. 

Check out the love in for spurs midfield after the weekend. Bissouma this, Sarr that. Laughable. They should have been two down at half time.

Dont get me wrong, I still feel like pure shit and want Bissouma, but the hype some of these clubs get and how our midfield goes under the radar is laughable. McGinn, Luiz, Kamara, Ramsey is absolutely class with Tielemans in support. 

[Bazmonkey]

5 hours ago, Jas10 said:

Utterly transformed by Unai…

 

Stick that performance in someone in a utd....arsenal.....even west ham the  media would be reaching for andrex watching that.

Quality....good to see him in good form and playing well 

[Stockbridgehibby]

6 hours ago, Sulberto21 said:

You weren’t wrong though. He was playing poorly week in week out. His passing was atrocious and he kept aimlessly kicking out of touch his Hollywood balls  for no apparent reason.

The odd through ball came off and suddenly he was the greatest player on earth for some . His positioning and by minute 60 his fitness were all off. He had a mini revival under Slippy for the first 5 games but then reverted back to the poor two seasons of form he was producing. 

Enter Don Unai since then SJM has got fitter, more tactically aware and flexible. He’s simplified his game to the point where his through balls are selective and much more deadly. His movement and timing has improved immensely. The kid is bordering on one the best 30 midfielders in the league now. 

As for the player from the championship- he’s much better now than he ever was to the point where he could play as one of the two DM’s and he’s the one who sits. And he’s comfortable doing it. 

“Bordering” on the top 30? Does that mean he is 31/32? Who exactly is in this top 30? 

[Sulberto21]

5 hours ago, Jas10 said:

Utterly transformed by Unai…

 

If you watch back his movement for the goal Haaland would have had 30 minutes dedicated to it on MOTD. 

As for my top 30 comment I plucked a number out of the sky and went with it. Sheesh!

[TomC]

1 hour ago, Delphinho123 said:

Check out the love in for spurs midfield after the weekend. Bissouma this, Sarr that. Laughable. They should have been two down at half time.

Dont get me wrong, I still feel like pure shit and want Bissouma, but the hype some of these clubs get and how our midfield goes under the radar is laughable. McGinn, Luiz, Kamara, Ramsey is absolutely class with Tielemans in support. 

The funny thing is, two years ago, everyone thought our midfield was our weakness...and JJ, Doug, and McGinn were all here already.

Unai has brought out the best in Doug and McGinn, JJ has gained experience, and we've added Kamara on a free transfer. Not much investment for a 100% improvement.

Doug and McGinn were misused as the double pivot in Deano's 4-2-3-1...Doug was the 6 and needed to be an 8, McGinn was the 8 and needed to be more like a 10 (though I wouldn't call him a pure 10 because he still defends a lot). Then SG hardly used Doug. Kamara freed us to move Doug and McGinn forward, and Unai did the rest.

 

[sheepyvillian]

I really don't care about the recognition from outside circles. Let them go under the radar, the last thing we want is to hear that tired old cliche of, "I can see one of the top 4 coming in for him". It won't be very long, for certain, that we're top 4 material. 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

2 hours ago, Bazmonkey said:

Stick that performance in someone in a utd....arsenal.....even west ham the  media would be reaching for andrex watching that.

Quality....good to see him in good form and playing well 

I've been saying though, when he plays well, the whole team is on fire. When he doesn't, we don't, weird.

[allani]

1 hour ago, TomC said:

The funny thing is, two years ago, everyone thought our midfield was our weakness...and JJ, Doug, and McGinn were all here already.

Unai has brought out the best in Doug and McGinn, JJ has gained experience, and we've added Kamara on a free transfer. Not much investment for a 100% improvement.

Doug and McGinn were misused as the double pivot in Deano's 4-2-3-1...Doug was the 6 and needed to be an 8, McGinn was the 8 and needed to be more like a 10 (though I wouldn't call him a pure 10 because he still defends a lot). Then SG hardly used Doug. Kamara freed us to move Doug and McGinn forward, and Unai did the rest.

 

I don't think that there was any doubt that our midfield was our main weakness as a team even 12 months ago.  Like you say the shape and balance were all wrong.  Luiz was constantly outnumbered when we didn't have the ball, McGinn was huffing and puffing but mainly not being effective going forwards or backwards, Ramsey was anonymous more often than not, we were an injury away from Marvellous starting and it seemed like our hopes rested entirely on Kamara.  I thought that we needed more reinforcements - turns out that Emery managed to provide the balance without reinforcements.  Remember that Kamara was out for quite a while and we found the balance with Doug still as a 6 by actually getting McGinn to play more like a 6 and stopping him from trying to play like a 10.  With Kamara back we can push both Doug and McGinn into their preferred roles - but I'd feel 100 x more confident now that if Kamara got injured again, Luiz and McGinn could drop back and perform well.  Plus of course we now have Tielemans on the bench and so it would be more likely that we could still keep McGinn higher up the pitch where he is much more effective (attacking and defending).  I have to admit that I thought that Tielemans would play more than McGinn this season but McGinn was awesome on Sunday and so he's definitely claimed the shirt .... for now.

[TRO]

On 24/06/2023 at 10:27, Jas10 said:

 

Humility is a powerful thing.....He has it in bucket loads

[allani]

7 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I've been saying though, when he plays well, the whole team is on fire. When he doesn't, we don't, weird.

Chicken and egg / cause and effect?  Is that that when we play well, he plays well but if we are struggling he's less able to exert his influence?  I have to say that I think we got caught cold by Newcastle and so our midfield never really got a proper foot in the game - I think that's something we need to be better at adjusting too quickly.  We had spells like that last season but usually managed to hang on until half-time when Emery was able to adjust the balance and we were much better second half.  So I think it's less about McGinn and more about the midfield generally.  When our midfield plays well - we look better going forwards and in defence.  When they are struggling, it seems to take us a while as a team to figure out how to adjust - we have a bit of a tendency to start hitting the ball long which doesn't suit our attackers, doesn't give our midfield enough time to adjust positions, etc and puts the defence straight back under pressure.  I bet that Emery has spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to deal with that better.

[TRO]

9 minutes ago, allani said:

I don't think that there was any doubt that our midfield was our main weakness as a team even 12 months ago.  Like you say the shape and balance were all wrong.  Luiz was constantly outnumbered when we didn't have the ball, McGinn was huffing and puffing but mainly not being effective going forwards or backwards, Ramsey was anonymous more often than not, we were an injury away from Marvellous starting and it seemed like our hopes rested entirely on Kamara.  I thought that we needed more reinforcements - turns out that Emery managed to provide the balance without reinforcements.  Remember that Kamara was out for quite a while and we found the balance with Doug still as a 6 by actually getting McGinn to play more like a 6 and stopping him from trying to play like a 10.  With Kamara back we can push both Doug and McGinn into their preferred roles - but I'd feel 100 x more confident now that if Kamara got injured again, Luiz and McGinn could drop back and perform well.  Plus of course we now have Tielemans on the bench and so it would be more likely that we could still keep McGinn higher up the pitch where he is much more effective (attacking and defending).  I have to admit that I thought that Tielemans would play more than McGinn this season but McGinn was awesome on Sunday and so he's definitely claimed the shirt .... for now.

McGinn, is needed in so many ways, even more than just football ability....He is the talisman, the driver, the leader.

They all look to him and UE trusts him.

The fact he is a smashing lad, makes it, all the more credible.

[abdulaziz1]

Being under radar goes into our hands actually. I’m actually thinking at the Newcastle result is in our favor rather the other way round. Let people keep that in their mind and let’s keep winning. We’re playing as a team. A lot of people when they see 4-0 they look at fantasy points by Diaby or Watkins. 4 different goal scorers. Each game a nee man of the match. 
I really like being under the radar again, hated when people started putting us top 4 at the beginning of the season. The hype isn’t a good thing to have, it actually add burden. Now we’re back to reality, let’s do a Leicester. Well 2015-16 not 2022-23.

[allani]

6 minutes ago, TRO said:

McGinn, is needed in so many ways, even more than just football ability....He is the talisman, the driver, the leader.

They all look to him and UE trusts him.

The fact he is a smashing lad, makes it, all the more credible.

Pure footballing ability / talent wise he's (in my opinion) a pretty average PL player.  But the thing is that he performs so often above his natural ability.  His drive and determination to be better than he is, that's the kind of thing that inspires people.  It's almost like his motto would be "Be better than the best you can be".  He's also really taken to whatever it is that Emery has said / does say to him and has upped his performance even further.  Plus he's a really good egg and always looks happy to see other people doing well. 

[TRO]

4 minutes ago, allani said:

Pure footballing ability / talent wise he's (in my opinion) a pretty average PL player.  But the thing is that he performs so often above his natural ability.  His drive and determination to be better than he is, that's the kind of thing that inspires people.  It's almost like his motto would be "Be better than the best you can be".  He's also really taken to whatever it is that Emery has said / does say to him and has upped his performance even further.  Plus he's a really good egg and always looks happy to see other people doing well. 

Our William Wallace.

[ferguson1]

2 minutes ago, TRO said:

Our William Wallace.

[TRO]

25 minutes ago, abdulaziz1 said:

Being under radar goes into our hands actually. I’m actually thinking at the Newcastle result is in our favor rather the other way round. Let people keep that in their mind and let’s keep winning. We’re playing as a team. A lot of people when they see 4-0 they look at fantasy points by Diaby or Watkins. 4 different goal scorers. Each game a nee man of the match. 
I really like being under the radar again, hated when people started putting us top 4 at the beginning of the season. The hype isn’t a good thing to have, it actually add burden. Now we’re back to reality, let’s do a Leicester. Well 2015-16 not 2022-23.

Despite the encouraging signs, from our time under UE.....There is still a way to go, and Newcastle illustrated that....against Everton, they did not press aggressively and this allowed us to play our natural game.

We still have issues playing against the aggressive press, and it stops us playing our natural game.....its an observation, not a criticism, because UE will be so aware of this and will work on it, in time.

 

Edited August 22, 2023 by TRO

[TRO]

1 hour ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I've been saying though, when he plays well, the whole team is on fire. When he doesn't, we don't, weird.

When he plays well i.e Newcastle at Villa Park......He plays with aggressive gusto....it inspires the team, and wins the initiative in the game.

Its hard to play that every game, so we need others to pick up the mantle at times.

When he has a quiet game, the rest go a bit passive and the initiative can be snatched from us, too easily.

Edited August 22, 2023 by TRO