Are Aston Villa too reliant on John McGinn?

John McGinn is essential to Aston Villa. The results speak for themselves but the team’s performances since his return are the real proof of the pudding.

McGinn went off injured in Villa‘s Premier League loss at home against Everton in January. The captain eventually missed two league phase matches in the Europa League, both Villa wins, as well as a loss in the fourth round of the FA Cup and seven games in the league.

Villa won just two of those league fixtures and lost three, the defeats including humiliating outings against relegation-bound Wolverhampton Wanderers and Champions League qualification rivals Chelsea in back-to-back games.

Villa’s captain is back and it shows

McGinn’s first start after injury was the inevitable loss against Manchester United at Old Trafford but the differences between Villa with him and Villa without him have been stark.

Unai Emery‘s team have now won two in a row and three games in four since McGinn’s return from the bench against Lille in the Europa League round of 16 first leg but it’s even more noteworthy that they’ve been great value for those wins.

They look like a team renewed and refreshed. Boubacar Kamara is out injured for the rest of the season and Youri Tielemans has made only a brief appearance as a substitute in his first game back, but McGinn’s impact has been immense.

We shouldn’t be surprised. He’s done it before and we know he’s been working hard on his fitness on his way back into the side. Yet the extent to which Villa look more energetic, more cohesive, more incisive, more competent and more competent is quite remarkable.

Worries for the future?

Villa are a changed team with and without the ball. There are tactical tweaks Emery has made that have been evidently beneficial but McGinn’s return is the biggest factor and his presence has enabled those changes too. Amadou Onana might have had his best game in a Villa shirt against the Hammers as a result.

Unfortunately, every positive unleashed by McGinn this season is necessarily counterweighted by one big negative. Villa’s skipper is 31 now. He won’t be Emery’s silver bullet forever and the time will come when being without him will be the norm.

As a club, Villa will need a plan for that. This isn’t a one-man team situation. McGinn is a crucial player and his absence in combination with others has been damaging. But it’s as obvious as ever that he’s Villa’s tactical and indeed cultural glue.

Villa supporters will never quite know the fullness of McGinn’s importance but it can’t be ignored that there is nobody in the squad who can do what McGinn does. Trouble is, there’s probably nobody outside the squad who can do what McGinn does either.

How on earth does a football club even begin to solve that problem?

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