The only negative from Villa’s comeback against Wolves was an injury to John McGinn just before half-time. The Scotland international went down after going in for a challenge, immediately holding his right hamstring. Unai Emery has confirmed in post-match remarks that Villa’s club captain will be missing for a number of weeks.
Whilst Villa have good squad cover in midfield, the right flank is troublesome with Leon Bailey just back from a similar layoff, and Philogene also unavailable. McGinn is therefore out for our trip to Wycombe in the EFL Cup, the Premier League trip to Portman Road and perhaps most disappointingly for him professionally the visit of Bayern Munich in The Champions League.
Embed from Getty ImagesThis raises a couple of selection queries for Emery and also poses the question of where McGinn fits into the current formation and style. Bailey was of course the natural swap at Villa Park at Wolves, but McGinn was playing out of position on the right. The right has been our only real area of concern, coinciding with Matty Cash’s absence and a multitude of faces being trialled at right-back.
The question is where does McGinn slot back in upon his return? Tielemans is playing out of his skin and Emery seems to have the luxury of altering a game by rotating Onana and Barkley to good effect. This doesn’t take into consideration Jacob Ramsey, Buendia and Kamara (who is now back in full training). Given Villa’s busy fixture schedule, there’ll be no shortage of opportunities, but it will be interesting to see how McGinn is utilised when he returns to full fitness.
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