Aston Villa captain John McGinn has had an international break to forget with Scotland.
Days after Scotland suffered a last-minute defeat to Poland in their opening UEFA Nations League encounter, the Scots were this time downed by a late Cristiano Ronaldo winner in Lisbon.
McGinn started in the middle of the park against Portugal and he was subbed off by Steve Clarke late on, with the Aston Villa midfielder receiving mixed reviews for his performance.
On the Premier League stage, there have been question marks over McGinn’s performances, with Unai Emery’s side winning two of their opening three matches.
There is the sense that Villa’s man with the armband doesn’t have that spark to his game and he isn’t helped by the fact that he has had a very gruelling 12 months of football.
Villa will play Champions League football after the international break, so that much-needed rest is going to be hard to come by for the 29-year-old.
The Edinburgh News handed McGinn a rating of 5/10 for his performance against Portugal, who came from a goal down, to put three points on the board.
It was suggested that McGinn’s attacking quality was lacking, even though he is pushed further up the field when donning the colours of his country.
Herald Scotland was more kind to the all-action midfielder because they handed him a 7/10 rating and they thought he did ‘most of what we expect our talisman to do’.
John McGinn’s Scotland lose to Portugal
‘Driving run down the left flank to win an early corner,’ wrote the Edinburgh News. ‘But didn’t pose much of an attacking threat. Spent more time on the back foot defending and wasn’t his influential self. Subbed.
‘Did most of what we expect our talisman to do,’ wrote Herald Scotland. ‘An injury scare five minutes before half-time. Evaded his marker plenty of times with a trademark drop of the shoulder and swivel of the hips.’
Villa in the Champions League
No rest for the wicked as what Villa have planned for in years gone by will now come true next week when they face Young Boys in the Champions League.
Before that, Emery’s side face struggling and out-of-sorts Everton in the Premier League, with McGinn expected to start a large proportion of these games.
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There is squad depth. Ross Barkley has started well for Villa and will be eager to get his start after returning to the club, as will Jacob Ramsey after his injury issues last season.
The bench players now have to come to the party because, if they perform, then Villa will prove to the critics that they can perform whilst also playing Champions League football.
