Aston Villa captain John McGinn has insisted that we have to embrace a new challenge and the pressure that comes with it this season if we want to make further progress.
Villa enjoyed a superb turnaround under Unai Emery after his arrival last November, going from a precarious position above the relegation zone to qualifying for the Europa Conference League in the space of a memorable eight months.
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While we continued to impress over pre-season and improved in our adaptation and understanding of Emery’s tactical demands, it’s hoped that our level of performance continues to develop and evolve to allow us to compete at the top level across multiple fronts for silverware this year.
McGinn though acknowledges that there will be a different type of challenge and pressure this season with teams having a better idea of what to expect when facing us, and so Emery and the squad will need to adjust where necessary and continue to find solutions to win games consistently.
“I’m excited, preparations are bubbling away,” he told VillaTV. “The challenge for us now is last season we surprised a lot of teams and we had an incredible run to get ourselves into Europe. Now the respect will go up and teams will try ten times harder to stop the way we play.
“We’ve got to embrace it. It’s the pressures of playing for a club that want to belong in the European places and try to get in the top six. We need to embrace that the pressure is on.
“We’re in a good place and hopefully preparation continues to go as good as it has been. We’re all excited and looking forward to getting up there [Newcastle]. Once they get that place going it’s rocking. We need to be at our best to win but we’re going there to get the three points, and the full squad believe we can do that.”
It’s an excellent point from the Villa talisman, and it’s a mentality and approach that we have to develop if we want to consistently compete for major honours.
With the additions of Pau Torres, Youri Tielemans and Moussa Diaby this summer, they will hopefully help us become more dynamic and unpredictable, while giving Emery additional tactical options to adapt to circumstances and find ways to get the better of different challenges we face.
Meanwhile, McGinn also outlined his own personal objectives for the campaign ahead as he looks to make a more significant impact in the final third, with Emery preferring to play him on the right side of our midfield which gives him licence to get forward more often.
The 28-year-old ended last season with one goal and three assists in 36 appearances, and so that is undoubtedly an area in which he can improve.
Further, he also spoke about the objectives of the team as a collective, and it’s clear that progression in the league and being in a position to compete for trophies in the latter stages of competitions are the top priority now as we’ve certainly come a long way in a short time under the guidance of Emery.
“Personally, I want to get more goals. My goal return in the last few seasons hasn’t been great,” he added. “I’m now playing in positions higher up which allow me to do similar things that I’ve been doing for Scotland, trying to get into the box and create things.
“My position can change at any time; I’m quite versatile and the manager likes to change the way I play. I’m just happy to help the team.
“I certainly want to get more goals but as a team we want to do something exciting. I know we keep saying it but we need to have better runs in the cups, we need to progress as far as we can in Europe and in the league we’ll wait and see what we can do.
“We want to improve on last season, that’s the aim.”
