Aston Villa midfielder John McGinn has revealed that his lack of goals for the club is ‘eating away’ at him after scoring again for Scotland this weekend.
The 28-year-old now has 16 goals in 53 caps for his country, as he has established himself as a consistent goalscoring threat for them in a more advanced role.
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However, he hasn’t registered a goal in a Villa shirt since November 2021, and so that would naturally be a source of frustration for him as he evidently has the quality in the final third to be decisive.
It hasn’t always been down to McGinn though as he was often deployed in a more defensive role at Villa prior to Unai Emery’s arrival, which saw him fail to register either a goal or an assist up to that point this season.
Since Emery was appointed though, he has impressed on the right side of midfield and looks more of a threat, chipping in with two assists in his last seven outings, albeit he has been forced to shift back inside in a central role with defensive responsibilities for the last two games following Boubacar Kamara’s injury.
However, it’s clearly an area in which McGinn knows he must improve in, as he’s shown it for us in the past but consistently with Scotland that if given a role where he can push forward, he can make a big impact.
“No, not at all [expected to score so regularly for Scotland]. I just need to try and focus on getting one for Villa now,” he told Sky Sports, as quoted by BirminghamLive.
“I have gone 46 [games] without a goal at Villa which is eating away at me – and I score after 20 [minutes] for Scotland. I am sure when I get down to Birmingham I will be getting reminders of that and I need to try and get back on the goal trail with the club.”
As we’ve seen with Douglas Luiz in particular under Emery, he has given him the freedom to be more expressive in an attacking sense and allowed him to play in a more advanced role to create and make us tick.
We saw a similar influence from McGinn on the right side of midfield as he started to get into more dangerous positions but lacked the finish, and so with the hope that Kamara is back after the international break, McGinn will potentially be shifted back out wide where he can be better placed to end that goalscoring drought for us.
While Ollie Watkins’ form in front of goal in recent months has been great to see, it’s important we continue to get contributions from all angles as we did against Bournemouth last time out, and hopefully McGinn can be added to the likes of Emiliano Buendia, Jacob Ramsey and Luiz in getting forward and making decisive impacts.