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What McGinn pinpointed as biggest change at Villa under Emery

Sumeet Paul
Aston Villa captain John McGinn has singled out our mentality as the biggest change that Unai Emery has made since he was appointed as coach.

The Spanish tactician arrived at the end of October 2022, and the transformation under his stewardship has been incredible for Villa as we’ve gone from being threatened by relegation, to qualifying for Europe and now challenging for a top-four spot this season.

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Widely regarded as one of the top coaches in Europe given his track record and trophy haul, Emery is clearly at an elite level, and the manner in which he’s turned us around, both in terms of results and performances, has been magical from a Villa perspective, and it will hopefully continue on for some time.

While it’s clear for us watching on that his coaching skills have hugely benefitted this squad as we look more composed, methodical, organised and disciplined in what we do on the pitch in both phases of the game, both individually and collectively, it was interesting to hear from McGinn about the side of it we won’t experience first hand.

There has been much talk about Emery’s team meetings and how he’s able to teach the players so many new things, and while McGinn was keen to praise that element, he also lauded the Villa boss for the change in mentality that he’s managed to instil and the environment he’s created at the club now.

“Mentality. The mentality hadn’t been right here for a while,” the Villa skipper said, as per the video below from Amazon Prime Video Sport. “The negativity was just constant, the transformation in 12 months has been phenomenal. His mentality is just win, win, win, win.

“The detail and demand is incredible. He just captures you for the whole time [in meetings], you’re learning wee things, just small, simple things, and that’s why there’s no secret as to why we’re climbing the table and getting better.

“My relationship’s good with him. I wouldn’t say there’s a massive personal one there, probably because of the language barrier! But he’ll come to me and ask things, ‘what do you think?’ or ‘I’m going to do this, do you think it’s ok?’, he’s the Boss, so normally I say yes.”

It’s that meticulous attention to detail that has been emphasised and reiterated by so many of the Villa players over the past year or so, and it’s clear that Emery’s coaching influence has been significant on them as they’ve all stepped up.

It’s hoped we’re just at the start of a lengthy process which leads to a sustained bid to challenge for silverware, with Emery very much developing roots at Villa and becoming the figurehead of a project that will hopefully lead to many more great memories moving forward.

The players consistently speak very highly of him, and so from the situation we found ourselves in under former boss Steven Gerrard to where we are now, we’re in a much healthier position both on and off the pitch.

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