Aston Villa hosted reigning Premier League champions Manchester City at Villa Park on Saturday night, and Steven Gerrard can breathe a sigh of reduction together with his workforce coming away from the conflict with a 1-1 draw.
Despite having solely 28% possession, 10 fewer pictures and finishing a lot fewer passes, the Villa boss might be happy with his workforce for holding off Pep Guardiola’s unbeaten powerhouse. Indeed, they could have been robbed of a chance to take all three factors.
A controversial decision noticed Philippe Coutinho’s second-half aim dominated out after the linesman flagged for offside, and the whistle was blown earlier than the Brazilian pulled the set off. However, upon second viewing, the previous Liverpool midfielder was fairly clearly in an onside position, but the linesman’s authentic name was not reviewed by VAR.
Aside from this, Gerrard might be happy with the stable efficiency of his workforce who took their few alternatives to take some extent from the sport. However, there was one participant who didn’t make an impression all through the match, with Villa captain John McGinn remaining anonymous all through.
The 27-year-old newly-appointed skipper had fewer touches than Emiliano MartÃnez (24 v 60), made simply eight correct passes, didn’t win any of his duels (0/2) and misplaced possession of the ball each 2.4 touches, earlier than lastly being hooked by the supervisor within the sixty fifth minute.
In truth, the aspect lastly scored their equaliser lower than ten minutes after McGinn was subbed off for Coutinho, proving that the tactical change was successful.
It might be disappointing for Gerrard contemplating the Villa boss made the decision to place his confidence and belief into the participant to guide by instance when he gave the captain’s armband to the midfielder firstly of this season, as McGinn was one of many worst performers within the workforce over the course of the sport.
Should Gerrard drop McGinn within the subsequent recreation?
Yes
No
Aston Villa had misplaced three video games in a row forward of their draw with Man City and now sit 17th within the Premier League desk, one thing that should drastically enhance over the approaching weeks and months in the event that they don’t wish to be dragged right into a relegation scrap over the ultimate levels of the season.
With that being mentioned, Gerrard should proceed working to discover a resolution to Villa’s struggles and discover one of the simplest ways to deploy his workforce to attain a constructive final result, which might put McGinn’s inclusion beneath query over the following few fixtures.