Key Aston Villa player set to miss several weeks through injury

After picking up a hamstring injury in the first half of Aston Villa’s 3-1 win over Wolves on Saturday afternoon, captain John McGinn is likely to miss several weeks of action according to manager Unai Emery.

"“He will not be available, I think, for a few weeks”"

- Unai Emery

The Villa skipper and Scotland international suffered the injury whilst lunging for the ball towards the end of the first half and slowly made his way down the tunnel moments before the half time whistle was blown. He was replaced by Leon Bailey who himself had just recovered from a minor hamstring strain picked up three weeks ago in the win over Leicester City.

With the fixture schedule not slowing down or getting any easier for the club over the next few weeks, as McGinn has recently discussed, it is likely he will miss some important games in both the Premier League and Champions League.

Villa travel to League One side Wycombe Wanderers in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday, which McGinn would likely have been rested for anyway. Following that, Villa travel to Ipswich Town next weekend before their much-anticipated Champions League clash with Bayern Munich and home game against Manchester United at the start of October. It is likely that the 29-year-old will not be able to play a part in any of those games and Villa will therefore be without their hugely influential leader on the pitch.

The October international break takes place after Villa have faced United on October 6th and the aim for McGinn’s return to the pitch will likely be after that international period has drawn to a close.

The change in system without McGinn

McGinn’s unfortunate departure from the game came at a good time for Villa in terms of the system they wanted to play. At the time of his injury, the Villans were 1-0 down and had played very poorly in the first half, having not had a shot on target in the first 45 minutes. Wolves had dominated the game up to that point and without a natural right-back or right-winger in the side the attacking threat down that side was virtually non-existent.

Leon Bailey, a more natural winger, came into the game and made a positive impact in the second half. His willingness to attack Wolves left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri with his dribbling and skill meant Wolves were forced to use two players to defend him when he had the ball. At times, Bailey worked some space to drive with the ball or picked out a good cross into the box. He got to the bye line well prior to Villa’s opening goal to set up a chance for Watkins, whose header was cleared off the line.

As Bailey is also someone who likes to remain out wide and hug the touchline, the space through the middle of the pitch was much greater. This meant that the likes of Morgan Rogers and Ross Barkley, who was excellent when he came on in the second half, had more space to dribble into or pass the ball through.

From an attacking point of view, Villa looked far more dangerous with Bailey playing on the right side of midfield. However, McGinn’s impact on the pitch cannot be under underestimated and his hard work in defence and leadership skills will be missed during the next few weeks.

Aston Villa 3-1 Wolves: The recap

Matheus Cunha put the away side ahead half way through the first half after an error by Diego Carlos. The Brazilian gave the ball away, whilst playing out from the back, straight into Cunha’s path and he smashed the ball in off the post from outside the area to give Wolves the lead.

Ian Maatsen, John Duran and Ross Barkley were all introduced in the second half and all made a significant impact. Maatsen’s pace and willingness to drive forward gave Villa a much more positive attacking outlook down the left-hand side in the second half, while Barkley dictated the play nicely from the middle of the park. Barkley’s last two performances from the substitute bench has been impressive and he will without a doubt start Tuesday’s match at Wycombe.

Villa’s equalising goal came from Ollie Watkins who bagged his third goal in two games. Duran pinched back possession outside the area and played it to Rogers who slid the ball to his right where Watkins was on hand to finish from six yards out.

The home sides pressure continued to grow and the Villa Park faithful played their part in pushing the team to grab a winning goal. With just a few minutes of normal time left to play, Youri Tieleman’s inswinging cross from the left was met by Ezri Konsa at the far post to make it 2-1.

13 additional minutes were added due to a potential ACL injury picked up by Wolves centre-back Yerson Mosquera in the second half. Four minutes into that stoppage time Ian Maatsen played a perfectly weighted pass down the left for Morgan Rogers to latch on to. He then picked his head up and slid the ball across for super-sub Jhon Duran to tap home into the empty net for his fourth goal from the opening five games of the season.

UTV