Pat Nevin not impressed with £120k-a-week Aston Villa player vs Newcastle

Aston Villa and John McGinn enjoyed a difficult start to their Premier League campaign against Newcastle United yesterday.

Speaking on the Football Daily Podcast, Pat Nevin was speaking about Villa’s 5-1 defeat at St. James’ Park.

There’s been plenty of excitement around Villa Park this summer heading into the new campaign.

Unai Emery masterminded a sensational second half to last season that saw Aston Villa qualify for the Conference League.

The club have made three astute signings in the summer, bringing in Moussa Diaby, Pau Torres and Youri Tielemans.

Diaby gave Villa’s travelling support hope yesterday as he brilliantly equalised following Sandro Tonali’s opener.

However, things only got worse from there with Villa conceding four more goals and losing Tyrone Mings to a serious knee injury.

Nevin also suggested that John McGinn was particularly poor for Villa against Newcastle.

The Aston Villa captain couldn’t deal with Newcastle’s electric midfield yesterday.

Villa star McGinn struggles against Newcastle

Speaking about the 28-year-old, Nevin said: “They’ve got some very, very good players. A number of players didn’t play at their best today.

“Maybe John McGinn as much as anyone else, but they’ve got a good team, they’ve got very talented players.”

The £120,000-a-week Scottish international has a big job on his hands this season.

Douglas Luiz and Boubacar Kamara have been brilliant for Aston Villa since Unai Emery’s arrival.

They’ve given McGinn more license to get forward and join attacks, although his goals and assists output wasn’t great last season.

He was sarcastically cheered by Villa’s fans last season when being substituted last year which is never a good sign.

McGinn was recently rewarded with a new contract at Villa but will need to put in better performances than he did against Newcastle to justify it.

If he doesn’t, Youri Tielemans is waiting in the wings to take his place in the side if given the opportunity.