Dean Smith shares John McGinn dilemma for Aston Villa’s derby clash

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Dean Smith has admitted that it is going to be difficult to get John McGinn back into Aston Villa’s side following his suspension.

Dean Smith has told Aston Villa’s official website that his initial thought when he saw his side’s second goal in their 4-0 win on Saturday was that it is going to be incredibly difficult to get John McGinn back in the team for this weekend’s Second City derby.

McGinn has been suspended for the Villans’ last two games. And despite the 24-year-old unquestionably proving to be one of the club’s best performers this term, his absence has actually coincided with a couple of better performances from Villa.

After securing a 1-1 draw with Stoke City towards the end of February, Smith’s men tore promotion-chasing Derby County apart, scoring four times before the break to secure only their second win since Boxing Day.

It was Glenn Whelan, Conor Hourihane and Jack Grealish who started in the middle of the park. And Smith has admitted that the trio have left him with a dilemma that he only noticed when he was shown Tammy Abraham’s goal at half-time against the Rams.

“One of our analysts showed me our second goal, and the movement and quality of it,” he told the club’s official website. “I thought straight away, ‘bloody hell, it’s going to be hard to get John McGinn back in this team’, which prompted some laughs.

“But it’s nice to have that problem again. We haven’t had it for a while.”

With Hourihane and Whelan improving in recent weeks and Grealish’s position in the side surely not up for debate in the slightest, it may well be that McGinn does have to wait a little longer to make his return.

But as Smith said, it is pleasing for Villa that they have that problem to contend with. Their play-off hopes remain slim, but if the 4-0 win is a sign of things to come, then they certainly cannot be ruled out of the race for the top six, especially if Smith is able to justify leaving players such as McGinn out of his side for one of their most important games of the campaign.