Scouting Report: John McGinn, Hibernian

John McGinn is a 22-year-old central midfield player. He is contracted to Hibernian until the end of the 2019 season. Transfermarkt values him at €550,000.

This report considers McGinn’s performance against Celtic 30^th September 2017.

Unfamiliar terms (CAT Score, “packing”, xA, xSC etc) can be resolved in my de-discombobulater, also known as a Glossary.

Defensive Performance

Hibernian deployed a man to man marking system out of possession. McGinn tracked Rogic in the first half, and McGregor in the second. McGinn played central and rarely moved outside the width of the two penalty boxes except to cover the advanced left full back, Stevenson.

Defensive Statistics

McGinn’s Defensive Action Success Rate (DASR) of 67% was higher than any of the Celtic midfielders. For example, Ntcham was 50% whilst Hayes, stationed at left back in the second half, was 52%.

McGinn was twice caught in possession by Rogic in central defensive positions. One of those occurrences resulted in a shot on target. Celtic’s Expected Goals from those errors was 0.054.

Key Defensive Actions – 1^st Half

1. 2m – anticipates Celtic pass out of defence and dispossesses Ntcham in the centre of Celtic defensive half.
2. 3m – dispossesses Lustig in Celtic right back position.
3. 18m – gets caught in possession in the centre of his own half because he won’t take the simple pass back or sideways and dallied on the ball. This allows Celtic a transition attack against a disorganised defence. Rogic cuts inside him and gets a shot on target.
4. 20m – Rogic sends ball down line and Forrest cross is cleared. Defending the rebound, Rogic runs off McGinn to get secondary shot, McGinn caught on his heels.
5. 22m – makes press decisions based on position of ball and what passing channels he can disrupt – e.g. switching towards Ntcham and leaving Rogic wide right to deal with the immediate threat.
6. 23m – chased Rogic’s pass to win a tackle – a good press decision. Won challenge then played very difficult pass and gave the ball away again.
7. 26m – covers the advanced left back Stevenson.
8. 29m – Rogic able to gain a yard on him and pass inside him just outside box.
9. 38m – good anticipation to intercept a pass to Edouard, followed by a driving run and pass.

Rogic was marked throughout by McGinn. He completed 18 passes, only giving the ball away once. McGinn’s close presence meant Rogic’s passes were often backwards. The Australian played 0 key passes. Rogic only played 1 “pack” pass, linking with Forrest in the 20^th minute to take out 2 Hibernian players. He had 2 possessions in the box. Rogic won 3 out of 8 tackles, retaining possession 5 times.

Both Rogic shots in the half were as a result of McGinn errors.

Key Defensive Actions – 2nd Half

1. 58m – caught in possession allowing a Celtic break.
2. 60m – loses McGregor and is “packed” by a Lustig pass.
3. 70m – lets McGregor run off him, leading to a shot off target.
4. 79m – Roberts runs past him without a challenge. The equaliser results from the subsequent corner.
5. 81m – fouls Roberts on edge of box.

Man marking McGregor, the Celtic midfielder completed 24 passes with 5 incomplete. Having possession only once in the box, he nevertheless scored from this, although McGinn was shadowing Rogic from the corner. McGregor had 2 shots in the 2^nd half, and did not provide any key passes. McGregor was not involved with any challenges in the 2^nd half.

Attacking Performance

He is predominantly left footed and can be characterised as a box-to-box midfielder.

In possession, McGinn looked to get forward quickly to support the three advanced Hibernian forwards. His first instinct with any pass is to play it forward. He is also willing and able to run with the ball long distances at speed, relying on pace and directness rather than trickery or skill.

Attacking Statistics

McGinn’s 27 completed passes is the same as Rogic managed, although he also gave 11 open play passes and 3 set piece passes away. 67% pass completion would have been lower than every Celtic player other than Griffiths.

No other player provided as many Key Passes – the nearest being 3 by Stokes. His Expected Assists (xA) was 0.517 from those chances, the highest of the game.

33% of his passes took out at least 1 opponents, higher than any Celtic player. His 9 pack passes scored an Impect of 49, behind only Tierney of Celtic on 62.

Although McGinn scored 2 goals, both were from outside the box and would attract an xG value of 0.105. Both were fine left foot finishes however. McGinn has never scored more than 4 goals in a single league campaign. His goals here were his first of the season. Over his career, McGinn averages 0.08 goals per 90m.

His overall Impect score of 62 matched top Celt, Tierney.

CAT Score measures overall creative and scoring threat. 12 is a very high score, above the average for any Celtic player this season. The top Celtic CAT score in this match was McGregor with 6. Similarly, his xSC (Expected Scoring Contribution) of 0.622 was higher than all Celtic players, whose best was Hayes on 0.370.

It should be note that McGinn’s career Scoring Contribution (assists and goals per 90m) is 0.24 with 15 goals and 28 assists in the equivalent of 182 full 90m appearances. This is similar to the current career statistics of Ntcham.

Key Attacking Action 1^st Half

1. General – 4 of his first 5 passes not completed – all forward and ambitious passes
2. 19m – gets into box for 1^st time and has a header over the bar
3. 38m – good anticipating and interception on pass to Edouard, then driving run and pass
4. General – Does prefer to move the ball quickly

Key Attacking Action 2nd Half

1. 52m – positive run in central midfield, spins away from a challenge and drives centrally drawing a free kick.
2. 53m – lurking centrally as Celtic look to clear and alert to Bartley’s lay off. A great finish with left foot low into corner from outside box.
3. 60m – drives from edge of own box over half way and Ntcham brings him down for YC.
4. 62m – clever wait and time of pass releases Boyle leading to a dangerous situation for Slivka in box.
5. 65m – gambled as was wrong side of McGregor defensively but got ball allowing attack to be set.
6. 71m – run forward from covering Stevenson at left back, across pitch gains 10 yards, sucks players in then switches ball to right allows cross into box.
7. 72m – poor shot selection from long range with low probability effort, when 5 players in support expecting pass.
8. 77m – intelligent movement and anticipation to pick up ball outside box from Lustig clear – he is unmarked (McGregor does not track), rifles superb shot high into roof of net.

Strengths

Weaknesses

Summary

Two goals were certainly eye catching, although perhaps misleading as to the type of player he is. Perhaps in a dominant team like Celtic, there would be greater overall goal threat. But principally McGinn seems to be able to fulfil many midfield jobs well. Combative, disciplined, energetic, with stamina, creative and dangerous shooting from distance, oh and good dribbling skills.

The defensive “switching off” and leaving runners is a concern, whilst the pass and shot selection concerns can be improved through coaching.

McGinn impressed me more that I was anticipating.