John McGinn fractured his ankle during the 3-1 defeat to Southampton and is due to miss three months of Premier League action. During that period, he could miss up to 16 games, including crunch fixtures with Brighton, Bournemouth and Southampton as the Villans try to avoid dropping back into the second tier of English football. In the Scot’s absence, Dean Smith must decide who should take over from the Aston Villa player of the year last season to join Douglas Luiz at the base of the double pivot in midfield.
Smith’s options are either Marvelous Nakamba, who started in the recent win over Norwich City, or Conor Hourihane who replaced him as a substitute in that fixture. So far this season the Zimbabwe international has made 12 Premier League starts, with the Irishman appearing 13 times, but with four of those as a substitute. During those performances, Hourihane has three goals and two assists in the English top-flight, while the player he replaced on Boxing Day is yet to register either.
Defensively Nakamba has registered five times the number of tackles as his Irish counterpart, averaging three per game, which is also 0.5 more than McGinn had been contributing per match. With regards to interceptions, the Zimbabwean also excels, showing he has an excellent positional sense and is adept at reading the game, making 2.1 interceptions per 90 on average to Hourihane’s 0.3. At the same time, the Irishman is also responsible for making fewer tackles.
Where Hourihane does surpass his teammate is with the number of times he is dribbled around, the Irishman is only beaten by opposition once per game on average, which is under half of the times Nakamba is taken on and beaten. Furthermore, the Ireland international has made more key passes on average. Still, Nakamba tends to control the ball better, averaging over 13 more passes per game with a similar success rate around 85 per cent.
Based on this evidence, Smith would probably be best starting Nakamba, as he did against Norwich City. He provides more defensive cover but is less of a threat going forward, though if the manager wants a less conservative option, Hourihane is the player to go for.
