Given that he has just captained Aston Villa to Europa League glory and is playing some of the best football of his career, a strange narrative has built around John McGinn heading into this World Cup.
With Steve Clarke looking set to deploy a 4-4-2 system against Haiti in tonight’s opening Group C clash in Boston, some have suggested that it could be McGinn who misses out in midfield.
With Ryan Christie on the left and Ben Gannon-Doak on the right, that would leave Scott McTominay, Kenny McLean and Lewis Ferguson vying for two spots in central midfield.
Much will depend, of course, on McTominay’s ability to overcome a stomach bug that has troubled him over recent days.
Yet, nonetheless, the argument that McGinn could find himself as the odd man out has certainly gained some traction in certain quarters as Scotland prepare for their first World Cup match in 28 years.
For a player who has so often been the country’s talisman for the best part of a decade, it seems absurd that Scotland could go into a match of this significance with arguably their best player parked on the bench.
John McGinn will be integral to everything Scotland do in this World Cup… pub player or not
Earlier this week, McGinn also found himself on the receiving end of some fairly disparaging comments from Manchester United legend Roy Keane.
Speaking about the Scotland and Villa star, Keane said on a podcast: ‘He’s one of these fellas, when he’s bad, when he has his bad days, he does look like a pub player. When he’s off it, he’s shocking.’
Although his song sung by the Tartan Army claims otherwise, McGinn would never claim to be the second coming of Zinedine Zidane.
He knows what he is and he knows what he’s not. But to call him a ‘pub player’? That was a cheap shot from Keane. Utterly ridiculous, in fact.
As a pundit, much as he was as a player, Keane can be fearless. He cuts through a lot of the nonsense and hyperbole that often surrounds modern football.
When he expresses a view on something, it’s invariably punchy and hard-hitting. He does not trade in the platitudes that afflict so many other pundits.
But there are also times when he lets himself down. It’s almost like he becomes a caricature of himself, just trying to find a way to be negative or controversial.
McGinn trains ahead of the Haiti clash and should slot into Steve Clarke’s four-man midfield
That’s how his comments on McGinn came across; just a pundit with nothing positive or constructive to say, opening his mouth and letting his belly rumble.
One thing’s for sure, McGinn would never walk out on his country on the eve of a World Cup. He would never be so arrogant to believe he’s above all of his team-mates.
Pub player or not, he would never get drunk on his own ego. As the events in Saipan in 2002 demonstrated, the same could never be said of Keane.
McGinn spoke earlier this week and gave a perfect encapsulation of the mentality and team spirit that is shared throughout the Scotland squad.
‘There are many people in that dressing room who have been told they’re not good enough, they’re too small, they’re not fit enough, or they don’t fit a certain person’s idea of a football player,’ he said.
‘But we have a strong resilience, a mentality and a belief in ourselves. We just never give up.’
Now comes the point where all the talking will stop. The clash with Haiti in Boston in the early hours of Sunday morning is Scotland’s biggest match in 28 years.
Roy Keane is often outspoken as a pundit but his dig at McGinn was just a cheap, pathetic shot
If Scotland can take three points and win by a margin of at least a couple of goals, this is the match that could open the door to the rest of the tournament.
Haiti are not the pub team that some would have you believe. They have pace and are dangerous on the break. But their defensive frailties are such that Scotland should win this match comfortably if they play to anywhere near their capabilities.
The prospect of Clarke handing in a team-sheet without McGinn’s name in the starting XI is frankly nonsensical. Quite simply, he has to play.
All the other pieces of the jigsaw need to fit around him. By dropping arguably our best player, Clarke would be making a rod for his own back if things were to go wrong.
McGinn is the engine of this Scotland team, the driving force, a player whom all his team-mates look to for leadership in moments of adversity. To leave him on the bench would almost be an act of self-sabotage.
If McTominay recovers from his illness and is passed fit, then the expectation is that he will partner McLean in midfield, with Ferguson coming off the bench in the second half to add fresh legs and energy.
Although he played well in the warm-up games against Curacao and Bolivia, it is Christie who looks most likely to miss out, with McGinn deployed on the left side of midfield in the 4-4-2 system.
McGinn listens as Steve Clarke makes his point during training in the run-up to Haiti clash
One alternative could be to play Christie as the No 10 behind Lawrence Shankland, but the partnership of Shankland and Che Adams is worthy of further exploration given how they clicked against Bolivia.
McGinn spoke earlier this week about how no player in the squad would ever take their place for granted. That kind of humility is undoubtedly a good thing.
Yet, perhaps above all others, he is the one player who would leave a glaring hole in the starting XI if he were to be dropped.
Clarke will surely know this. The manager spoke last week after the 4-0 thrashing of Bolivia about ‘having decisions to make’ with regards to how the team lines up against Haiti.
The inclusion of John McGinn in the starting XI will surely be the easiest and most straightforward decision of all.
