The Tim Sherwood Thread

[bobzy]

I'm quite shocked by the doom and gloom on here.  Sherwood isn't the manager I wanted us to bring in, but I think he's done a good job so far.  The problem at the moment seems to be defensively - but then we've gone from being ok defensively and terrible offensively to being poor at the back and decent going forward.  I'm happy with that right now.

 

Whilst the Southampton and Arsenal games were very poor performances, we still had 63% possession and 17 shots against Burnley.  Sometimes you just lose football matches.

 

I guess I understand people being concerned about the transfer window because Sherwood has never had one... but, really, why is this such an issue?  If he's bringing in the wrong kind of player, surely that's when this gets questioned?

[Fight Like Lions]

I think we have to credit Tim for the work he's done with the players to keep us safe in the league. The cup run was a welcome distraction from the dross we put up with for the majority of this season, it's just a real shame that our players weren't able to perform on a day when Arsenal played out of their skin.

If you look at the amount of injuries we've had over the last few weeks it's becomes more apparent what a close shave we've had this season. Our starting 11 yesterday had several players who had suffered from injury over the last few weeks (Okore still playing with one), so it comes as no surprise we looked well off the pace. Richardson as an example was never capable of playing 90mins yesterday, so that was one sub confirmed before we'd kicked a ball.

It worries me that we've never had the luxury of strength in depth, a couple of injuries crop up and we are forced to use players out of position or turn to the weaker squad players for regular games. I can understand Tim trying to be dogmatic and start talking about the big clear out of players (of course, in an ideal world that needs to happen) but I do hope this isn't where his naivety will start to show. Realistically, unless he has already been briefed about an imminent takeover, or Randy has assured him of £20m + Benteke money I think he's in for a rough summer. Not only will it be difficult to offload his 'losers', we need to replace them and probably add another 4-5 players on top. We've just finished 17th in the league, we're not in London or Manchester and we have a wage cap. How on earth is Tim going to attract these players???

Edited May 31, 2015 by Fight Like Lions

[Xela]

Sherwood did well to keep us up as did Lambert before him. But this idea that he performed some sort of miracle in doing so, is over played in my opinion, we were only in the drop zone on goal difference when he arrived.

 

We'd have gone down with Lambert in charge for the whole season, I think most people think that.

 

Sherwood did very well to change things around and keep us up. His real job starts now and he deserves a chance like Lambert was given

[Jimzk5]

I'm getting a bit miffed at this di canio style meltdown he keeps doing. Yes the squad needs and will probably get a massive overhaul but if keeps laying into the players he keeps and signs he will lose the dressing room quickly.

[terrytini]

Seems there are a fair few fans who can't wait to have a pop. Some indeed who made no comment at all when Sherwood revived our corpse now scything in with all manner of criticism.

We have players who for whatever ability they possess have been mentally filleted by Lambert's appalling demeanour and ' tactics' in his last 18 months.

Players who forgot what it was like to press, move, harry, score, and all the rest. A top striker who was reduced to a heskey look a likely. And who was dropped to the bench for the managers last game.

We were so poor that a 2 m January buy who had some good touches looked to some like a saviour, whilst our own potential young star of the future was left rotting on the bench, his gaffers main contribution being to tell him " bad times will come".

We had fans deserting in droves, record defeats, winless runs, and a nationwide reputation for playing the most dour appalling football. What was it, only some second division side in Finland or somewhere had scored less and they had games in hand on us.

And, lest we forget, we were going down. Down, down.

And yet until just weeks before the end there were fans saying we should give Lambert time.

Now a guy who kept us up, turned Tekkers into a beast, got our entire midfield talked about as possible England candidates, gave Grealish his head, brought fans back to the extent we sold out (!)against Burn!ey, got us to athemselves and turned us into most neutrals preferred winner is being slated for all manner of issues !!! After a couple of months !!

In some cases he is being knocked for his transfer policy !!!! Without having bought a single player !!

He is knocked for tactics as if he is a clueless schoolboy, knocked for his media comments by people who presumably never heard Ferguson, Atkinson, Gregory,Murinho, Pardew, Redknapp, etc etc, or any other Manager being themselves.

To be honest I think it is pretty embarrassing.

He may turn out useless, he may be a disaster. He has got stuff wrong and stuff right.

But really can't we give the guy some credit where its due, and then some time to prove ( or not) himself ?

[lloydxmas]

I think it's about time the players took some stick. Been sheltered for far too long now. If they can't take a few home truths in returns for thousands of pounds a week then tough shit.

They failed at the job today, you do that in any other job and the manager shouts at you, and if your not a good enough employee you get fired, simple.

Edited May 31, 2015 by simont123

[Sam3773]

I just can't get onboard this train again. Are Villa fans just naturally pessimistic?

We lost games. Yes one was quite a big game, but we lost. That isn't a reason to forget all the great wins the team has produced under Sherwood.

He now has a chance to build "his team" with "his tactics". Something he's never done before and none of us work at Randy Lerner HQ to know he isn't selling up.

So this pessimistic b*ll*cks is based on what? Three games we lost under what is probably not the team anymore and hopefully not the owner anymore?

Learn to smile. Relax for two months and then we can start worrying about the future of Villa. To do so now is just Mystic Meg crystal ball crap.

[terrytini]

I'm getting a bit miffed at this di canio style meltdown he keeps doing. Yes the squad needs and will probably get a massive overhaul but if keeps laying into the players he keeps and signs he will lose the dressing room quickly.

Meltdowns he keeps having ?

There's a new one.

Any quotes at all that even remotely explain this concern ?

Meltdowns ?

Funny I've watched every press conference and barely heard so much as a criticism of anyone.

[Condimentalist]

I'm getting a bit miffed at this di canio style meltdown he keeps doing. Yes the squad needs and will probably get a massive overhaul but if keeps laying into the players he keeps and signs he will lose the dressing room quickly.

 

I think, in the end, this might be his undoing. Like Di Canio, he has a massive ego and he can't see his own shortcomings. A loss is a loss by the players, a victory is a win by Tim Sherwood. 

 

But let's see. I was against his appointment in the first place but some of our performances have been outstanding since he's come in. He has a lot to learn - and I hope he's not too big-headed to admit that - but he's certainly earned the right to lead us into next season. There's a part of me which is cautiously optimistic about next term, and another part that is worried it could all unravel and leave us in real trouble. One thing it won't be, unlike with Lambert, is boring. Let's just wait and see. 

[Xela]

Seems there are a fair few fans who can't wait to have a pop. Some indeed who made no comment at all when Sherwood revived our corpse now scything in with all manner of criticism.

 

 

 

It goes against the 'no one can do any better' excuse when Lambert was sacked.

 

No-one is more disappointed than me at the last few games of the season but Sherwood deserves at least a full season to see what he can do

[VillaChris]

 

3 months ago we looked crap, certain for the drop which would mean no takeover. We couldn't score any goals and were the laughing stock of the league.

yep look at us now. We look certain for the drop next season, comments from the club the last two weeks suggest no takeover is imminent anyway, we've scored one goal in the last 3 games and didn't even look like scoring in them and after the performance yesterday we are the laughing stock in the league!

 

 

As opposed to "the best manager in the last 30 years" masterminding us to long scoreless runs effortlessly over the winter?

 

Let's see what we line up with on August 8th first. If it's full of lower league kids (again) and with no Benteke we have Agbonlahor and Kozak upfront I'd agree relegation would look imminent.

[VillakevBromsgrove]

It is not a meltdown to state the obvious, 50% or more of our squad are not good enough, we have too many players taking money who will not figure in the first team, we got alot of players in for little money as backup for injuries. you only have to look at our bench to see we have no players that can come on and change a game. Part of TS job application would have been to analyse the squad and explain how he will improve things. If you was in charge of the club you would not be happy aying 10 - 20k per week to people who do nothing for you. This I think has been RL biggest problem. Get a player who will improve things and play alot of games and he will finance it but you also have to ship out the dross taking a wage. Tonev, Bent, Gardener etc how many of these type players do we have?

[PaulC]

 

Same.

I've no problem with Tim's opinion that some of our squad are losers and I think it's actually a good thing that he's already earmarked who he's going to get rid of.

But I think the timing of saying that stuff has been really strange. If it was meant to fire the guys up (although I don't see how being called losers can do that) then it clearly didn't work.

Yep it bugs me too. He needs to be less reactive with his mouth.

 

 

He didn't exactly call them losers, losing mentality, which is over the last 3 or 4 years is very true. 

[Rob182]

6/10 so far, thanks for the liverpool, sunderland and west brom wins. Everything else has been rubbish. Very apprehensive about what he can do in the summer.

You didn't like the Spurs and Everton wins then?

[mikeyp102]

Think it will be a massive summer for the club. A big clear out seems on the cards.bit will be interesting to see who goes and more importantly who replaces them. TS is right in saying that we have a losing mentality and we need to bring in a few players who can change that.

[StefanAVFC]

I don't think anybody has not given him credit for the job he's done so far. He did very, very well to keep us up. People even ended up having to preface every post with 'Sherwood has done a fantastic job so far but...' at one point, otherwise they'd be shouted down for daring to criticise.

 

Doing a fantastic job in keeping us up does not exclude him from criticism. It's clear from the last 3 games that he has some serious lessons to learn tactically, and he needs to learn them fast. Lambert didn't learn and look where that got us/him. Also, going public with things like 'some of my players are losers' and 'I've already told lads they're not needed' (before a cup final) just seems unnecessary. I like that he wears his heart on his sleeve as Lambert mumbled and bumbled his way through every press conference but I still think he needs to be learn when to stop. Do you see SAF, Wenger, Mourinho, even Pearson (who is a nutter) going public like that about players? No, they do/did it all in house. Everything to protect their players.

 

The reason I'm so gloomy about next year is that we have a squad that needs serious surgery, a manager who has never bought a player in his life who has such a swashbuckling approach that we're either fantastic as in Everton, Man City, Liverpool or utter shite. We were terrible against Stoke and Swansea too. He deserves a transfer window to see what he can do, and he sounds very confident he'll be able to do what he needs to do. However, I'm not 100% sold. He sounds confident in everything he does.

 

Does that make me negative? I don't think so. I'm definitely more cautious and there's a combination of factors there.  Not all to do with Sherwood. Lack of a takeover, losing Benteke, fluctuating performance levels from key players, the whole Guzan/Cissokho thing, weird subs, talking to the media.

 

We will see.

Edited May 31, 2015 by StefanAVFC

[Folski]

Set up not to lose yesterday should have gone bacuna right back. Horrible performance.

[ender4]

Sherwood saved us from definite relegation.

He took us to a FA Cup final.

All with average or worse players.

That buys him a lot of good grace from me.   8.5/10 so far.

 

Now lets see what he does going forward, but i can't criticise based on what he might do in the future.

[Killeen30]

So who do you think are the experienced player that have already been told they can find a new club?

[theboyangel]

So who do you think are the experienced player that have already been told they can find a new club?

 

At a guess,

 

Guzan (stupidly), Senderos, Cissokho, Lowton, Gil and Weimann (not to mention those having been out on loan such as Bent, Helenius, Tonev, Luna)