Have long beleived that the physcological side of football coaching is much under used ... some managers play at it ... its no co incidence that when Timmy appointed Ciaran Cosgrove we put in some decent performances.
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-tim-sherwood-introduces-9095684He was formally appointed ahead of the Liverpool Semi and if stories are to beleived had a great effect on Grealish encouraging him to look around the whole pitch before the game when others were standing in one spot ... inference was that he was going to grace the whole pitch not just part of it.
Its no coincidence either that performances have dropped after Cosgrove was dumped as part of the cost cutting. The exact timing of his arrival and departure may may interesting reading.
Our players may not be worldies but they can certainly play better that they have been playing. Footballers like any sportmen and women thrive on confidence... look at Leicester.
Apart from a few self destruct moments we havent been smashed 5 or 6 like many teams in our position have been in previous years...this leads me to think that it wouldnt take a massive amount of work to convert our squad into a mid table boringly average side from where we are now.
The only blot on this theory is we would still be left with Hutton and Richardson who are just plain gash.