It's not Sherwood!

[silhillvilla]

I thought Nzogbia and Gabby were finished at this level. Equally I thought cleverly was useless. Yet this last week is making me reassess.

[tomd2103]

I thought Nzogbia and Gabby were finished at this level. Equally I thought cleverly was useless. Yet this last week is making me reassess.

As others have said, we probably shouldn't be making too many judgments just yet.  Gabby really turned up this week and caused them all kinds of problems, but it makes it all the more frustrating that he can't seem to do it on a consistent basis.     

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Lacking experience but he's making us all eat some humble pie with what he has been able to do in such a short space of time. His tactical changes at HT, and whatever else he said were frankly brilliant. We played some really good football in the second half and if everyone has noticed our midfielders are really involved in our attacks now. That is a great change. Keep it up Tim!!

Don't want to be picky on such a good day but not all of us need to eat humble pie because not all of us were saying it was a bad appointment

And also without wanting to be picky, winning two of his four games doesn't mean he's not a bad appointment.

He's doing fine so far. But it's not like he's our Alex Ferguson just yet. Let's see where we are in May, and this time next year before we break out the Champagne.

What about Prosecco  Are we allowed to break out a sneaky bottle of that ?

Not yet but you're allowed this..

[Clampy]

I didn't have too much of a problem with people doubting whether Sherwood had the necessary experience, that was understandable. All the 'he's got a dodgy accent' and 'Villa would be letting the city of Birmingham down by appointing him' was so over the top it was untrue.

[Ian.]

I thought Nzogbia and Gabby were finished at this level. Equally I thought cleverly was useless. Yet this last week is making me reassess.

If these three players keep that sort of performance up it would be like three new signings.
Gabby in the last two, TC since Sherwood has arrived and Nzogbia was superb yesterday.
I would add Lowton too, he's looked much better in the last few games.

[Gregorys Boy]

The performances Sherwood has gotten out of N'Zogbia this past week have be really impressive.  Also unlike Lambert he is much more proactive when it comes to making changes, and again yesterday he got his subs spot on.

[brian green]

Prosecco?   Wasn't he one of the Italian coaches we fantasized about getting?   Or was that Orvieto?

[OCD]

I didn't have too much of a problem with people doubting whether Sherwood had the necessary experience, that was understandable. All the 'he's got a dodgy accent' and 'Villa would be letting the city of Birmingham down by appointing him' was so over the top it was untrue.

I didn't see comments like those. Criticism that I saw was based on lack of experience, his outbursts where he criticised players in public and Spurs fans' observations about his tactics. Regarding the latter, his tactics can't really be faulted in the last couple of games.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

That 50% win ratio is back!

[Rudy Can't Fail]

It was interesting to read Tom Fox's comments at the AVST meeting on why he wanted Sherwood. He wanted a "motivator, a man-manager", no reference to the footballing side was mentioned. Sherwood is a leader and like all successfull leaders/CEOs he's gone with the plan of surrounding himself with a backroom team that are better qualified, experienced and knowledgeable of their areas. It's not only sensible to distribute the responsibility, cover his inexperience, it's also a great way to learn providing he's willing to listen.

I think we can all see his motivational skills are starting to bare fruit, the lads are starting to show the obvious talent we all knew they had that had been suffocated by Lambert's negativity and lack of faith in his players ability. That change in mentality added to tweaking Lambert's 'new style' by speeding up the passing makes us a far more effective and exciting team to watch. As we saw first half yesterday, there's still a few cobwebs to clear out. Hopefully the players will take confidence from the freedom to express themselves and start believing again.

Maybe Fox/Paddy Reilly got it spot on, this squad is full of talent but has been castrated by a manager that was more scared of losing than winning and what was needed was a manager to rebuild the player's faith and a team around him to share the burden. We all knew Kevin MacDonald was a great coach but not cut out to be a manager. Sherwood we know little about as a coach but he certainly appears to be a strong enough character to be a manager. It could turn out to be a very interesting partnership that gives us a team we've been crying out for, a team that fights for every ball, entertains us and gives us back our hope. Compared to what went on before, I'd take that every day of the week.

[hilts_coolerking]

Sherwood's the kind of bloke who could make us a good cup team.  I don't know how effective he'll be over the course of an entire season but his motivational skills are suited to one-off games.  If he keeps us out of trouble and turns us into a good cup team he'll have done okay.

[Toronto Villa]

Is it right to assume that for the game earlier in the week and the second half yesterday all he did was motivate the players to play better? Would it not be worth commending him for tactically being correct, or being able to make good decisions during the game that positively affected how we played? I'm not saying he's some tactical genius but it would be unfair just to credit him as a motivator and not recognize that he actually might be able to read the game with some level of intelligence too.

[tomd2103]

Is it right to assume that for the game earlier in the week and the second half yesterday all he did was motivate the players to play better? Would it not be worth commending him for tactically being correct, or being able to make good decisions during the game that positively affected how we played? I'm not saying he's some tactical genius but it would be unfair just to credit him as a motivator and not recognize that he actually might be able to read the game with some level of intelligence too.

I think by and large, his substitutions have been positive and have worked in the last two games as well.  Lambert would have just sat on it as long as it stayed 1-0 or 0-0, leading to the inevitable happening in the closing stages.  I thought bringing Sanchez on and using him as he did was a very good move.

[hilts_coolerking]

Is it right to assume that for the game earlier in the week and the second half yesterday all he did was motivate the players to play better? Would it not be worth commending him for tactically being correct, or being able to make good decisions during the game that positively affected how we played? I'm not saying he's some tactical genius but it would be unfair just to credit him as a motivator and not recognize that he actually might be able to read the game with some level of intelligence too.

Like I say, when we've seen him at work over a whole season that's when we'll be able to say how many strings he has to his bow.  Pretty much everyone in the game who has commented on Sherwood has said he's not a tactical genius but is a great motivator so it's not just me / us.  Whatever he did this week worked, that much is true.

[Toronto Villa]

And I am not saying he is doing this alone. He might just have better coaches around him or as importantly trust them in their roles. That's a skill too in any walk if management in allowing your staff to be a part of key decisions and trusting their judgement. I think Lambert was too possessive and insecure, whereas Sherwood might be confident enough to do what he is good at yet able to give up some of that power to those around him in things that he's not so good at.