It's not Sherwood!

[pauliewalnuts]

He has one part of his tactical make-up - obsession with attacking - which suits us better than Lambert's negativity did, but that's not really 'better', just more suitable. He's done some things better than Lambert so far, like the diamond midfield and Grealish, and also some things which I'm not sure even Lambert would have done, such as the flat 4-4-2 against Stoke (that was terrible). So, overall, a draw I think.

What he's got that Lambert didn't is simply mentality, and that sort of emotional difference can be enormous in a relegation fight. Under Lambert, the players were individually so timid, always passing backwards and not making runs. With Sherwood, the emphasis is so far the other way that they attack and attempt things almost irresponsibly. It's much more likely to get us out of trouble and it's also so much better to watch. Long term? I'm still not convinced, but I always thought he'd have a better shot at keeping us up than Lambert, so let's hope for that at least.

What ever the differences are, Sherwoods team is totally unrecognisable from the one we have been watching under Lambert
The biggest thing for me is not only is he gaining enough points to keep us up, and got the team scoring again, we are doing it in style
I honestly couldn't have asked for more

The stupid thing is that there wasn't actually that much to put right about us under Lambert this season.

The problem was, Lambert had no idea how to identify it, let alone correct it.

[Monty]

I think Paul Lambert was necessarily incapable of correcting the problems, on account of being Paul Lambert. His entire attitude had just become infectiously sad. Once he lost the enthusiasm, he was never getting it back.

[Risso]

He has one part of his tactical make-up - obsession with attacking - which suits us better than Lambert's negativity did, but that's not really 'better', just more suitable. He's done some things better than Lambert so far, like the diamond midfield and Grealish, and also some things which I'm not sure even Lambert would have done, such as the flat 4-4-2 against Stoke (that was terrible). So, overall, a draw I think.

What he's got that Lambert didn't is simply mentality, and that sort of emotional difference can be enormous in a relegation fight. Under Lambert, the players were individually so timid, always passing backwards and not making runs. With Sherwood, the emphasis is so far the other way that they attack and attempt things almost irresponsibly. It's much more likely to get us out of trouble and it's also so much better to watch. Long term? I'm still not convinced, but I always thought he'd have a better shot at keeping us up than Lambert, so let's hope for that at least.

Jesus.  Stoke was his FIRST league game!  You can't seriously expect somebody to come in and put things right overnight can you?  Sherwood is much better tactically than Lambert, and the difference since he came in has been profound, and it isn't all to do with just confidence and bravado.  Gabby has for the most part, looked a different player, and just about the entire squad is playing well.  The quality of the football is much, much better, and only a good tactician could have served up such a comfortable win away at Spurs yesterday.  Lambert was dire in just about every aspect of the game.  One of the few things I'll be grateful to him for was the signing of Benteke.

[clash city rocker]

My daughter commented Tuesday evening that it was 'edge of your seat time ' for almost the entire 90 mins. Under Lambert she reckoned the edge of your seat time was more like 9 mins.

[Villa in Denmark]

I think he's come in and done well under the circumstances. It would be nice to be a few points better off obviously but I like what he's trying to do and more importantly, the players have responded to him as well.

By my reckoning we've taken 10 points from 8 games under Sherwood which isn't too shabby, especially when you take account of where we were coming from.

The frustrating thing is that with a little bit more application / luck we could easily by 4-6 points better off, but that's top 6 form.

[Dante Lavelli]

If we stay up and he is given a few quid in the summer, it will be interesting to see the type of player he brings in.

This. He never got a transfer window with Spurs so he is very much an unknown quantity here.

I have been speculating about this.  It's very hard to guess.  He clearly likes young players (maybe easier to motivate) but he's quoted as saying that a signing should not block the path of a youth player already at the club, so maybe we'll see marquee signings and a reliance on our youth to fill out the squad.

Has Sherwood spoken about how he and the new head-scout guy (from Liverpool) will work together?

[Monty]

He has one part of his tactical make-up - obsession with attacking - which suits us better than Lambert's negativity did, but that's not really 'better', just more suitable. He's done some things better than Lambert so far, like the diamond midfield and Grealish, and also some things which I'm not sure even Lambert would have done, such as the flat 4-4-2 against Stoke (that was terrible). So, overall, a draw I think.

What he's got that Lambert didn't is simply mentality, and that sort of emotional difference can be enormous in a relegation fight. Under Lambert, the players were individually so timid, always passing backwards and not making runs. With Sherwood, the emphasis is so far the other way that they attack and attempt things almost irresponsibly. It's much more likely to get us out of trouble and it's also so much better to watch. Long term? I'm still not convinced, but I always thought he'd have a better shot at keeping us up than Lambert, so let's hope for that at least.

Jesus.  Stoke was his FIRST league game!  You can't seriously expect somebody to come in and put things right overnight can you?  Sherwood is much better tactically than Lambert, and the difference since he came in has been profound, and it isn't all to do with just confidence and bravado.  Gabby has for the most part, looked a different player, and just about the entire squad is playing well.  The quality of the football is much, much better, and only a good tactician could have served up such a comfortable win away at Spurs yesterday.  Lambert was dire in just about every aspect of the game.  One of the few things I'll be grateful to him for was the signing of Benteke.

Sherwood's not been here for very long, and lots of managers do well initially and then drop off. It's much better than I feared, by miles, but let's not lose our minds in admiration just yet. I don't really care if Stoke was his first or his thousandth game, I thought his tactics weren't very good that day (and they weren't very good against Newcastle either). They have been better since, as I've said repeatedly on match threads etc.

Thing is, Lambert sometimes had good tactical ideas as well - why not say 'only a good tactician could have served up such a comfortable win away at Liverpool'? The biggest difference I can see is one of attitude, and if the tactics aren't awful then that attitude will be able to come through. Lambert could have been training the players like Guardiola and it probably wouldn't have made a difference.

[pauliewalnuts]

If Sherwood is going to do well for us, then tactics are going to have to play a huge part of it - as, obviously, just buying lots of very good, spendy players is not going to happen again.

That seems to me like something we're going to have to wait and see on. I don't know if his tactics are great or awful at the moment, it is still a relatively small sample of games.

All I care about right now is that we're losing less often, winning more often, and scoring a decent number of goals, after two thirds of a season in which we were utterly awful.

The wider question of his tactics doesn't really matter, surely, so long as he keeps us up - isn't that what counts most right now?

One thing I will say, though, is that I am much more comfortable with Sherwood than I would be with that anti-football, shell-suit clad twat at Albion some of us were mistifyingly begging for a few weeks ago.

[clash city rocker]

The acid test for me is that I look forward to going to games now.I haven't done that for quite some time.

[olaftab]

Not in the Sherwood camp  but so far he has lost 4 matches and I see it like this.
Stoke unlucky injury time pen due to rush of blood to Vlaar's head.
Newcastle should have won that by at least 2 goals.
Swansea again good for 1 point against a very good team but lost to a counter attack very late goal.
Manu We were in the game right up to their third in injury time. 3-1 flattered them.

So actually quite good from where Lambert left us in bottom 3.

[SoccerHQ]

Carry on these tactics and we'll be safe by February next season which would be very welcome after last five years.

Sherwood's win or bust strategy will come unstuck at times I'm sure but I'd rather see it as it's an easier way of accumulating points than Lambert's dreadful stuff which had us limping along for months barely picking up a point.

[Dante Lavelli]

The acid test for me is that I look forward to going to games now.I haven't done that for quite some time.

That's true. 

I always thought that there would be an upturn in form due to his bubbly character and prioritising passion/hard work, the hard part will be maintaining that intensity.  Mourinho, Ferguson before him, is one of the few managers who seems to maintain that siege mentality, yet he leaves clubs every two-three seasons.

[LTA]

The thing I've noticed so far is that his backroom staff also share Sherwoods enthusiasm.   I barely noticed Lambert communicating with the few staff he had left in the end.

[pauliewalnuts]

The thing I've noticed so far is that his backroom staff also share Sherwoods enthusiasm.   I barely noticed Lambert communicating with the few staff he had left in the end.

I think the last few weeks, Lambert looked like he was broken, to be honest.

No animation, like you said, not much communication, just sat there on the bench looking like he was enjoying it about as much as we were.

[LTA]

The thing I've noticed so far is that his backroom staff also share Sherwoods enthusiasm.   I barely noticed Lambert communicating with the few staff he had left in the end.

I think the last few weeks, Lambert looked like he was broken, to be honest.

No animation, like you said, not much communication, just sat there on the bench looking like he was enjoying it about as much as we were.

In fairness, Lambert was very animated in the early part of his reign, but that all stopped in the end, apart from occasionally shuffling to the touchline and clapping his hands that is.  His reaction when the Hull's second goal went in in his last game said it all.  You could tell he was at his wits end and he didn't know what else to do.

Tony Parks in particular really gets involved.  K-Mac seems quite reserved, but I think that's his style.