It's not Sherwood!

[Toronto Villa]

We also had a RB playing LB at the very last minute. That didn't help at all. The collapse happened so quickly and so unexpectedly it almost impossible to react to. The first goal was bad enough but Sherwood couldn't then have expected mistake after mistake to take place. Southampton may very well have still beaten us today because they are a good side but I'm not putting it all down to winning the tactical battle given how this quickly unravelled.

[Monty]

Of course not, but you don't tend to lose 6-1 for only one reason. Tactics weren't good, players weren't good. Onwards and upwards!

[peter w]

And don't forget we should have been 1-0 before the calamity began. Sherwood plays open football and we got undone today by a team that competed better than us and imposed their game on us. That we were so rubbish at the back helped them but to fair they looked like they were a country-mile ahead of us. i didn't particularly like Sherwood coming into the technical area and shouting "pride" as he did after 20-25 minutes because i want him to see what's going wrong tactically and consider changing it. It was obvious that our diamond wasn't working as well so a change would have been better than just fisting the heart (figuratively speaking) and calling for pride.

[Monty]

He's shown himself to be very good at setting the team up - so far he's caught Ramsay, Pulis, Pellegrini, Pochettino and Rodgers so off-guard that they've had to change everything around after twenty-odd minutes! - but he seems less good at reacting tactically to things.

[Ron Manager]

This will die down after the weekend but I bet Tim Sherwood will be thinking about absolutely nothing else tommorow. I doubt if any of the big names will be rested against Burnley but the central defence may change if Baker is declared fit. My opinion is Sherwood doesn't rate Okore highly and may drop him for our last game. Could even bring Senderos in.

[passport1]

I think he is stuck with Okare .He could have subbed him today but didn't. Ideally he prefers Clark.

[Risso]

We also had a RB playing LB at the very last minute. That didn't help at all. The collapse happened so quickly and so unexpectedly it almost impossible to react to. The first goal was bad enough but Sherwood couldn't then have expected mistake after mistake to take place. Southampton may very well have still beaten us today because they are a good side but I'm not putting it all down to winning the tactical battle given how this quickly unravelled.

Spot on TV.

[silhillvilla]

Forget today, sherwood has achieved mission impossible by keeping us up. I hope he gets a hefty bonus for doing so.
Just 12 weeks ago, I walked away from the hull ground into a bleak , cold, evening convinced we were as good as down.
We aren't and its all down to Tim Sherwood .

[Phil from the upper holte]

Forget today, sherwood has achieved mission impossible by keeping us up. I hope he gets a hefty bonus for doing so.
Just 12 weeks ago, I walked away from the hull ground into a bleak , cold, evening convinced we were as good as down.
We aren't and its all down to Tim Sherwood .

This 100%

[supertom]

Today is an anomaly. You cannot account for a player just going completely missing on your like Vlaar did in the first half, and we were punished mercilessly. That 3 minute hattrick is a complete one in a million. A combination of awful individual sloppiness from out defenders, combined with ruthless and punishing finishing from Mane, who isn't exactly known for that (nor Shane Long).

The whole team were rocked from the moment the third goal went in and never recovered.

[PaulWinch again]

Today was hideous, but it was down to the keeper and back four all having terrible games and the rest being pretty poor. Hopefully it's out of their system now. We're safe and can focus on the cup final.

[pauliewalnuts]

Basically, a reminder of how far we have fallen.

Southampton are miles ahead of us. And they are a club the entire league was laughing at last summer as they'd sold all their best players.

Maybe it will be a good thing, given that we've escaped relegation again, to get a hiding like that to remind us how much work we have got to do.

[Matt Collins]

He's shown himself to be very good at setting the team up - so far he's caught Ramsay, Pulis, Pellegrini, Pochettino and Rodgers so off-guard that they've had to change everything around after twenty-odd minutes! - but he seems less good at reacting tactically to things.

Completely agree. Much more tactical flexibility than I was expecting. But we never change approach during a game. Not that we should do Rodgers style tinkering. But against QPR, yday and against Swansea he had to react tactically and as just carried on as was

But overall he's still done a fantastic job. But there are some big challenges ahead this summer in building a side for next season. Chiefly sorting the defence and quite likely replacing benteke's goals

[Matt Collins]

Just watched motd. Ouch.

You have to say the defending under sherwood has been the worst I think I've ever seen at villa. You don't get the impression this has been a major focus and it just has to be. Perhaps a defensive coach coming in?

That high line . . Really can't do that against arsenal.

Feel a bit sorry for okore. Sherwood said he wasn't fit and it didn't look it.

[Ads]

We have been abysmal at defending since August 2012.

I'd cut Sherwood some slack on defending, as a lot of the goals have come from indervidual mistakes and fundamental errors, that would occur no matter what the system or line held.