On Tactics Tim
The unmitigated gall of the man.
For Tim Sherwood to come out and say that he purposely set up Aston Villa to play worse than Championship level football is an insult to all Villa supporters everywhere. ‘I don’t care who the opposition is and what you want from my multi-million pound playing squad, but I *will* use your half-time boos to galvanise my team into performing better after the break’. Does this sound like the cultured, rational thought of a high-level manager? He is a joke, a stain on a once-proud football club and a man so bereft of ideas he cannot bring himself to properly motivate his team for back-to-back local derbies. Now, to most Villa supporters I get that in direct comparison to both Alex McLeish and Paul Lambert, Sherwood looks like Pep Guardiola in both man-management and playing style. But I refused to believe that they are happy with the money spent and the resulting output so far, coupled with a man that with each passing day looks further and further out of his depth and is starting to provide F365 writers with equally as bizarre soundbites as those uttered by a certain Liverpool manager.
Regarding last night’s game, even after hearing Sherwood’s crazed response, I still felt that Birmingham gave as good an account of themselves as their limited squad could give; solid at the back, tenacious and willing in midfield with adequate hold-up play, but limited finishing ability in the final third. Whether this was a consequence of Sherwood’s ‘tactics’ is debatable but for anyone that has not seen Birmingham lately, it’s fair to say that has been par for the course this season. Plus, last night Birmingham were in a win/win; win and the pressure would mount on Sherwood for losing not just a cup tie but a game to their nearest (by location) rivals. If Villa win, there would be little joy expressed as they should be beating teams at a lower level than them.
What did occur though was a situation that could only be conjured by Sherwood, one where even though victory was secured, they still come off looking a damn sight worse than Birmingham. Evidenced during the game, Gary Rowett has his team playing good, functional football again, something which has been missing since Chris Hughton’s one season in charge. As a fan myself, I find that the feel-good factor instilled by Rowett is tempered slightly by the tragicomic nature of our ownership saga. Why Birmingham aren’t and never have been courted by the business world’s finest (or otherwise), is a strange one.
Anyway, Tim Sherwood, not very bright, is he?
James F, BCFC KRO
…After reading the quotes from Tactics Tim regarding the Midlands derby, and
Winty’s article on said quotes, I realised I’d seen this before. As a lawyer I’m contractually obliged to sit through endless talks and presentations on fairly dry subjects, and when doing so you very quickly learn to spot a particular genus of the family: the bullsh*t artist.
Tim is the guy who turns up to give the presentation and just reads out exactly what’s on the slides, and when questions are raised at the end, he invites a discussion from the audience, nodding and agreeing with responses and pretending that’s the view that he holds as well. If Tim worked in software he’d be the guy saying ‘it’s not a bug, it’s a feature’.
If anyone reading this has any residual sympathy for Tim then remember this: Icon Magazine, Redders Jnr’s glossy pamphlet for footballers (big on pictures, not on words) was co-founded by Tim.
Fraser (considering a sleeveless shirt for future presentations), Edinburgh
Some Notes On Villa
Wrote in yesterday with my worries ahead of Villa-Blues; obviously this wasn’t an ‘interesting’ enough non-Rodgers/Woolwich/Chelsea-based mail for you to publish so I’ll try again with some notes from the other side:
– Firstly, this nonsense about Tim having us play long balls on purpose: I’m furious. Not even do I have to put with watching that rubbish, I then have this idiot insulting my intelligence by suggesting that I didn’t understand this was all part of the plan.
Seriously, even Rodgers or Pardew would be too embarrassed to try that out. Just say, firsthalf tactics didn’t work, I changed them, second-half tactics did work. If the clowns could shoot we’d have been 2-0 down after half an hour, was that part of the plan?
– Clark in midfield? Are you joking?
– As much as the Clark experiment failed pretty solidly, at least it was an experiment. Do Bacuna and Westwood have dodgy photos of Sherwood they’re waving around? Did Gil run his dog over or something? Ever-presents and a never-present, I can’t get my head around this.
– Agbonlahor is starting to look very frayed around the edges; his time ain’t long unfortunately.
– The upsides: Grealish = Fabulous. Obviously any good play from a Villa player now comes tinged with concern that he’ll soon be living in Manchester, but for now I’m going to bask in this. The sight of Socks Down Jack absolutely rinsing Small Heath’s useless cloggers for 45 minutes was pure art.
– Nice to see Veretout and Ayew turning up as well. Chances are that it’s more their level that’s been found, rather than a proper system/tactic that lets them play, but more of this will be welcome.
– For all I’d heard about Rowett’s clowns being bang in form and his chat about them playing ‘excellently’, I thought they were awful. Given how bad we’ve been recently – Notts County put three past us, remember – to get two shots on target and two corners in 90 minutes is rubbish.
– Ooh, you got a tip-off about the starting XI did you Rowett? Well check you out Mr Bond. Worked a treat too didn’t it?
– As for all these bluenoses getting sniffy (pun intended, obviously) about us winning ‘our cup final'; when you consider how things have gone for Villa since our actual cup final, you’d be pretty pleased about beating a ropey team at home 1-0 as well.
– Tim – by all means drop Dwight down a peg or too during the awkward from-the-studio interview, but don’t do it by bigging up Alex bloody McLeish in the same breath.
– Onwards and, hopefully, upwards. There is some truth that two from the Leicester and Albion games would have been a more deserving reward than 0, but equally we weren’t robbed in either. Looking forward to a Kasparov-Fischer style battle between Tim and Outstanding Brendan Rodgers at the weekend.
Neil Raines
A massive absolute cracker of a mailbox - Football365
