The Villa Manager and his Coaching Staff

Fergal wrote:I think that our manager is still learning how to do his job, if he gets better then so will we but if he doesn't learn from his mistakes then it will cost us dear.

I agree, I think our Tim is still a work in progress, the same as the team.

Fergal wrote:I think that our manager is still learning how to do his job, if he gets better then so will we but if he doesn't learn from his mistakes then it will cost us dear.

I think he sees that himself which for me is healthier than having an experienced manager who thinks he knows it all.

It's refreshing that Tim has come out and said that he's ready to be judged on the success or failure of "his team". He's looked pretty competent at bringing players in when you know that he's put a whole new team together from the Benteke/Delph money, and a paltry 8/9 million from the huge TV and Media income.

So .... he can identify and buy players within his budget limits, but can he do the other thing? That awkward 90 minutes on the pitch that we've struggled with most weeks over the last few years. Can he match the other teams in the Premiership who play vibrant attacking football with what looks like twelve players on the pitch! Teams like Swansea, Southampton, Crystal Palace and even Leicester have mobile attacking midfields that put our clunky defensive midfield to shame. The days of keeping it tight in the middle and only attacking down the flanks are gone, replaced by an ultra mobile buzzing interchange of five hard to mark assisters and goal scorers.

This is the big test that Sherwood has to pass, and will ultimately be judged on. It's not just buying the players, it's what you do with them during the time they play for the mighty Aston Villa!

That's the big question now Tim .... Can you turn these players into the team that they have the talent to be?

I agree with that, VB. I like what Tim has done in the window, I like how he conducts himself in press conferences and I get the feeling he's the kind of guy that the players will enjoy playing for. I think most of us agree that we have had slight reservations about tactics so far this season but I think that might become less of an issue once everybody starts to gel and he settles on his best team and system. It seems like the easier part and probably easier to develop than an eye for a player or a personality. Time will tell.

villabromsgrove wrote:It's refreshing that Tim has come out and said that he's ready to be judged on the success or failure of "his team". He's looked pretty competent at bringing players in when you know that he's put a whole new team together from the Benteke/Delph money, and a paltry 8/9 million from the huge TV and Media income.

So .... he can identify and buy players within his budget limits, but can he do the other thing? That awkward 90 minutes on the pitch that we've struggled with most weeks over the last few years. Can he match the other teams in the Premiership who play vibrant attacking football with what looks like twelve players on the pitch! Teams like Swansea, Southampton, Crystal Palace and even Leicester have mobile attacking midfields that put our clunky defensive midfield to shame. The days of keeping it tight in the middle and only attacking down the flanks are gone, replaced by an ultra mobile buzzing interchange of five hard to mark assisters and goal scorers.

This is the big test that Sherwood has to pass, and will ultimately be judged on. It's not just buying the players, it's what you do with them during the time they play for the mighty Aston Villa!

That's the big question now Tim .... Can you turn these players into the team that they have the talent to be?

Good post that VB. Let's remember that was Tim's first EVER transfer window and he's done remarkably well it appears (we will know over the course of time if this is true) So he's flexible, adaptable and apparently a fast learner. Mow as you quite rightly say he has to find a way to play that's progressive, purposeful and brings about results. I'm sure he has the skill set in which to do this and yes I have a few nagging reservations, however they're small in comparison to how much good he has done so far. It's also his first pre-season and start to a season, so he's having to learn fast. I don't think we will see the best of this squad until the end of October, by then I'd like to think he will have a good system and a solid idea of how he wishes to play and what he thinks are his best XI.

Exciting and interesting times ahead for us fans and the club. Let's not forget we're still for sale (yep I've mentioned the dreaded S word) Maybe now the window is closed people will be able to see what's achievable with the right kind of investment and smart recycling of players who wish to leave etc!! We don't have to spend hundreds of millions, we need to buy the right type of player and do this regularly and as those players develop and get better, inevitably in the short to mid term they'll leave for bigger teams, we then have to ensure we get the most for them and reinvest smartly like this summer.

I think we're an attractive club to buy, even more so after the summer's work. let's see if anything happens on that front in the coming months. RL did say he'd either sell or us appoint a chairman.....So what gives, where are we at?

I think it's clear by now That Tim Sherwood is a media dream and is also popular with his players. What about the other stuff though? TS is 46 years old and has been involved in football at a high level for almost 30 years. He knows the game back to front, he's probably seen every scenario that can happen on the pitch many times .... but not as a manager.

Every other manager that Villa's employed has had a large number of games behind them. I started out believing that Tim's lack of matches as a manager wouldn't be a problem, but now I'm starting to worry that it may be. Aston Villa is probably not a place for a manager to come in and learn his trade. Our precarious position in regularly flirting with relegation over the last few seasons, means that the time spent by Sherwood learning his job and also learning from his mistakes might unfortunately relegate us.

When Tim took the job last season, the new manager boost and his gung ho spirit just about got us over the finishing line. That becomes irrelevant now as he has to show that not only can he develop the right team, but also out think other very good managers during the 90 minute tactical battle on match days. The current 'rabbit in headlights' approach is worrying. TS needs help from his back up team quickly, although I wonder whether they are big enough characters to stand up and tell Tim what he's getting wrong? Sherwood may well become a great manager when he's got 300/400 games behind him, but he looks tactically naive at this moment in time.

Is Ray Wilkins man enough to take Tim to one side this week and tell him what he needs to do? I hope so, because if TS isn't told or doesn't listen then there may well be trouble ahead.

Good post, VB. I wonder about the whole thing.

Even if Tim won't publicly say he got things wrong in the second half he'll see that loads and loads of people are saying that he did so you'd hope he might clock on to it. We have to hope he's not so cocky that he won't learn a lesson from it. What he did on Sunday was almost like he looked at us in isolation without considering what Leicester were doing and how they seized the initiative. The Premier League is a very unforgiving environment in which to learn on the job. I said before that it was almost like Tim had his pants pulled down tactically by Pardew, Advocat and Ranieri. That's three experienced coaches who've been around the block. If you think there's any respite coming our next game is against a team managed by Pulis another coach of that ilk. Not really many inexperienced or poor coaches about at this level.

Sandie wrote:Good post, VB. I wonder about the whole thing.

Even if Tim won't publicly say he got things wrong in the second half he'll see that loads and loads of people are saying that he did so you'd hope he might clock on to it. We have to hope he's not so cocky that he won't learn a lesson from it. What he did on Sunday was almost like he looked at us in isolation without considering what Leicester were doing and how they seized the initiative. The Premier League is a very unforgiving environment in which to learn on the job. I said before that it was almost like Tim had his pants pulled down tactically by Pardew, Advocat and Ranieri. That's three experienced coaches who've been around the block. If you think there's any respite coming our next game is against a team managed by Pulis another coach of that ilk. Not really many inexperienced or poor coaches about at this level.

I agree with every word you've said.

What do we think of Sherwood's coaching team?

I thought the quotes from Wilkins about nearly taking the West Brom job were a bit odd. Not that he brought it up but the way he was going on about the positions people were sat in. Just seemed random. He does seem to have a good esteem in the game though and I think when he left Chelsea it was when the wheels came off under a previously successful Ancelotti.

There's also Parks and Robson in there. Both have been round the block a bit as coaches so like Wilkins will have experience that Tim lacks?

After today's game I have to ask, does Tim actually have a plan? What do we work on in training?

All we saw was a team that had no movement, poor possession and lacked the guile to break down a resilient West Brom side. At the start of this season I was expecting a team that could do all of these things based on the type of players we had signed but today we were the exact opposite of that. It was almost like watching a Lambert side.

All I'm seeing and hearing from TS at the moment, convinces me that we have a major problem looming. Sherwood doesn't seem to understand that he may well be the problem. His team selections and 'tactics' have made us vunerable since the Southampton match last season.

If he was showing any sign that he was learning from his mistakes that would be almost acceptable, but all I'm seeing is a kind of arrogance where he assumes that he has all the answers.

Other experienced managers with ordinary teams are able to get the maximum out of their team performance and players. Maybe that's the key word 'experienced'. Tim's naivety is becoming a millstone around our Villa necks, and it may well drag us down this season.

Is he open minded enough to learn on the job and change things?

I loved his arrogance when he first come in. It was refreshing after listening to that dower clown for 4 years but now I'm starting to think it will be the biggest problem he will have being a manager.

villabromsgrove wrote:All I'm seeing and hearing from TS at the moment, convinces me that we have a major problem looming. Sherwood doesn't seem to understand that he may well be the problem. His team selections and 'tactics' have made us vunerable since the Southampton match last season.

If he was showing any sign that he was learning from his mistakes that would be almost acceptable, but all I'm seeing is a kind of arrogance where he assumes that he has all the answers.

Other experienced managers with ordinary teams are able to get the maximum out of their team performance and players. Maybe that's the key word 'experienced'. Tim's naivety is becoming a millstone around our Villa necks, and it may well drag us down this season.

Is he open minded enough to learn on the job and change things?

Short answer is, he HAS to be, or he will find us rooted down the bottom at Xmas and the fans calling for his head. There was already very loud boos at HT and FT yesterday. That will only get worse if he doesn't find a decent formula and stick with it. Sad thing is he doesn't seem to be able to get a team defending or attacking with any great consistency. He seems to be picking the system to suit 2 or 3 players he wants to shoehorn in (possibly as he thinks it's what us fans want, ie Gil and Jack together) as opposed to coming up with a tactic and then using the best XI to make this tactic work.

I'll say what others are thinking, but don't quite possibly want to say (yet) I think Tim is short of the skills really needed to push us on. Yes he's a cheeky chappie and a PR dream (after the dour Lambert era) He gives soundbites by the dozen, however does he really have the skills needed to set up a EPL team for the long run? Many Spurs fans warned me we would get a manager with very dodgy and baffling tactics/team selections, a manager very quick to blame others for his own errors. I see some of this already. I said last year, he's rhetoric, whilst refreshing, won't go down so well well if we've lost on a rainy Tuesday night against Blues (god help us) His method of management seems to be, I believe we can do it, so it will automatically be the case. I have only seen him ONCE outsmart a rival manager and get the tactics spot on and that was the SF v Liverpool. Everything else has been a case of either psychological boosts in morale (new manager bounce) or beating teams by sheer virtue of them not being at their best (and not since before Southampton last year)

The signs are there, I'm worried. Is Tim another manager where the job is too big for him? Is it all actually RL's fault? (ie if Tim was allowed to sign Austin and 2/3 more proven EPL players, would we be fairing better?) or is it just time that is needed?

Jury's firmly out for me and whilst i'm far from totally writing him off (that would be silly at this stage) the honeymoon phase has long gone and I need to start seeing a lot more to feel encouraged and positive about Tim's leadership and Tactical skills. The Coaching staff are not without blame either. Just what does Ray wilkins contribute? What's he allowed too? Robins appears to be TS right hand man and the one sat next to him in the dugout and stood up at the side of the pitch. So what does RW do?

One downright miserable Villa fan here. I honestly see no difference in the football now to at times under Lambert (in his first two years, before he decided to play keep ball and pass sideways) Where did that get us?

More questions than answers at the moment Timothy!!!

gdav wrote:I loved his arrogance when he first come in. It was refreshing after listening to that dower clown for 4 years but now I'm starting to think it will be the biggest problem he will have being a manager.

Arrogance is defendable if you are extremely good at your job. However if you're inexperienced and learning a relatively new occupation it can be a major impediment.

Tuesday night will have an impact on this debate GM. The right result will lift fans, but my doubts over our immediate league future will remain unless and until TS totally ups his management game.