Sherwood v Lambert

The end of the season is upon us, with only one vital FA Cup game left to play. As fans, we look back over the season and consider what went well and what went badly. Unsurprisingly, not everyone agrees.

This week, some have questioned Tim Sherwood’s credentials and whether or not he is the right man for Aston Villa Football Club. I agreed completely with changing the manager when we did.

Randy Lerner, Paul Lambert himself, the players and fans knew that the former Norwich manager had a huge task ahead of him when he joined Aston Villa Football Club. He had a very limited budget and had lots of dead wood at the club. During his time as manager, we saw some great results, like the 6-1 win over Sunderland, and also reached the Capital One Cup semi-finals. Lambert also signed some good players including Benteke, Vlaar, Okore and perhaps Cleverley.

It is fine to bring in good players but without the tactics and managerial experience to be competitive success will always be hard to come by. As fans, we let Lambert have a go for two whole seasons. By the third, when he was still letting the Villans drop into the relegation zone, the inexcusable could no longer be excused. The fans wanted change. By the time the defeat against Hull this year rolled around, the Villans were running out of ideas: the players didn’t seem to want to play and Aston Villa Football Club was one of the favourites to go down when Lambert left the Villans in eighteenth position in the Premier League.

Tim Sherwood came to Aston Villa Football Club knowing what he had to do and he started off differently from Lambert. He had no choice but to use the players available to him but was prepared to look to our academy, which Lambert didn’t want to do. Tim Sherwood had to work with the squad he had and he knew he had to get the best out of the players. Cleverley is a great example of a Sherwood success story and we have also seen Benteke rediscover his invaluable form. Sherwood made sure that players who had looked average at best under Lambert stepped up to the plate and fought to survive.

Since the players worked harder under Sherwood, we saw matches going our way too. Wins against Spurs, Everton, Sunderland and West Ham show that Aston Villa should be a mid-table team. In fact, if Sherwood had been in charge back in August, I think we could have finished the season in a much better position as he has motivated the players and has good managerial skills. The players seem much fitter and mentally stronger but still need to work on key areas of their game as one thing that hasn’t changed is conceding goals early and late in matches.

There is plenty of evidence to show that Sherwood has done a better job than Lambert did. Lambert had one hundred and fifteen games. He won thirty-two, drew twenty-six and lost fifty-five, giving him a 29.57% win ratio. Sherwood, on the other hand, has only been in charge for fifteen games. Of those, he has won seven, drawn one and lost seven, leaving him with a win ratio of 46.67%. Sherwood may only have moved the Villans up one place to seventeen but that kept the club safe and if Lambert had remained in charge most agree he would have overseen our relegation.

I disagree with the minority of fans who wanted Lambert to stay on as Aston Villa’s manager. He may have steered the side to safety, although that seemed unlikely, but it is even less likely that the Scot would have guided us to Wembley even once.

Credit is due to Sherwood, as he has had to deal with some awful players at Aston Villa and still achieved his objective.

I’m sure he will be glad to have the chance to bring in some players of his own and has done enough, in my opinion, to deserve the opportunity to improve our fortunes next season.

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4 comments

  1. the inexcusable is that some fans gave up ! the team is still Lambert’s team and the only difference is that fans have got what they demanded — a new manager , who is a cheerfull chappy instead of the dour Scot that was Lambert l But the cheerful chappy has not been so happy the last couple of weeks and it remains to be seen whether he can lead us to cup glory , & improve the squad for next season
    As for whether Lambert could have saved us we will never know , but it’s always easier to play when every one is happy rather than when there is an air of pending gloom . But the biggest factor in saving us was the return of Benteke to full fitness & that was on the cards whoever the manager was . As for Grealish he is no longer the young lad that some were over keen to see play at the start of the season as he has physically matured both as a person & as a player

  2. Personally I don’t think anyone can make any sort of reasonable comparison yet. We have no idea how Sherwood will spend his first transfer budget and how he’s going to cope with the rigors of a full season in charge. Lambert started ok in his first season and things occasionally looked on the up over the years, Sherwood started well but over the last few weeks things have started to fall apart somewhat, i know there have been injuries and he’s been playing with the team a bit, but still worrying.

    Leave these statements until the end of next season and then write an article about the same subject.

  3. I think it’s too early to call, but no complaints with Tim so far. He’ll certainly gain a few extra points if he brings the cup back to Villa park tomorrow!!!

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