Sherwood still has lots to learn

In my mind, there is one man who must accept the majority of the blame for the way in which the Aston Villa rear-guard crumbled at the King Power Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Tim Sherwood has frequently stated that his young side must learn to adapt to the rigours of the Premier League and, as a relatively inexperienced Premier League manager, he must learn to do the same. Sherwood’s bizarre substitutions affected the shape and cohesion of the team considerably and allowed Leicester City to build momentum before inevitably going ahead in the eighty-ninth minute. Sherwood could learn much from his opposite number Claudio Ranieri, whose astute substitutions enabled the Foxes to get a foothold in the game, with half-time replacement Nathan Dyer scoring the winning goal.

The Villans started the game with a bold and adventurous line-up, something that paid dividends when Carles Gil’s stunner opened up a two goal cushion over the Foxes. Jack Grealish’s fine first half goal was richly deserved as the Villans enjoyed the lion’s share of possession and managed to limit the in-form Foxes to very few attempts on Brad Guzan’s goal. Gil was substituted shortly after his goal; whilst Sherwood was right to withdraw the diminutive Spaniard, he was wrong to replace him with Jordan Ayew, who has struggled to make any impact since arriving at Aston Villa from Lorient. Playing Ayew on the left side of midfield was baffling and surely the much-maligned Kieran Richardson would have been a far better option to shore up the midfield and support Jordan Amavi, who was becoming increasingly outnumbered in the Leicester onslaught. Players with great top flight experience such as Richardson, Cole and Agbonlahor will be invaluable for the young players to learn from and shouldn’t be discounted because they aren’t as good as they once were. Rudy Gestede came on and had minimal impact, while replacing Leandro Bacuna with Alan Hutton was a change that came fifteen minutes too late.

Aston Villa lost on Sunday because of inadequate tactics and poor substitutions from the manager and also because the players were unable to match the determination and fighting spirit displayed by their opponents in the second half. Two huge derby games at Villa Park lie ahead and the Villa boys must win both. Whilst Villa have greater quality in attacking areas than both West Bromwich Albion and Birmingham City, the Villans must match the desire and spirit that Tony Pulis and Gary Rowett will almost certainly instil in their teams before they play at Villa Park. Winning both of these fixtures is fundamental to improving the Villans’ stuttering start to the season and two negative results would be disastrous for the manager, players and supporters.