FYI Tim Sherwood: Villa need a manager, not a cheerleader

The honeymoon period, if indeed there ever was one, is well and truly over for Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood. Villa had the dead cat bounce that comes with appointing a new manager, with wins over West Brom and Sunderland. But following two further losses and a draw to fellow relegation contenders QPR, Sherwood has to realize all the touchline histrionics and peppy media chat in the world won’t do a thing to change the fortunes of Villa: His team need a manager, not a cheerleader.

Sherwood’s most pressing issue is the Villa defence. Ron Vlaar is a shadow of the player from last year’s World Cup; Ciaran Clark looks like a rabbit trapped in headlights; and the full backs are liabilities defending and going forward. Brad Guzan is a decent goalkeeper, but certainly not good enough to paper over the inadequacies of the four players in front of him.

The Villa midfield is distinctly average, capable of retaining possession but sorely lacking creative spark. Tom Cleverly is ineffective; Sánchez limited; Agbonlahor jaded, and Grealish naive.

Villa’s two genuine, quality Premier League players - Delph and Benteke - are oftentimes bogged down by the weight of mediocrity surrounding them.

And it’s not as if Sherwood has any better options on the bench. The likes of Weimann, Joe Cole, N’Zogbia and Lowton hardly inspire optimism or confidence in a Villa revival.

So it is down to Sherwood to earn his managerial stripes and come up with a system that extracts the best out of his average bunch. His ‘Plan A’ is to play attacking football: to negate defensive deficiencies by outscoring opponents.

Failing to outscore 19th-placed QPR with this strategy does not bode well for the remainder of the season. Villa fans can only pray Sherwood has a ‘Plan B.’