Sherwood's Bomb Squad?

So, he's apparently been watching us for a while, like some gilet-clad Mysteron. Analysing our strengths and weaknesses, brooding darkly on what needs to be done. As I've said in the Agbonlahor thread, I think he is very much in Last Chance Saloon so what players do you think have already got their cards marked by him, the dark assassin?

I don't really know - I think that is part of the intrigue, many fans and pundits have been saying this team shouldn't be where it is, these players are better than what they are showing, the tactics are so wrong - any manager with any confidence in his ability is probably looking at Villa and thinking, "I could easily do a better job with that lot".

I guess it depends how people respond, I mean Adebayor is considered to be a lazy, egotistical arsehole by all accounts, yet he seemed to play for Sherwood. So who knows? Gonna be interesting to see it unfold anyway.

I think that's the thing that intrigues me most .... are our players better than the results this season would indicate? Was it simply that Lambert couldn't get the best out of them?

Now we have a chance to find out.

Hope he takes the captaincy off of Gabby and gives it to Delph, drops Weimann, keeps Grealish at least on the bench and drops Richardson. Will be interesting to see if he plays Cleverley though.

snitum wrote:Hope he takes the captaincy off of Gabby and gives it to Delph, drops Weimann, keeps Grealish at least on the bench and drops Richardson. Will be  interesting to see if he plays Cleverley though.

I think Ron Vlaar is a better captain, as long as he can keep fit.

Give Guzan a few games off hopefully

avfc85 wrote:Give Guzan a few games off hopefully

Belated birthday greetings avfc85, I missed it due to a few things going on at Villa! I hope you had a good day.

villabromsgrove wrote:

avfc85 wrote:Give Guzan a few games off hopefully

Belated birthday greetings avfc85, I missed it due to a few things going on at Villa! I hope you had a good day.

Cheers, as it was my 30th had a 2 day break with the misses, nice and relaxed now ready for work :)

snitum wrote:Hope he takes the captaincy off of Gabby and gives it to Delph, drops Weimann, keeps Grealish at least on the bench and drops Richardson. Will be  interesting to see if he plays Cleverley though.

Weimann did ok yesterday...in fact (an I can't believe I'm saying this), he's done ok for a few games....definitely our hardest working striker....and yesterday I would have hooked Benteke instead of Bacuna, and put Weimann through the middle for the last 20mins.

I hope we never see Gabby in the team again.

edit: Grealish?...no way he should be involved again this season. Offers precious little , the time just isn't right for him. If he is good enough then we now have the right manager to utilise him, but I feel that will be next season.

Should we stay up i really cannot wait for the summer. Some comings and goings me thinks.

I think Weimann is one of our most important players and probably the key to unlocking Benteke. Sure, he might continue to have an indifferent time under Sherwood but I hope not. Lambert had him playing off to one side and running all over the pitch defending too. For me he and Gil (and Grealish) need to be the ones training hard with Benteke.

Gabby needs to get his arse in gear ASAP but again, we don't know how Lambert's told him to play or how he's trained. Let's not write off anyone just yet. Even N'Zogbia needs the opportunity to prove himself, have we even seen him as a wide man crossing in balls and not instructed to bring the ball towards the middle every time he gets it?

FoxyAV wrote:I think Weimann is one of our most important players and probably the key to unlocking Benteke. Sure, he might continue to have an indifferent time under Sherwood but I hope not. Lambert had him playing off to one side and running all over the pitch defending too. For me he and Gil (and Grealish) need to be the ones training hard with Benteke.

Gabby needs to get his arse in gear ASAP but again, we don't know how Lambert's told him to play or how he's trained. Let's not write off anyone just yet. Even N'Zogbia needs the opportunity to prove himself, have we even seen him as a wide man crossing in balls and not instructed to bring the ball towards the middle every time he gets it?

That's an excellent point about N'Zogbia. Was a decent winger at Wigan at Newcastle, definitely bought with a view to supplying crosses for Bent by McCleish.
Interesting....could it be N'Zogbia that Sherwood rejuvenates in the same way he did Adebayor...and not Benteke like everyone assumes!

The thing with Zog, from what I've seen, is that it is HIM who wants to be the player cutting in from outwide rather than whipping crosses in. I think a strong manager would, and needs to, tell him that his best role is as a traditional wideman and he needs to accept that fact.

Villa_Dan wrote:The thing with Zog, from what I've seen, is that it is HIM who wants to be the player cutting in from outwide rather than whipping crosses in. I think a strong manager would, and needs to, tell him that his best role is as a traditional wideman and he needs to accept that fact.

I think that N'Zogbia will get his backside firmly kicked by Sherwood, he hates unfit players and Charlie boy will have to put in some very hard yards in training to get into contention.

I don't think he has to just pick one or the other ViewFrom, he can invigorate them both. Hopedully he'll invigorate the whole squad

Villa_Dan wrote:The thing with Zog, from what I've seen, is that it is HIM who wants to be the player cutting in from outwide rather than whipping crosses in. I think a strong manager would, and needs to, tell him that his best role is as a traditional wideman and he needs to accept that fact.

Playing to instruction I think...as Lambert had the full backs offering the width and crosses. Very evident yesterday that we started hitting much earlier balls into the box, from deeper areas too.
Don't think we will be relying on Hutton and Cissokho for wide assists for much longer...let's just hope he can get all of our squad onside and willing to put a shift in. If he does that, then we have so many options going forward.

With Kozak coming back too things could get a lot better over the next few weeks.