Tim Sherwood vows to get Christian Benteke firing again

New manager says striker will be key to survival hopes

Tim Sherwood has described taking the Aston Villa job as “a no brainer” and admitted that rebuilding Christian Benteke’s confidence will be key to keeping the club in the Premier League. Speaking on the day he was unveiled as the new Villa manager, Sherwood said that Villa needed to win six of their remaining 13 Premier League games to be sure of staying up and vowed to give the players the freedom to “start throwing a few punches ourselves”.

The 46-year-old, who spent five-and-a-half months in charge of Tottenham Hotspur before losing his job at the end of last season, also hit back at suggestions that he lacks experience. “There’s a lot of poor experienced managers. There is a lot of good ones as well. I think it’s overrated [the argument about a lack of experience]. My experience as a football manager has been very good up until now so I hope that continues.”

Sherwood watched Sunday’s 2-1 FA Cup fifth round victory over Leicester City from the directors’ box – Scott Marshall, the first-team coach picked the team – but he felt compelled to intervene at half-time and his words had the desired effect as goals from Leandro Bacuna and Scott Sinclair secured a place in the FA Cup quarter-finals.

“I said [at half-time] to play with less fear, I thought it was a bit tentative, I wanted to get Christian Benteke in the game a lot more, he was making good runs, I think we had to look for him earlier and try and fill the box up a bit more and give them something to think about.

“There’s a bit of apprehension about the place obviously, which comes with losing matches, so we need to play with a bit more freedom, get the shackles off. They looked a bit tentative. They need to play on the front foot a little bit more. You’re going to win games and you’re going to lose games between now and the end of the season, but let’s have a go fighting and start throwing a few punches ourselves.”

Benteke has only scored three times in 19 appearances for Villa this season. Asked what it will take to get him firing again, Sherwood said: “Probably a goal for himself. If he scores goals it will breed confidence and the rest will follow. But it’s certainly not a one-man team. He’s going to be an important part of it because we know what he can be.

“We need to see if he can recapture that form because all the best clubs in the world were after him. I am sure we can tap into that confidence and get him back firing. But he’s going to need to be helped out by the rest of the group as well. So it’s not only Christian Benteke, there are a lot of other players in the squad and they need to step to the front now and start performing.”

Sherwood has yet to meet Randy Lerner, Villa’s owner. “I spoke to him briefly [on the phone], but I spoke to Tom Fox [the chief executive] at length about the vision of the club. I liked what I heard. Obviously the philosophy is different this season to how it is going to be in the long run because we’re in a difficult situation at the moment and there’s no getting away from that and I need to get the best out of this group of players to get enough wins.”

Lerner had the club up for sale in the summer and there is still a clear sense the American would be gone if he could find a buyer, but Sherwood said that he had no fears about coming into a club in that position. “I can’t worry about that. At the moment every football club in the world is up for sale at the right price. So I’m not worried about that. All I need to worry about is getting the players here prepared to win football matches on the pitch and that’s what I intend to do.”


By Stuart James, Guardian