Tim Sherwood’s Aston Villa face West Brom test in dogfight for survivalNew manager knows he has his work cut out to keep Aston Villa up but victory over Tony Pulis’s much-improved West Brom on Tuesday would see them pull clear of the relegation zone 
Tim Sherwood insists his Aston Villa team 'need to feel the pressure' to have a chance of Premier League survival.
At the same time as the “Too little, too late, Lerner out” banner was being unfurled by Aston Villa supporters at St James’ Park late on Saturday afternoon, West Bromwich supporters were inadvertently reinforcing the message by triumphantly celebrating their latest success under Tony Pulis at The Hawthorns, where the value of acting quickly and decisively in the face of a poor run of results is there for all to see.
A glance back at the table shows West Brom were four points and five places behind Villa before Pulis’s first league game in charge, a 1-0 win over Hull City on 10 January. Less than two months later, Albion make the short trip to Villa Park on Tuesday re-energised and transformed, six places and eight points better off than their neighbours, who they also face in the FA Cup quarter-final on Saturday, and with Premier League survival within touching distance.
While we will never know for sure whether Villa’s league position would be any healthier if Paul Lambert had been ushered out of the door a month or two earlier, there is no escaping the fact Tim Sherwood, with defeats from his first two matches and only 11 fixtures remaining, has one hell of a job on his hands to turn around a team who have won only two of their past 23 league games and sit second from bottom.
“It helps when you have a transfer window,” Sherwood said when asked about the comparison with Pulis’s situation at West Brom. “An ideal job would be one that Mauricio Pochettino had [at Tottenham Hotspur], where there is nothing broken. He comes in during the summer, he gets the whole pre-season, strengthens the squad with a few and he gets to build his philosophy. Those jobs don’t come along often, most jobs come along in adversity. And I certainly wasn’t turning this opportunity down.
“Time is of the essence now. We haven’t got the time but we can’t worry about that, that’s how it is. But I’m still confident and I’m not shirking any responsibility. You can’t tip-toe around the situation. The reality is we’re in it but the reality is we’ve got an opportunity to get ourselves out of it. And if we can get ourselves out of it, we ain’t never coming in this situation again, because I will have the opportunity to build something and I won’t let this happen again.
“I think there is enough to work with over a long period. I’m just hoping I’ve got enough time here to save the situation.” For the moment it is all about the short term for Sherwood, which means forgetting about the FA Cup tie against West Brom on Saturday, never mind what he may or may not achieve in seasons to come at Villa.
“First and foremost all we’re worried about is winning this league game against West Brom,” he said. “If we do that, it will take us out of the relegation zone and we’ll never look back.”
That, however, promises to be easier said than done. It is a measure of the predicament Sherwood finds himself in that he openly admitted it is “impossible to find your best XI at the moment” because he is still so new to the role. He also talked about how he is trying to “flush out” the players to tap into their psyche and “find out who has got the big [balls] to go and do the job”.
In the context of what Sherwood is up against, it is perhaps worth remembering when Pulis was appointed at The Hawthorns he described keeping West Brom up as the biggest challenge of his managerial career because of the short amount of time he was given to shake the club back into life.
What has followed since is strikingly similar to Crystal Palace’s revival on his watch last season and can be filed in the folder marked “The Pulis effect”. Pulis was in no mood to give any insight into that description when asked about it last week – he is determined not to say anything that would give the impression that West Brom are safe. You do not have to be a tactical genius to work out that his premise for survival is built on the whole team being a solid defensive unit and that every player has to buy into his holistic approach.
In Pulis’s 26 games in charge at Selhurst Park, Palace had the lowest possession in the league (34.5%), averaged a goal per game but kept 10 clean sheets (only Chelsea, Manchester City and Everton conceded fewer) and recorded the eighth-best point return. Across seven league games as head coach at The Hawthorns, no Premier League team has had less possession than Pulis’s West Brom side, who have scored only six goals but kept five clean sheets (only Liverpool can equal that record) and racked up 12 points in the process.
Not so long ago Sherwood thought he would be in charge at West Brom but he missed out on the job on two occasions, once last summer, when Alan Irvine was given the position, and again when Pulis was appointed. Asked whether those two episodes would add any extra needle to the game, the 46-year-old replied: “Not at all, it’s a good little club and it wasn’t right for me and it wasn’t right for them. I’m delighted I’m at this massive football club now.”
The Villa manager knows the heat is on and he has no intention of trying to lighten the burden on his players.
“If they’re not feeling the pressure, being second bottom of the league, playing for a massive club like Aston Villa, then something’s seriously wrong,” Sherwood said. “They need to feel the pressure. We’ve lost the last seven Premier League games and scored 13 goals all season. Something has to change, and it has to change very soon.”
Guardian
