What Chance Does Sherwood Really Have?

As another week passes by, yet another defeat has been endured by the Villa faithful.

Regardless of Chelsea's poor start, most teams will head to Stamford Bridge and also come away empty handed as this season unfolds. This game alone should not define our season, or Tim Sherwood's future, and despite us in desperate need of points wherever we can muster them from right now, in all likelihood, this game was always going to prove difficult to gain anything from.

Despite this, the #SherwoodOut brigade seems unrelenting and the less realistic of us who were demanding 3 points from our visit to Chelsea have been almost vitriolic in their calling for Tim's head.

In truth, we were more than matching Chelsea right up until Brad Guzan's horrific swipe of a pass to Joleon Lescott. We had created chances and were carrying a threat and visibly growing in confidence the longer the half went on. Getting to half time without conceding would've been crucial. It was exactly the sort of game that required discipline and concentration in order to frustrate the overwhelming favourites on their own patch. It was a classic example of the type of game where the longer it goes on, the underdogs self-belief grows by the minute and they believe they can get something out of the game. This in turn promotes an improved work rate to protect what you already have and to ensure you see out the game.

With confidence at an obviously brittle level, Guzan's lack of composure and abysmal distribution (again) completely destroyed any belief our players may have assembled within those first 30 minutes. Worryingly, heads dropped instantly, and everything suddenly became much easier for the champions. An unlucky deflected second goal saw out the formality of the game and summed up our luck at the moment.

Sherwood continues to bear the brunt of the supporters frustration, but he is not being helped by the players making such basic errors and in particular Guzan when he continues to give gifts to our opponents. The concerning aspect of it is that he has been under no real pressure when making these blunders, with ample time to judge his surroundings and situation. There have been costly mistakes against Crystal Palace, Leicester, Sunderland and now Chelsea and it's not unreasonable to suggest that we should be at least 5 points better off if we had a reliable option between the sticks.

This still wouldn't represent a great start to the season and we would still be at the wrong end of things. Yet, the devastating consequences of losing these points in the manner that we have cannot be underestimated and the effect on morale drags on to the next game. It's not unreasonable to add on a couple of extra points for a team playing with confidence and without the pressure that has mounted so far also.

Crucially, Guzan's (and others, to throw in some fairness) failings have now left Sherwood facing the upcoming Swansea game knowing it's pretty much win or bust for him.

Although I wouldn't like to see Sherwood sacked after such a short period of time, if we do lose again this weekend, a record of 8 losses in our first 10 league games will not be acceptable. Put simply, Aston Villa must win this game.

But that seems incredibly unlikely at this time due to several other factors also.

There is a horrible uncertainty surrounding Villa at the moment with many rumours and conflicting stories circulating, and this may go some way to explaining our poor start. The emergence of rumours of a clash regarding player recruitment policy has come as a surprise to me as I was firmly under the impression that Sherwood had scouted and hand-picked each one of our purchases this summer. He can even be quoted as saying 'These are my players now, the buck stops with me. There are no excuses'. However suggestions now are that this isn't quite the full story and that Paddy Reilly, Hendrik Almstadt and Tom Fox have had more of a say than originally first thought. Nobody is quite sure at the moment which players have been Sherwood's choice and the rumour mill went into overdrive with a decision to start Kieran Richardson ahead of Jordan Amavi last weekend which bore some unsavoury reaction on social media. Along with the foremost suggestion that this was a completely harebrained decision (although if the plan was to shut out and frustrate Chelsea, I can personally see some logic in this choice, as I do think Amavi leaves us exposed defensively at times), the other implication was that Sherwood was making a point of leaving Amavi out (along with Jordan Veretout) as these were the players that weren't his choice. I find this far-fetched and would be amazed to learn that Sherwood picked his team in this manner. Yet the fact is that the vagueness surrounding our players remains and we do not know who is responsible for bringing them into the club.

The whole '2 games to save himself' rumour, wherever it has started from, has created tremendous pressure and also given fans a viable option to turn on Sherwood. A definitive club statement should've been issued to end speculation and back the manager straight away, however short term it may turn out to be. The uncertainty drips down to the players and the fans and it's another example of just how lacking Villa have become in conducting things off the field. It's such a poor state of affairs to let this continue and rumble on, and is nothing short of a joke. Sherwood has tried his best to deflect this, and his statement regarding the fans 'singing my name three weeks ago, and they will be in another three weeks time' is admirable and a brilliant reminder of the charisma of the man.

However, there usually is no smoke without fire and it is clear all is not well at Villa Park amongst the hierarchy. If there are disagreements on recruitment selection, then the effects of this on the 'unwanted' players is obvious. That said, Sherwood hasn't particularly frozen out any one of the summer signings.

Nevertheless, it is clear that he is irked by aspects behind the scenes at the club, and it is clear that things are not running smoothly. Even down to the petty squabble with taking Stan Collymore's matchday column away from him, everything smacks of a club that is in disarray from the very top to the very bottom. No wonder that Sherwood's passion and enthusiasm is being drained noticeably week by week. And that is a shame, as he was the sole reason that Villa Park came alive again at the end of last season.

Sherwood seems to be in a position where he is unable to rely on the board, has error prone players and has lost a huge section of the fans. That doesn't bode well for a game where he is probably going to need a win to save his job.

@lovespud83

Sherwood Out? Seriously?

It has been widely reported this week that Tim Sherwood has just the next two games with which to save his job as manager of Aston Villa. Whether there is any substance to this report is unclear, as it is also widely reported that our top target is the recently sacked Brendan Rodgers. Whether it is the media simply connecting some dots together in creating a story wide of the mark, or whether there is truth in it, I have been alarmed by the reaction of seemingly most Villa supporters who have now completely turned on Sherwood since this story broke at the end of last week in the hope that we lure Rodgers instead.

I personally think it is far too soon to even contemplate getting rid of Sherwood at this stage. There is an incredible knee-jerk panic amongst Villa fans that needs to be tempered.

The argument which I seem to be seeing for getting rid of Sherwood is that teams such as Sunderland and Liverpool have acted quickly rather than letting their problems drag on and we should be nipping our own problems in the bud early on also to stand any chance of a repeat of the relegation struggles we constantly find ourselves in. There are huge differences in these situations however.

Firstly, Sunderland have been forced into their managerial change. Dick Advocaat had seemingly wanted out of the Stadium of Light since the beginning of the season and eventually walked. They are a team full of ageing, championship standard players and new manager Sam Allardyce's only chance of keeping them up will be to employ a brand of turgid, defensive and bland football.

And as for Liverpool, it is absolutely crystal clear that the club knew they could land Jurgen Klopp at that particular time, and so it was bye-bye Brendan. Make no mistake, Rodgers would still be in that job if Klopp hadn't had made himself available to them.

Aston Villa are not in the same managerial position as either Sunderland or Liverpool. The panic for Villa fans seems to be centering around the fact that we must act now to stand any chance of landing Rodgers.

This, to me, is an unbelievable way of thinking. It seems that just because there is a manager available who has been at a big club then he must be better than what we have. The arguments I have seen flying about are so superficial and uninformed and it is cringeworthy to read and makes us as a fan base look inconsistent and unsupportive. The main issues that seem to be arising are as follows:

View: Rodgers finished 2nd with Liverpool only a couple of years ago.

My Argument: Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez were absolutely tearing the league up in that year. Rodgers had the quality of player available to be able to challenge for the league. Defensively they were still poor, but often managed to win games by being able to outscore their opponents. Liverpool didn't fare so well without both of them last season. I'd like to see Rodgers achieve a 2nd place finish with Rudy Gestede and Gabby Agbonlahor at his disposal.

View: Sherwood is already looking like a broken man.

My Argument: In this instance, agreed. However, I genuinely can't work out whether, when he comes out with quotes such as 'This is the worst day of my life' after a defeat to West Brom, that he is so impassioned in whatever task he is currently involved in that he truly feels like that in the moment, or he is hamming it up to show he's on a level with the fans. All I do know is that his enthusiasm when we score and are doing well is one thing that the fans warmed to, especially after the dour demeanour of Paul Lambert. With Brendan Rodgers, you get that same sort of nothingness after every single result. If there was one thing that drove Liverpool fans crazy it was the same sound bites spewed forth after each game 'The lads have done brilliantly. I can't fault the effort'. Now, to me, that sounds horrifically familiar to a certain Scotsman. I, for one, do not want a repeat of that.

View: Sherwood doesn't know what he's doing tactically.

My Argument: Sherwood seemed to know exactly what he was doing when he outclassed Rodgers in the F.A Cup semi-final last year.

Something has obviously gone awry this season with tinkering of formations and strange substitutions. But at this early stage, and with a squad full of new players, along with a raft of injuries to contend with, I do not think this is reason to panic at this point. Don't get me wrong, some of the decisions have baffled me, such as the starting line up against Stoke. For some reason, a more negative approach has been taken in the last few games, perhaps an attempt to avoid losing games. However, I do not think this approach will continue and Sherwood must revert to the open and expansive attacking football soon to get results. Tactically, Sherwood is not as naive as people would like to suggest and there is an over emphasis on his management due to the media perception that he is purely a chancer. The real answer is that we simply do not know at this stage.

View: Sherwood's transfers haven't been good enough and aren't working.

My Argument: This is astounding. Take away the fact that we are just seven games into the season, but Villa fans everywhere were absolutely raving about the singings we made. Plus take into account the absolute dross we have managed to offload, and I still believe we have upgraded hugely in most areas. Jordan Amavi and Idrissa Gana have hit the ground running, whilst everyone is absolutely dying to see what a fit Adam Traore is going to be capable of. Everybody was excited at the glowing reputation of Jordan Veretout, and we were all pleased to have Micah Richards and Scott Sinclair on board also. Rudy Gestede, although by no means a Christian Benteke, has shown that with the right service he can put the ball away.

We have had a clear out of epic proportions and removed no hopers such as Alexsander Tonev, Enda Stevens. We have removed big earners such as Shay Given and Darren Bent that were crippling us. And Average Joes like Aly Cissokho and Ron Vlaar are no more. We're feeling the effects of Fabian Delph and much moreso, Christian Benteke, leaving. But overall I much prefer the look of our squad as it is now.

Brendan Rodgers' dabbles in the transfer markets haven't been great - £20 million for Lazar Markovic? £15 million on Joe Allen? This season Liverpool have attracted James Milner and Danny Ings on free transfers, but don't be fooled into thinking that it Brendan Rodgers who has enticed them - it is the prestige of a club such as Liverpool and the wages offered that has sealed those deals.

View: This is Villa's worst start since were we relegated in 1986/87

My Argument: That doesn't mean that we will be relegated this time. I am concerned with the fact that the games we have so far played should've yielded more points, of course. And we have a tough run up ahead now. But I also believe that Sherwood hasn't been helped by Brad Guzan's calamitous mistakes against Palace and Leicester which would give us a couple more points at least (and good away point at that). The last few weeks have been very odd in terms of team selection and decisions made, and undoubtedly Sherwood must sort these out starting from now. There is no further tolerance for the poor home record we have suffered for the last 5 years and games against West Brom and Stoke should've seen us rip these teams apart with the pace we have available.

If we replaced Sherwood with Rodgers we would still have had our worst start to the season since 1986/87. A panic reaction to this statistic is to be avoided at all costs.

Sherwood has earned himself a chance to manage this club. Through keeping us up last season, for those epic occasions against West Brom last season, for that F.A Cup semi-final, and for clearing out the stench left by Paul Lambert. This is not the time to get rid of him. Changes need to be made of course, but we have a team full of capable players and full of pace and should be causing problems. The word building up towards the Chelsea game this weekend is that Sherwood is reverting to his attacking football. I believe this is our best tactic and as fans we need to be fully behind him and the team 100%.

@lovespud83