Yesterday’s FA cup clash against Leicester City was very much a tale of two halves. The reason for that, Tim Sherwood. Whatever the former-Spurs boss said to the players at half time clearly worked. Both Villa and Foxes fans have witnessed an array of awful, drab performances this season, but the first half of yesterdays tie was quite possibly the worst yet. Besides a disallowed goal, which was relatively well-worked, we played extremely poorly. It appeared Lambert’s negative mentality and tactics was still fresh in the mind of our forward players. Very little action happened in the first half, Leicester hit the post from a corner, but that was about it. It was a dull and dismal spectacle for all. It started to become evidently clear why both of the teams on display are fighting a relegation battle.
At half-time, Villa’s newly appointed manager payed a visit to the dressing room. Caretaker manager Scott Marshall stated after the game, “He (Sherwood) came in at half time and made a couple of points to everyone about things he had spotted. There was a lot of individual detail there, it was not one big sweeping statement.”.
The second half performance was significantly pleasing for Villa fans, and a huge contrast to the previous 45 minutes. A crunching tackle made by Ciaran Clark injected life into the contest. Villa Park had suddenly come alive, as a goal looked to be on the cards. Then, in the 68th minute Leandro Bacuna opened the scoring. An out of position Ron Vlaar played the ball into Bacuna, who then produced a wonderful solo effort to put the Villans’ in front.
Unlike the Aston Villa of late, we then pushed for another goal to seal the tie. Andreas Weimann appeared to have done exactly that, but his effort was ruled offside. Scott Sinclair scored the winning goal for Villa in the 89th minute, after Leicester’s goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer fumbled the ball into his own net. The game wasn’t over however, as the men in claret and blue suffered a late scare. One minute after Sinclair’s strike, Andrej Kramaric powered a header past Shay Given to give the Foxes hope of a replay.
Given was excellent all afternoon and was awarded man of the match as a result. The 38-year-old produced some spectacular saves to keep us in the game, the most notable save being the one which denied Matty James in the first half. Brad Guzan hasn’t been in the best form of late, so is it time for Sherwood to give Shay the call up he deserves?
On BBC’s coverage of the fixture, Robbie Savage stated that our ‘midfield players are too similar’. Savage was very critical of Villa for the whole 90 minutes, but I do agree with his above statement. I understand we was missing Carles Gil, but yesterday’s match once again proved that we lack creativity in the centre of the park. Delph, Westwood and Cleverley are all players of a similar style, they all look to play possession football. Is this a result of Paul Lambert’s management? I sadly don’t know. But, I believe one member of this midfield trio must be dropped and replaced by a more attacking option such as Sinclair or Bacuna. If I was Tim Sherwood, Tom Cleverley would be the player to go. The United loanee was awful against Chelsea and Hull. Fans were even calling for his dismissal. Sunday was a slight turning point for Villa’s number eight though, as he looked a lot more confident on the ball. However, he was still far too predictable when going forward, often losing the ball in promising positions.
Yesterday’s victory against Leicester is now a starting point for Aston Villa and Tim Sherwood. We must forget the events of the past 6 months, and treat the next 13 games as a new season. We certainly have the ability to survive the drop, but do we have the passion and heart? From looking at Tim Sherwood’s press conference, goal celebrations and impact in the dressing room, I believe our manager does. Now, Sherwood’s job is to inject this passion and confidence into the players, especially Benteke.
