Aston Villa legend Gary Shaw has given his backing to Roberto Di Matteo, despite Villa struggling to find form so far this season.
Shaw, who provided the assist for Peter Withe’s winner against Bayern Munich in the 1982 European Cup final, believes that Di Matteo has the credentials and quality to lead Villa back into the Premier League.
Villa have only managed to pick up one victory in all competitions so far this season, despite Di Matteo having been given significant financial backing during the transfer window.
After Villa’s 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest yesterday, Di Matteo’s side currently sit 17th in the Championship, having taken only six points from their first six games.
Speaking to the Football League Paper, Shaw said:
You can’t afford to lose more than eight games or so if you want to succeed in the Championship.
It’s still early days, of course, and the new manager knows the Championship, having got West Brom promoted to the Premier League. He won the Champions League with Chelsea, too, but that’s a different world to where we are now!
However, despite Shaw’s optimism, the next four fixtures coming up for Villa are against sides currently sitting higher in the table, with Wednesday’s match against Brentford the first of that run of fixtures.
