65 minutes gone and Aston Villa were ahead 2-0 after two classy curling finishes from Jack Grealish and Carlos Gil. At this moment, Leicester’s four game unbeaten run was going to derail and send them back to normality. Sherwood was going to be hailed as a tactical genius, outlining a plan on how to stop Raneri’s powerhouse and increase his win ratio. Suddenly out of nowhere, disaster. That now typical Leicester fight appeared again and within 17 minutes turned the game onto its head. Sherwood looked like Villa were doomed to relegation, the King Power Stadium erupted and the Tinkerman walked down the tunnel with a beaming grin. But how did Aston Villa drop three hard fought points?
Sherwood’s Villa Collapses Under Pressure and Ignorance
It was a somewhat surprising result given how Aston Villa were on the whole, a solid unit with a Jack Grealish goal topping off an exciting first half. The way Leicester performed in the first half played into Villa’s hands; playing deep and low pressure gave Sherwood’s men the freedom to control the game with confidence and counter attack quickly and effectively. Up until the second goal Aston Villa played with swagger, confidence and looked like a vintage Sherwood side performance and various players impressed. Joleon Lescott looks like a wise buy, Jack Grealish displayed why the Irish and English FAs are wrestling over him and the pacey Gabriel Agbonlahor continues to be threat for Villa. While Aston Villa crumbled in the second half due to their own ignorance, there were plenty of positives to pick out when Sherwood cheers up.
So why did Aston Villa fade so badly in the second half? I would put this down to a combination of failures. The team’s overconfidence, ignorance and players believing the game was won after Gil’s fabulous curling strike were the major problems for me. With 25 minutes to go and you’re 2-0 up, that is prime time to start slowing the game down, prevent any Leicester attacks and kill any chance of a fightback. Instead of calming the play down and substituting onto the pitch more defensive minded players, Villa dithered on the ball, lost their focus leading to errors and let a rampant Leicester side take advantage and knock three goals past them in the last 20 minutes. No wonder Tim Sherwood looked like his wife had handed him divorce letters in his post match interview.
It was a performance that to me was alike Sherwood’s character. A team that is considerably confident, charming and positive but has a soft underbelly and can be easily found out. His team failed to adapt to Leicester changing from a 4-4-2 to a 4-2-3-1 with Mahrez shifting into the middle, causing havoc in the Villa defence and dealt a sucker punch that the Midlands side never looked like they were going to recover from. Given how the King Power Stadium has turned into one of the Premier League’s most intimidating grounds, three points here would have been an early highlight of Villa’s season and used as a benchmark for future away performances. Instead this game will give the Villa faithful fears for the rest of the season, praying that these simple errors will be erased from their game and new defensive recruits can settle quickly. It’s just a shame that 17 minutes of madness undid the fantastic work ethic and performance that got Aston Villa to being on the brink of a well earned win.
The result leaves the Villians with one win from five games and only four points on the table. With local derbies against West Brom and Birmingham coming up before a trip to Anfield, this is a crucial time for Tim Sherwood’s men. Losses in their derby matches may result in fans turning on Sherwood and ponder if he did invest his transfer budget well or if he’s no better than Paul Lambert. In this vital week, he has to balance his team’s defence and attack, cut out the simple errors and improve squad mentality if he wants to keep Aston Villa away from a relegation battle and retain his job.
