Talking Points from the Aston Villa vs Liverpool FA Cup Semi-Final

Tim Sherwood – Credit: Vu Hoang (Flickr Creative Commons)

III. Tactics Tim Will Get The (Undeserved) Credit

When you win, you look like a genius. When you lose, well, you weren’t meant to win anyways. That might be an easy way to view the early Aston Villa career of Tim Sherwood. In replacing Paul Lambert at the absolute lowest point, and riding a wave of shot percentages regressing back to the mean, Sherwood is getting credit for reinvigorating the squad. I have no doubt that he is a positive individual, and the change of tone couldn’t hurt, but it would be remiss of me to examine his decisions up to this point as being inspired and tactically astute.

Any manager who could look at this squad and decide that it was in their best interest to field Kieran Richardson in the starting lineup (injury depletion or not) is bone-headedly wrong. Forgetting his atrocious defensive play, for a second, there was a moment in the 62nd minute, when he was allowed a clear, unobstructed shot while in the box, and sent it to Row Z. Matthew Lowton remains on the bench, and despite being a natural rightback, he has outperformed Richardson when given the opportunity to play left back. He is also known for scoring the odd wonder goal or two.

Up front, somehow Charles N’Zogbia has had a late career resurgence since the arrival of Sherwood. I use the term “resurgence” not in the way that normal people do, as in he has been playing better, but that he has been playing at all. I don’t know what to say when the stats say he’s played poorly, and my eyes say he’s played poorly, and the match commentators think he’s been brilliant. Once again, when there are options available that are superior to N’Zogbia, it shouldn’t be a hard decision.