On the face of it, there’s something entirely predictable about Aston Villa’s start to the season. After all, the team ended the previous campaign in dire form and made wholesale changes over the summer, most notably the loss of their two best players from the past three years. Sitting 17th in the Premier League with just four points doesn’t represent a catastrophic start but, looking closer at the way they have thrown away strong positions this season, the scrutiny is beginning to build on Tim Sherwood.

Since the former Spurs boss led the club to a place in the FA Cup final with a superb victory and performance against Liverpool at Wembley earlier in the year, Villa have lost eight of 13 matches, shipping 28 goals in the process. Things looked to be improving under their young, passionate manager but Villa, and more pertinently their boss, have shown signs of real naivety. It is a real worry for the club as they go into their third successive local derby – and the biggest of them all in the eyes of the fans – after back-to-back defeats to Leicester City and West Brom.

Tim Sherwood says he needs win against Birmingham in Capital One Cup Read more

The frustration for the supporters is that Villa’s position this season could be looking pretty healthy right now were it not for those moments of madness from the sidelines. Sherwood’s men have dropped six points already, starting with a 2-1 defeat at Palace. The manager has pointed out that individual errors have cost his side, all but blaming the players entirely in the process, but he hasn’t helped matters. The loss to Alan Pardew’s team was ultimately down to a costly mistake from Jordan Amavi – and arguably Brad Guzan – but Sherwood’s decision to withdraw Carlos Sánchez, one of Villa’s strongest players at the time, was baffling to say the least.

Villa were very comfortable to that point in the 69th minute – with both sides mustering 10 shots at goal – but taking off the midfield enforcer allowed Palace to dominate in the middle of the park, having six shots to Villa’s one thereafter. Jack Grealish was moved into a midfield three but he simply isn’t capable of fulfilling that role right now. In the final 20 minutes of the game – and after a bright start – the teenager completed just four passes and didn’t manage a single tackle, dribble or shot.

Fielding Grealish in a deeper role cost Villa. It wasn’t his fault – he is an exciting attacking talent – but Sherwood should surely have learned as much.

Young managers make mistakes but the fact that he did the same thing just weeks later, with the exact same result, was pretty inexcusable. Sherwood, of course, had an excuse. Heading for an impressive win against high-flying Leicester, with Jack Grealish and Carles Gil having scored superb goals, Sherwood replaced the latter, citing injury concerns for the Spaniard as the reason.

It was a valid reason to bring off Gil, but bringing on centre-forward Jordan Ayew in his place was utterly bizarre. The option to replace Gil with the more energetic box-to-box midfielder Jordan Veretout was one of those overlooked. Instead he dropped Grealish deeper once more and fielded Ayew out wide, out of position.

What happened next was no real shock. Leicester, and Riyad Mahrez in particular, swarmed all over Villa’s fragile and tiring midfield to devastating effect. Grealish, who had again performed his attacking duties commendably to that point – securing a rating of 8.0 before Ayew’s introduction in the 66th minute – was again exposed. In the time remaining the youngster completed just seven passes and again failed to muster a dribble, shot or tackle.

Aston Villa have not been as bad as their points tally suggests but the tactical naivety of their manager is costing them. Sherwood tends to set up his sides in the right way, and there is no question that the team is playing better football than they were under Paul Lambert last season. At present Villa rank ninth for possession, 11th for pass accuracy and 13th for shots in the Premier League, as well as among the top five sides for dribbles, tackles and interceptions. Only seven teams have garnered a superior team rating (6.90) this season.

They have played pretty well for the most part and have not been dominated by their opposition for more than half a game at a time, for which the manager deserves credit. But, while Sherwood is right to highlight costly individual errors as an area for improvement, he must take responsibility for the poor game management that was also criticised while he was at Spurs.

The potential is there for Villa to avoid yet another relegation battle. They just need to be wiser to the fact that there is no shame in closing out a win, or even securing a point. If Sherwood is ever to be considered more than just a motivational speaker and distance himself from the charming idiot tag he was given by many Spurs fans, he still has plenty to learn.

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