Express & Star

Blog: Can Aston Villa turn things around?

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Are Aston Villa a rudderless ship or can they pull out of the bottom three with a flash of strategic brilliance?

Matthew Turvey

ponders what's next for the club.

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With a loss to Southampton - albeit one that wasn't as dramatic as the end of last season - Villa find themselves out of the cup and miserable.

In truth, the cup is the least of Villa's worries given their basement location in the Premier League, and much needs to change if the club are to avoid falling out of the top flight.

So far, Tim Sherwood has fallen foul of poor results, leaving a split between those that think the manager was the problem or just a symptom of a bigger issue.

Speaking candidly, as much as Sherwood was a poor manager at Villa, only a fool would consider his removal to be a recipe for an immediate bounce back.

Instead, the club's hierarchy must be considering the realistic possibility that next season will be in the Championship, and the fear that the route back is not guaranteed to be immediate.

Such a statement may sound negative and nihilistic, because though Villa's relegation is a fair accomplishment.

That's something still to be decided, but the club have to acknowledge that no other team on four points at this stage of the season has survived.

Does this mean that the team should focus solely on shutting up shop?

Not entirely, as whilst being defensively minded will likely allow for less goals conceded, it similarly restricts the ability for a team to be expressive or able to score the goals needed to win games.

On paper, Villa should be more solid but then, arguably, what should and shouldn't be the case bears little resemblance to what has actually transpired.

Speaking of solidity, much has been made of a team that is inexperienced, generally and in Premier League terms.

But such a statement is misleading as Villa played with a back four against Swansea who had hundreds of games of experience at the top level.

Some of that is down to the fact that Villa's back four are far from the youngest quartet - and their lack of mobility is potentially due to that level of experience/age (delete as appropriate) - but pulling the card that Villa lack experience is wrong, bordering on the disingenuous.

Yes, Villa have brought in a large quantity of players, but this was under the guidance of a management team that - whether Sherwood agrees or not - were looking to develop the club.

Even if Randy Lerner may not be the most football minded individual, he does not want the club to be relegated.

Misguided he may well be, but hyperbole suggesting he is exhibiting malfeasance is just that - hyperbolic nonsense.

Unfortunately for Lerner - and Villa - saving the season may well be a stretch too far.

Under Lerner's stewardship, the club have arguably progressively been aiming their sights lower and lower in terms of attracting the right talent to the club.

They focused more on saving money only to end up spending it in managerial compensation as Villa lurch from one crisis to another.

Can Villa stay up? Mathematically, they aren't dead and buried, but it will take a managerial coup and the associated miracle if the club are to finish anywhere apart from rock bottom, let alone out of the bottom three.

You can follow Matt Turvey's regular opinions at his own site, Aston Villa Life at www.astonvillalife.com, via the site's Twitter account @astonvillalife, or via his own Twitter account @mturvey_star.