New Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood has stated that he is determined to get Christian Benteke firing in order to save his side from relegation.
Paul Lambert was sacked last week after the club fell into the relegation zone and Sherwood was announced as the replacement before the 2-1 win over Leicester City in the fifth-round of the FA Cup. Despite not being in charge officially, he was there at half time to give the team talk. His first game in charge will be against Stoke City on Saturday.
The team looked a bit tentative against Leicester City in the FA Cup,” he said during his presentation to the media on Monday. “We have to play on the front foot a bit more.”
“Let’s have a go at fighting and start throwing a few punches ourselves.”
“I haven’t been a manager here yet, but when I came to play here, it was a difficult place to come and get results,” he continued. “I want to turn this place back into a fortress. It’s very important this club stay in the Premier League.
“None of these players want to be relegated, no one does.”
The 46-year-old has been derided for his lack of experience at the top level with the five and a half years spent at Spurs the only time he was a manager,
a Therea s a lot of poor experienced managers,” he said. “There are a lot of good ones as well. I think ita s overrated . My experience as a football manager has been very good up until now so I hope that continues.a
Speaking about the misfiring Christian Benteke, he said, a Probably a goal for him will breed confidence and the rest will follow. But ita s certainly not a one-man team. Hea s going to be an important part of it because we know what he can be.”
a We need to see if he can recapture that form because all the best clubs in the world were after him. I am sure we can tap into that confidence and get him back firing. But hea s going to need to be helped out by the rest of the group as well. So ita s not only Christian Benteke, there are a lot of other players in the squad and they need to step to the front now and start performing.a
He hasn’t met the owner Randy Lerner yet. a I spoke to him briefly, but I spoke to Tom Fox [the chief executive] at length about the vision of the club. I liked what I heard. Obviously the philosophy is different this season to how it is going to be in the long run because wea re in a difficult situation at the moment and therea s no getting away from that and I need to get the best out of this group of players to get enough wins.a
“It’s a fantastic opportunity and a huge football club.”
“When I got the call to ask if I’d be interested in coming to present to Villa it was a no brainer and I said yes first and we’ll negotiate afterwards.”