Tim Sherwood has boldly claimed that Aston Villa will be in the promotion mix at the end of the season despite his former club currently sitting 16th in the Championship table.
Dean Smith has won one and lost one since taking charge at Villa Park and now finds his side six points off the top-six after 14 games played.
However ex-Villa boss Sherwood believes that promotion is still up for grabs and believes that the club’s “abundance” of players who can score goals consistently will see them shoot up the table.
“That league is wide open,” Sherwood told TalkSport, as shown in an audio clip via Alan Brazil’s Sports Breakfast’s official Twitter account. “At the beginning of the Championship you look at the teams with the biggest budgets, normally it’s them teams and them teams also carry firepower, two or three players that are regular scorers. Villa have got an abundance of them.
“I think they can come with a rattle at the death. I think the stronger squads always come to the front.
“Villa, with the squad of players they’ve got, I think they will be in and around it [promotion mix] by the end of the season.”
? "Can #AVFC get in the mix with the change now?"
Former Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood has his say on Villa's promotion chances! pic.twitter.com/xFTDGBb9mF
— talkSPORT Breakfast (@TSBreakfast) October 25, 2018
OPINION
Sherwood must be on another planet if he still thinks that Villa will be in the mix for promotion this season. Smith has inherited a squad that lacks any kind of balance and he will have to wait until January to be able to sort that out. Steve Bruce signed an awful goalkeeper, left himself with just two centre-backs and just one left-back, despite signing plenty of attackers when they were not really the priority. Yannick Bolasie is majorly lacking match fitness and Anwar El Ghazi is looking like a bit of a flop. John McGinn and Tammy Abraham will be Villa’s saving grace this season but two players can only get a side so far. When January comes, Smith will surely sign a few players. However they could take a few weeks to settle in and get used to the system and new lifestyle before they play their best football. By then, Villa could be miles away from the play-off spots. Sherwood has got this totally wrong.