Sherwood is set to recall both Grealish and Gil back to the starting lineup, as the pair did not start in the defeat to Stoke last Premier League game week. Both midfielders add a much needed creative spark to Villa’s game, and both are capable of scoring goals as well. It’s believed that Sherwood will look to take on Chelsea and will step up his team with the intention of attack, as Villa look to score more goals and try to pick up some points after a 4 point game from 18th to 17th has emerged. Over the International break, Grealish has gone through a mini pre-season as Sherwood wants Grealish to build up fitness.
Assistant coach Ray Wilkins has backed manager Sherwood and believes that he can still inspire Villa to avoid relegation
“He’s an up-and-coming manager, he did extremely well at Tottenham and, let’s not forget, it was only six or seven months ago that we were in the FA Cup final and staved off relegation.
“We really shouldn’t be talking about this type of situation. We’ll get there, it’s going to be a lot of hard work but we’ll get there in the finish.” – Wilkins
Bringing Gil and Grealish back into the start 11 is a major boost for Villa. I think the pair are our best attacking midfielders, and, in the scenario of Gil, I believe he needs to be starting more often. I’d like to see Gil play in the in behind the striker and give him a good free role. Because in some previous games, when Gil was playing out wide on the right, he’d often float into the middle. It looks as though Gil would make a greater impact when playing in behind the striker than out wide. Plus that would leave space for either Traore or Ayew to play on the right hand side. Or, even place Grealish on the right and Sinclair on the left?
I’m going to stop speculating a possible starting 11, it will be different to the defeat against Stoke, but bringing Gil and Grealish back into the starting 11 is a positive move by Sherwood.
I would love to see an all attacking team – Sherwood has nothing to lose. Everyone expects us to lose this game, fans and board included, so why not go down swinging. Who knows we might actually stubble upon this magical formula Sherwood is talking about.
For me, Sherwood should start with –
Guzan, Hutton/Bacuna, Richards, Clark, Amavi, Gana, Veretout, Gil, Grealish, Traore, Ayew
If we somehow take the lead then Sherwood can shore things up by taking Veretout or Gil off for Sanchez or Okore. If we still need a goal by the 70th minute then bring in Gestede, but I don’t think he should be starting games to be honest. By default the players use him as a target man and he has yet to prove he can fill that role. We are just inviting opposition teams on us by giving it away like that.
What’s Illori’s speed like? Maybe he’d be better against the likes of Oscar. On the other hand, Hutton is a better bet to ‘do’ Costa!!!!! 🙂
As long as Lescott doesn’t start I really don’t know or care who starts at RB. My bet would be Hutton because defensively he is our best in that postion but he is a bit of a hot head and I could easily see Costa working him up.
I shudder to think what the result will be tomor if Lescott starts. I actually think he’s worse than Vlaar and that’s saying something as vlaar was woeful.
May as well put illori in he can’t possibly do any worse it’s not like we are changing a winning team