Garde relishing Villa challenge

Tottenham’s 3-1 victory kept the London club on the right path to a return to the Champions League and left Villa seemingly headed for the League Championship unless Garde can transform the team in the next two-thirds of the season.

Garde had not spoken to the Villa players before or during the match against Tottenham but the Fremchman is due to meet with MacDonald on Tuesday morning to discuss the team.

Perhaps the only accomplishment for Villa in the first half was preventing Tottenham from scoring again until stoppage time.

If I was Garde I would first look to the attacking line up that Villa now possess.

Villa caretaker manager Kevin MacDonald responded at half-time by introducing Rudy Gestede but the striker continued his Premier League struggles and was never likely to inspire a comeback.

Ironically, Spurs’s youthful vigour is built upon numerous principles that Sherwood brought to the club during five years in charge of an academy that schooled the spine of the Premier League’s youngest side. “When you start losing you start getting low on confidence and you can not win games”.

“I think the current level of the table doesn’t reflect the level of the team”, Garde told the club’s official website.

None started in Villa’s 3-1 loss at Spurs on Monday and it is a priority for Garde to utilise them better. “We need to be all together”. In January I believe it is vital Villa recruit a new goalkeeper as Brad Guzan is a weakness in their starting line up, keepers like Tom Heaton and David Ospina are rumoured to be available at reasonable prices so they should be considered.

“Some of the French players in particular will be encouraged that they now have a manager who can understand their mindset and communicate more effectively with them”.

It kicks off at 13:30 United Kingdom time on Sunday November 8.

If Garde makes intelligent signings in January, assuming that the funds are made available, then this is when we should pass our judgement as this will give us a better idea of how Garde wants the squad to play and the type players he needs to do so.

“I’m very pleased with him and the whole team”.

“I don’t know what the situation is contractually with the cup at the weekend so we’ll look at that”.

Sherwood goes on to thank his coaching staff for their efforts and “dedication” during his eight odd months with us, and he also thanks the fans for their support and patience during hard times.