Will Tim Sherwood be a success at Aston Villa?

Tim Sherwood has a tough job on at Villa Park

There was something unerringly simple about Tim Sherwood's appointment as Aston Villa manager.

There was no speculation, no prolonged talks, just a swift appointment.

Sherwood has himself said the job was too good to turn down based on the size of the club. But based on the size of the job in front of him, would he have been better to adopt his usual reticence? And what does this appointment really mean for the Villa?

Sherwood is a winner. That is a fact. He might not have enjoyed the glittering career as some but he was a success. He captained a less fashionable team to Premier League glory in 1995 with Blackburn Rovers and led Portsmouth into the Premier League in 2003. Central to that success as a player was a desire to succeed; the same desire that has been evident in the embryonic stages of his managerial career.

At Tottenham, where he had developed a sound reputation for developing the younger players in a coaching capacity, he was never really given a chance and his outspoken nature probably worked against him.

The benefit that Villa might feel from this is a learning curve that Sherwood has gone through. The early signs are good. Having an influence on the half-time teamtalk in the FA Cup tie at home to Leicester galvanised a lacklustre Villa side.

The team that came out in the second half was more direct, showed more pace, and was more willing to get in and around the box.

Such willing has been sorely missed in this part of the Midlands with Villa's dearth of goalscoring opportunities a consequence and costing them dearly this season. However, a half-time pep talk is a far cry from turning a side's fortunes around for a season.

So what will he bring to the role? He is straight-talking and, as every pundit commentating on football this weekend has stated, 'he will suffer no fools gladly'. This might shake things up a little, but having learnt from his antics at Tottenham, it is unlikely he will upset morale too much.

He will lean towards youth in the future, which is convenient because Paul Lambert invested smartly on players the right side of 25. Seven of the players who started Sunday's cup tie are 25 years old or younger and both substitutes were in the same boat.

But Sherwood has set his stall out early for the here and now and warned the collected media and eager Villa fans that he won't be peppering his starting XI with 18 year olds. This is a different job from the one at Spurs, with different immediate objectives.

"I've got a way of playing," stated Sherwood. "It has been a success with the Spurs development side and in the first team. I know how to galvanise and get the best out of players and that is what I intend to do with this squad."

He isn't wrong either, as he won 13 of his 22 Premier League games in charge of Spurs (a 59% win ratio), leading them to sixth in the division and European qualification.

Yet it is the similarities between the situations faced by the respective clubs' star strikers that could be key here.

Sherwood transformed the fortunes of a down-and-out Emmanuel Adebayor, something that Christian Benteke is desperately in need of. He has vowed to get the best out of the bullish Belgian international and, if he can, Villa will have the solution to their goalscoring problems once again.

Is Sherwood the right man for Villa? He's up for a fight and he knows how to win, but the key could be his ability to get the best out of strikers. So harnessing Benteke's abilities could well be key to a successful future for Villa.