Rudy Gestede hailed by Tim Sherwood after debut goal for Aston Villa
Thursday 13 August 2015 11:27, UK
Tim Sherwood was full of praise for Rudy Gestede after the striker marked his Aston Villa debut by scoring the winner at newly-promoted Bournemouth.
Last season’s Championship winners had the better opportunities in the opening period at the Vitality Stadium, but Villa, freshened up by second-half chances and Sherwood’s half-time team talk grew after the break and scored before Gestede bagged the decisive goal on 72 minutes.
It was Bournemouth’s first top-flight game in the club’s history, a point which Sherwood attributed to Villa’s slow start on the south coast, before Gestede came off the bench to make the difference.
“I thought we were slow in the first period,” he told Sky Sports. “We set out to nullify and try and quieten the carnival atmosphere that we here on Bournemouth’s first ever Premier League game.
“We did that for half an hour but then we didn’t stick to the plan for the last 15 minutes and he had to rely on Brad Guzan to make a couple of saves.
“In the second half we stepped into them, made more forward runs and were a bit braver in possession and we started to create chances.
“Rudy Gestede then came off the bench. We knew he would give us another dimension and managed to get the win for us. We worked very hard to bring him to the football club and that’s the reason.
“He’s a big menacing guy that doesn’t give centre-backs a minutes rest with his hustle and bustle. But he’s more than that, he can hold up the play and he deserves his opportunity in the Premier League and he’s going to get it at Aston Villa.
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“We knew it would be difficult to come to Bournemouth but the positives today are that we’ve got a clean sheet, a lot of players have played 90 minutes in a competitive game and that has allowed me to assess them and they will improve.
Sherwood handed debuts to newly-appointed Villa captain Micah Richards, Jordan Amavi, Jordan Veretout, Idrissa Gueye, and Jordan Ayew following a flurry of transfer activity at the club this summer.
And the Villa boss was pleased with how his side full of new additions had been able to gel together and claim victory on the opening day.
“We are spending more than enough time on the training ground, the players have bought into it and we’re looking to improve as much as we can because we owe it to the supporters of this big football club,” he added.
“Eddie has done magnificent things at Bournemouth, they are a settled side which is completely different to where we are so we knew we would be a little bit fragmented.
“But in the end we controlled the game in the second half and we deserved the win thanks to Brad Guzan’s couple of save in the first period.”
