Saturday 26 September 2015 20:06, UK
Aston Villa boss Tim Sherwood insists that his team are a 'work in progress' after they dropped into the bottom three following a 3-2 defeat at Liverpool.
James Milner's goal after just 66 seconds meant that Villa were on the back foot throughout the game with two more from Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge meaning Rudy Gestede's double was in vein.
However, Sherwood does not feel that there is any need to panic at Villa Park despite them not having won in the league since the opening day of the season.
"Obviously it's a concern," he admitted. "It's not nice for everyone but this is a work in progress, I said that from the start, not just in hindsight now when we're struggling.
"I knew it was going to be a tough season for us. We acquired a lot of new players who need to settle into this division, young guys as well. So it's a work in progress.
"We feel like performance-wise we're going in the right direction but obviously the points tally is not what we're looking for.
"We'll brush ourselves down and work as hard as we always do on the training pitch and try and put that right. It'll come good."
Conceding such an early goal was also of immense frustration for Sherwood as it meant that Villa's gameplan had to change within two minutes of the kick-off.
"The game plan was to keep that crowd quiet, make them get edgy and hopefully put some pressure on these Liverpool players," he said.
"After a minute they got a nice lift, didn't they? We didn't get tight enough. We talked all week about that area just outside the box, keeping it compact, no space in there and we've given him too much room and Milner's slotted it away nicely.
"All three goals today were avoidable and we need to tighten up on that. [When] you score two goals at Anfield you expect to take something away from the game but we haven't."
The former Tottenham boss was pleased with the contribution of Gestede, though, and backed the striker to be able to score at any level of the game.
"I knew Rudy when I brought him to the club that he could score at every level of the game," Sherwood said.
"I thought the second half of that second half was better when we got the boys who wanted the ball on the floor, we moved it further up the pitch into wide areas where we could deliver crosses for Rudy to score - which he will.
"He's a real threat and I'm pleased for him to score two goals but we take nothing from that [game]. Two goals from Anfield with no points taken away is very disappointing."
