Sherwood laments ´unrecognisable´ Villa

Tim Sherwood felt his Aston Villa side were “unrecognisable” during Saturday’s 6-1 hammering at Southampton in the Premier League.

Villa were left reeling from Sadio Mane’s record-breaking exploits as they fell 5-0 behind in the first half, the Senegal winger doing much of the damage with a hat-trick in just two minutes and 56 seconds, which set a new Premier League benchmark.

The FA Cup finalists contributed to their own decline at St Mary’s Stadium with some poor defending and manager Sherwood was less than impressed.

“It was unrecognisable to the team we know we can be in the first period, but credit to Southampton – they punished every single mistake we made and there were a few,” he told BT Sport.

“It’s not only defenders. The whole team are in it together, including me. I take responsibility for that. That is one bad 45 minutes they have given me since I have been at the club.

“We have to win a game next week [at home to Burnley] and then a Cup final [versus Arsenal], so there is no point in me stripping paint off them.

“They know they haven’t played well in that first period, I know that, an idiot knows that. It wasn’t good enough and we just feel sorry for our fans.”