‘Either we heal as a team, or we’re gonna crumble’.
Says Al Pacino’s character Tony D’Amato, the coach of the Miami Sharks in Oliver Stone’s movie Any Given Sunday.
‘We are in hell right now, gentlemen, believe me, and we can stay here and get the shit kicked out of us or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb out of hell. One inch, at a time’.
Now, we’re not saying this is the exact speech new Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood gave to his side at half-time today, but we’d like to think it was something similar.
Sherwood was confirmed as Paul Lambert’s replacement yesterday and although he was not in charge for today’s FA Cup tie with Leicester City, that didn’t stop him inspiring his new troops.
Villa goalkeeper Shay Given revealed after the game that Sherwood came into the dressing room at half-time and gave a ‘positive’ team-talk to the side.
‘I’ve known Tim from our Blackburn days and he’s a very positive character,” Given said. ‘He just came into the dressing room at half-time and spoke positively to us’
‘He was very positive, he’s always a positive guy. He told us to go express yourself, keep shooting and use Christian’s [Benteke] strength’.
And did it work?
That’s Sherwood’s reaction to Villa’s second goal as the side won 2-1 and scored as many goals in 20 minutes of football as they had in over 10 hours.
‘That’s a team, gentlemen and either we heal now, as a team,or we will die as individuals. That’s football guys.That’s all it is. Now, whattaya gonna do?
As we don’t have footage of Sherwood’s call to arms speech, Al will have to do.
Close enough.
Hat-tip to BBC Sport & ITV Sport.
