The former England manager referenced his experience in Italian football.
Sven Goran Eriksson has suggested Aston Villa manager Dean Smith should forget about trying to play attractive football in the fight against Premier League relegation.
On Sky Sports, Eriksson said when he managed in Italy, there was an acknowledgement that those down the bottom of the league wouldn’t try and play good football against the bigger sides – it was all about results.
Eriksson said: “I’ve worked in Italy and if you’re in a small team in Italy, you don’t speak very much about playing good football. You go to Juventus, you don’t go there to try to play good football. You go there to get a point or three, you seen the end result.
“For Aston Villa, extremely important that they try to take a point or points during the next three games. How they do it, at the end, who cares?”
Villa have Chelsea, Wolves, Liverpool and Manchester United coming up in their next four matches, so it seems likely they’ll be forced to do a lot of defending.
They’ll have to defend better and make less individual errors than they did in the 4-0 defeat against Leicester last night – and they have the worst defensive record in the Premier League this season.
Eriksson is right to say that there won’t be too many Villa fans complaining about the style of play if they are able to pick up some crucial points from those next four matches.
But it is also important to consider the difference in the mood around West Ham betweeen when they went to Manchester City, sat back and lost 2-0, and had a go at Anfield, losing 3-2 but providing hope for the rest of the season.
Sitting back and still getting beaten is the worst of both worlds and can shatter the morale of a struggling club.
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