• Premier League

Sherwood: Rant after Chelsea loss did no harm

ESPN staff
March 23, 2014
Tim Sherwood's position as manager continues to be a major talking point © Getty Images
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Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood believes the criticism he fired at his players after the heavy loss to Chelsea a fortnight ago did them "no harm".

On Sunday, Spurs came from 2-0 down to beat Southampton 3-2 at White Hart Lane, with Gylfi Sigurdsson snatching the victory in injury-time as the side kept their hopes of a top four finish alive.

And Sherwood, who said his team lacked "characters" and "guts" in the 4-0 defeat to Chelsea on March 8 in what the manager described as a "capitulation", says his angry remarks towards the players is now having the desired effect on his team.

"I've had a pop at them in the past but they know how to react to criticism now and they know how to react to winning games. The rant I gave them after the Chelsea match did them no harm," Sherwood said after the win against Southampton, which closed the gap to fourth-placed Arsenal by four points having played a game more.

Following back-to-back losses to Chelsea and Arsenal in the Premier League, as well as an exit from the Europa League on Thursday night at the hands of Benfica, Sherwood's position as manager at Tottenham continues to be a talking point, with Louis van Gaal strongly tipped to replace Sherwood in the manager's hot seat at the end of the campaign.

On the comeback, Sherwood said: "We made hard work of it, after going 2-0 down to a good team like Southampton. You know what it took? Guts, character, spirit."

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