West Ham United boss Sam Allardyce is a big fan of Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood.

West Ham and Villa meet today.

Sherwood was criticised at Tottenham for being too open in his tactics and too brash with the media but Allardyce believes Sherwood has the personality to succeed.

"Sometimes you may make a mistake in your early days and you have to accept that and learn from that," Allardyce said.

"Overall the job he has done at Spurs and the job he's doing at Villa, he seems to have rekindled a great energy and a great belief in the football club.

"That's not so much about tactics or your coaching methods, it's about how you handle players as a manager.

"Your coaching techniques are tactical yes, but coaching is only a small part of being a manager of a football club at this level.

"It's about motivating and rekindling confidence in your players in a difficult situation.

"At this moment in time, though they are not out of trouble, he seems to have done a good job in that way."