Ronald Koeman believes Aston Villa acted too quickly in sacking Tim Sherwood.

Villa gave Sherwood the boot at the weekend after a rocky start to the season, and arrive at St Mary’s this evening for their Capital One Cup fourth round tie with Kevin MacDonald in caretaker charge.

Koeman despairs at the lack of time given to managers and said: “In my opinion too much clubs are changing their manager too fast.

“Most of the time to change the manager is not better for the team or better for the club.

“Sometimes yes but it’s always disappointed because we know, all the managers know, it’s a difficult job, a difficult function in the club, a lot of pressure.

“You need understanding, you need support and to do this kind of decision after ten games in my opinion is too fast.”

He added: “It’s always difficult for a club who have a lot of changes in the management. The big quality at Southampton is the big understanding between the board, the manager and the scouting. We do it together.

“We know what we want to achieve but if it isn’t possible or not going well then be quiet and have patience and give everybody the time to improve.

“Aston Villa are a very big club in the Premier League and they have been struggling for quite some time now.

“Normally you don’t expect Villa at the bottom of the league but the last couple of years they have been fighting against relegation, which will make the owner very nervous.”