MadAmster

... not sure if you missed the news...... but Derby ARE in Tier 32 of the English footballing pyramid 🙂 and, as a Derby player, so is Max Bird.

When we signed him, the club was aware he's be absent during the 2 international breaks in the last 1/3 of 2023. When he was offered an 18 month extension on his contract, PW and his staff knew, barring injury, he'd be off the represent Namibia at AFCON. Maybe they know something you don't. Maybe missing him for January is deemed by those whose opinion counts to be well worth what he can deliver over the next season and a half. Maybe PW is happy as it will allow him to revert to his, apparently, preferred back 3.

New Manager bounce, us wanting to show our "bouncebackability", on Sky... 1-4

... at least I was consistent in repeating the error 🙂

NML needs a rest. He was knackered against the Posh. He's had a good season thus far but against Posh he was ineffective going forward and failed to track his man on several occasions including in the lead up to their first goal. Hourihane needs a rest too.

... and doesn't track back with any enthusiasm. Great talent but has to stay on his feet and get stuck in when "his man" moves forward with the ball rather than let himself get outrun by the man in possession.

65 minutes. Memory playing tricks. Can I claim age as the cause 🙂 ? I got the time of his substitution wrong. BTW - you DID suggest such a thing

It seems a lot of fans don't see what Bird does in a game. Let's have a look back at last season. We had a run of around 20 games unbeaten and Bird was focal in that run. Then he was out for a lot of games with injury and the unbeaten run ended and we fell away. Back in the 70s a lot of fans had similar comments about the likes of McGovern and Durban. As with Bird, you only really appreciate what they do when they're not there.

Burton and Derby Jan 13 to 16. Fuerteventura from the 18th for a week. A week in Derby in March for the Reading and Bolton games. Still deciding where to go in Feb, April and May. Stay in NL from June to the end of August, Germany in September, UK October, somewhere in the sun in November.... sorted.

A "comedy" of errors. Starting with the starting XI, maybe? Some of our not so young players looked off the pace and pace was the catalyst in the game. They were quicker just about everywhere. Hourihane and NML being the 2 "worst" IMO with Nat taking the biscuit. He roasts full backs for fun, usually, but I don't think he did his man a single time before his HT substitution. He totally forgot about tracking back too. On half a dozen occasions I was shouting at the screen for him to track his man. The first time led to their first goal, his "man" providing the assist. A totally preventable goal. No surprise that CH and NML were off at HT and Foz was on a yellow and had had a knock to his knee so probably wise to sub him off too. Their 2nd saw our defence fail to follow the movement of an opponent and he nodded home, totally unmarked. I know I'm old fashioned when it comes to things like strikers hunting in pairs. I also remain old school when it comes to defending corners. A man at the post would have prevented their equaliser. Their 3rd? How often have we seen us fail to properly clear the ball and pay the price? Nels and Cash got in each other's way, ball only partially cleared, came back in, Jones was stood in an offside position, one of our defenders got his head to it and it fell to Jones who poked it between JWs legs... because our player had purposely made contact with the ball, Jones was no longer deemed offside, in perfect accordance with the current offside Law. All too often, as has happened quite a lot this season, they had players allowed to make 40 or more yards without a challenge. Get into 'em I say. The better side on the day won. We get back up, dust ourselves down and we start over again.

He was twice the player Hourihane was yesterday.

Bird did far more than CH. He was playing for two as CH was off the pace all game. Great pass to Barks in the lead up to the first goal.

RamsTV 1Wildsmith. 6.5 Deflection saw their 1st go in, 2nd was in the right place but that leaves his right hand post open, a player on the post would have seen it saved, 3rd saw Jones slightly quicker 24Nyambe. 6.5 battled well but all too often had 2 opponents to mark 35Nelson. 6.5. He and Cash contributed to their 3rd 6Cashin. 7 He and Nels contributed to their third 3Forsyth. 6. Tough game against a good winger. His yellow and the knock to the knee saw him, rightfully subbed at HT 20Elder. 7. First time he's impressed me this season. 4Hourihane. 4. Too slow against a fast and mobile team plus a couple of very lame attempted passes 16Thompson. 6.5. Put himseld about to no avail 2Wilson. 7. Good 1st half, ran out of steam. 24Ward. 6. A better performance from him 11Méndez-Laing. 4. Did he beat his man at all? His failure to track his man saw that player provide the assist for their first. Half a dozen other occasions in the first half where he failed to track back where we got away with it. 19John-Jules. 6. One good shot on the turn. Failed to track back and looked sluggish being unable to catch the man with the ball when it's well known that you can run faster without it than you can with... 8Bird. 6.5 Trying to do the work of 2 with CH conspicuous by his absence. 9Collins. 7.5 MOTM typical Collo effort and 2 goals 7Barkhuizen 5. Lovely chipped cross for the first, pretty ineffective after that 17Sibley. 6.5 Very good defensively. Unable to make a telling impact going forward.

The darts theme, duh duh duh etc ending with We're Derby. Let's have the crowd do that without any "background" music or prompting from Matt.

Which is why we shouldn't have bought him in the first place. Only 4 in 28 for us then 10 in 24 at WHU in the top flight. His West Ham stats are a decent return for a striker. Murphy and the board looked no further than his goals to games ratio. When signing a player you should look at how he plays, what he does well and what he doesn't do well. Hales didn't have the skill set for the role Murphy wanted him to play. We should not have touched him with a bargepole. He got decent returns everywhere he played.... except Derby. That tells me it's the club's fault not that of the player.

I googled how much did we pay for Derek Hales..... got this reply... In a desperate bid to reverse the clubs fortunes, manager Colin Murphy persuaded his board of directors to spend £330000 on Charlton Athletic's Derek Hales, a proven lower division striker who had scored an impressive 72 goals in just 129 league appearances for the Addicks. Using the same method I got back that WHU paid us £110K for him. It appears my memory isn't what it was.

2024 - what will it bring us? Joy, pain, heartache and then delirium when we go up. The usual DCFC roller coaster.

294 tickets still available..

Hales. A goalscoring machine until he came to Derby. Became one again when he left Derby. Typical Derby. Buy a player (for £440K) and then play to his weaknesses. He scored his goals picking up on knock downs and flick ons from his striking partner Flanagan (who allegedly also scored with Mrs H, thereby causing the training ground bust up they had) and from using his pace off the mark to latch on to through balls. Derby decided to make him an O'Hare like target man, a skill set he didn't have. He scored something like 4 in 28 appearances for us. We sold him to the Hammers for £330K, 10 in 24 there. Sold back to Charlton for £100K where he continued to find the net on a regular basis. He doesn't have good stats with Derby simply because Derby didn't play to his strengths. Derby's fault, not Hales'.

3-1 Bird

I'll be using my RamsTV season ticket here in wet and windy Holland. Next visit for me is the Burton game which I'm combining with seeing friends and family.

Don't throw a spanner in the works or Mucker will be hammering it for ages. Remember, Cruz Allen is the key

Here's a few thoughts on points raised, thus far... We do need a striker, agreed. Fans, pundits, staff all seem to agree on that. However, the stats show that only 2 sides have scored more than us so far this season. Scoring doesn't seem to be a problem. DM. They are part of a defence that has seen us concede less than any club except Pompey. Are we really that bad defensively? My only real issue at DM is that we, all too often, allow opposition players to make 40 or 50 yards without a challenge. Having said that, we are defensively sound. Rooney. Considering the extent of his injury, I don't expect to see him play again this season. I sincerely hope I'm wrong but don't think I am.

It always used to be, many moons ago, those present plus STHs not present. Apparently, these days, it's the number of people on the day.

I'd be even happier if we had a Steve Howard / Rob Hulse type #9. They'd have a field day.