Gabby'sThighs

Todays another day in our great history, 27-04-2024 will live long in our memories.
Derby County squad/management it's in your hands
Derby County supporters will push you along.
GET IT DONE!

 

Realistically, about 80% of our summer signings will cover only two positions - CM & ST. 
I suspect with promotion we make roughly 12-14 signings just looking at the squad, you're potentially looking at: 
4 or 5 signings not in these positions - GK (maybe 2 depending on Wildsmith), left back, centre back & wide midfielder.
You're then looking at least 7 potentially up to 9 players who play CM & ST.
If we nail the recruitment in that area then it will make a big difference, not to paraphrase the Roses but until Ebou I was never happy. Bird, gone, Hourihane, retired, Smith & Thompson, out of contract. Ebou, back to Cardiff. Ignoring we had Embleton for this position, albeit not really and Sibley (also out of contract) who hasn't really played here anyway under Warne. There are 5 (7) players who play in this position potentially out the door this summer. 
Similarly upfront: Gayle, Waghorn & Collins out of contract. TJJ out of contract, no deal lined up. It leaves Washington who has struggled to hold down a place in League One, blighted by injuries. 
The players leaving in those positions, I would argue need to be improved up - particularly upfront. Gayle speed of thought was nice in League One, but he's struggled in the Championship of late. Collins and Waghorn (for me) are done at being impactful players at that level.
The rebuild is huge, but ultimately focused in two key areas that will determine our relative success. 

Anthony Evans, Bristol Rovers ...
https://footystats.org/players/england/anthony-evans

Louie Sibley ... 
https://footystats.org/players/england/louie-sibley

 

Harrison Burrows contract is up at Peterborough at the end of the season. Would take him in a heartbeat, superb LWB.

One of the best keepers we have had for years. I would be offering him a new contract. 

He’ll get a deal with a Premier League side, maybe a promoted side: Leicester, Ipswich, etc. 
I suspect most of our work will come through free agency, again, as there is a lot of players out of contract but will be a very competitive market. 
Players like Tyrese Campbell, Liam Cullen, Sinclair Armstrong & Chris Willock will be available but everyone will be in for them. We are going to need to be creative in our recruitment. 

If all these players were to leave, it would mean major changes to the core of our squad resulting in a serious and probably expensive foray into the transfer market. Meaning the club would have less of their transfer budget available to bring in the three or four players we will need to compete in the Championship.
I agree that Waghorn and possibly Barkhuizen will be gone, but unless Smith, Thompson, Sibley, Collins and Wildsmith ask to leave I think they will still be at  Derby next season. 
While the areas that will need strengthening are leftback, midfield and central striker, I'd be happy to see Washington, Elder and Fornah moved on and their wages used to help pay the wages of the better players that we will need.
As for Forsyth, I'd like him to be given another 12 month contract as I think he's still the best leftback we have on the books and will be good cover at both leftback and centre-back.

Ebou, don't make us sad.
Take a Rams shirt, and make us better.
Remember to let us into your heart,
Then you can start to make us better.
Ebou, don't be afraid.
You were made to go out and play for us.
The minute you let us under your skin,
Then you begin to make us better.
Ebou, don't let us down.
You have found us, now stay and grow with us.
Remember to let us into your heart,
With you as a Ram, we'll all feel better
Better... Better... Better... 
Nah, Nah, Nah,
La, La, La, La,
La, La, La, La,
Ebou.... 
 
 
 
EDIT:
Feel free to double the original tempo, thus losing the ability to breath half way through, whilst simultaneously turning the lyrics to a garbled incoherent mess, but with the added bonus of finishing in time to get down to the concourse before the HT whistle goes.
Out of sync clapping is optional.
#The Derby way.

The sooner the European Super League happens, the better. Maybe we'd get a competitive league, and winning the FA Cup or League Cup might mean something.
Or the value of the whole EFL would crumble without the 'Big Six'...
Money ruins everything...I wish I had more of it.

I'd love to see what he could do in League 1 next season - say with 'Nigel Clough's Mansfield' (tm).

Think if we get promoted Warne might go for physicality but hopefully the quality of player will be higher than at Rotherham. Either way if it happens we will have to see.
One piece of great news, we now have plus 1 Derby fan, my friends lad loved his first game even doing some bouncing in the West Stand, choosing his favourite player: "The guy with the shoulders" Nate, obvs! and wanting to go again as soon as possible. It made today exceptional for me, you dont get to introduce a new fan everyday.
Anyway, pressure is on Bolton now they've got to win the last 3 in a row surely. Impressed with Thompson today, might see the 3 central midfield combo for the last two now, Bird, Thompson Smith, Adams, 3 out of those four should dominate possession in L1. Less attackers maybe but pragmatism will be the order of the day.

Agree to disagree. Was perhaps a bit unnecessary today, but no ill will. Means I hope to see what I think is the real Bradley from now on. Statistically, however, I stand by the fact that he has so far been a disappointment on field with significantly more catastrophic errors than the average centre back in a top team in L1. However, he has every opportunity to come back, but if he had been a young centre back from his own ranks who had a season like this, he would never have had that chance.

Get in. But Bradley is a bit of a weapon isn’t he.

It's a tough one. The way I see it, I can only think of four or five games this season where we rolled over the opposition, and there have been plenty where we just haven't turned up, we've let crap teams back into the game, or we've just scraped a last-minute winner. Yes, Derby are second, but it doesn't really feel like the performances warrant being up there, just that we have better players than most other teams.
You can certainly blame the players for individual poor choices and errors (Wildsmith's charging out, or CBT's terrible miss, for example) but there have been so many occasions where the line-up has been wrong, Hourihane & Bradley have been shoe-horned into the XI, players are out of position, we've been set up timidly against weak opposition, substitutions are bang-on one week then bizarre the next, we persisted with 2 CMs when it clearly wasn't working, youth players have been totally ignored, we've signed crocks, and some players (Collins, NML) have been run into the ground from lack of rotation. On top of that, the players are obviously being coached to pump cross after cross into the box, and it's a style of football which is dire to watch most of the time.
However, I was recently reminded by a mate who is a Sunderland fan that they had 6 seasons in L1. Portsmouth have spent 11 seasons out of the Championship, Ipswich were down for 5(?) seasons and got pumped up by new investors, Bolton have been here since 2019/20. It could be worse, and League One is difficult to get out of.

My hope is that we go up this season and PW gets the boot asap. (I realise this will sound stupid). He may well get us up but he is not the future. If we dip out of the autos, it won't feel like we've made any progress, especially with the huge rebuild and turnover of players needed, Knight & Bird leaving, Cashin possibly going, etc.

It's a tough one. The way I see it, I can only think of four or five games this season where we rolled over the opposition, and there have been plenty where we just haven't turned up, we've let crap teams back into the game, or we've just scraped a last-minute winner. Yes, Derby are second, but it doesn't really feel like the performances warrant being up there, just that we have better players than most other teams.
You can certainly blame the players for individual poor choices and errors (Wildsmith's charging out, or CBT's terrible miss, for example) but there have been so many occasions where the line-up has been wrong, Hourihane & Bradley have been shoe-horned into the XI, players are out of position, we've been set up timidly against weak opposition, substitutions are bang-on one week then bizarre the next, we persisted with 2 CMs when it clearly wasn't working, youth players have been totally ignored, we've signed crocks, and some players (Collins, NML) have been run into the ground from lack of rotation. On top of that, the players are obviously being coached to pump cross after cross into the box, and it's a style of football which is dire to watch most of the time.
However, I was recently reminded by a mate who is a Sunderland fan that they had 6 seasons in L1. Portsmouth have spent 11 seasons out of the Championship, Ipswich were down for 5(?) seasons and got pumped up by new investors, Bolton have been here since 2019/20. It could be worse, and League One is difficult to get out of.

My hope is that we go up this season and PW gets the boot asap. (I realise this will sound stupid). He may well get us up but he is not the future. If we dip out of the autos, it won't feel like we've made any progress, especially with the huge rebuild and turnover of players needed, Knight & Bird leaving, Cashin possibly going, etc.

Not trawled through all the matchthread (gave up around p40) but I think last night was a game that has summed up our season.
Take both those early chances and we would have been celebrating another "get the job done" win and admiring a disciplined second half defensive performance. 
But we all know to score two, we need six chances, not just two or three.
To create six chances, we need the football to flow. Ward makes that happen in recent games. He's injured, so we replace that role with Collins, playing out of position.  He's a striker, not a midfielder. We leave Tommo on the bench, who would have been the natural link between our deep sitting midfield two and the attack, would have been available for the pass from Wilson and Sibley (who were both desperately looking for feet to play into and finding no-one there) and who can press and harry just as well as Collins.
Warne needed to select either Washington or Collins, not both, and play an attacking midfielder. If he doesn't rate Thommo, he could have put Hourihane in there. 
He didn’t,  and we faltered. I wish Warne would stop trying to create new systems and patterns and just do the simple stuff sometimes. 
Footballers are a bit simple too. They play instinctively in patterns that are ingrained from an early age.
Take them out of their natural positions, play them in different systems and they have to think more quickly in order to be successful.  It fails more than it works. 
Add in the factor that our forwards aren't world beaters, we need to be giving them all the help we can to play their natural games. 
I think we were one player choice away from that routine win last night. So disappointing. 
 

Portsmouth get promoted AND win the league if they win on Saturday. After 12 years languishing in the bottom two divisions, they aren’t going to be on the beach. They might not necessarily win, but they will want it done as soon as they can, we would be the same. If they lose on Saturday then they’ll still very likely be promoted as Champions, but if one loss turns to two then doubt starts creeping in. We would be exactly the same if in their position.

I'd say opportunity rather than advantage.
There's no substitute for points on the board at this stage of the season. 
Looking at the run ins I wouldn't bet against Peterborough accumulating more points than Bolton.

You'd have to think a middle-tier Prem club would take him for nothing - Fulham, Brentford, Brighton, even West Ham. Palace would be daft to let him go really, cos they are rubbish.

As an aside, that Daniel Jebbison mentioned on the list is a 20-year-old striker at Sheff Utd and happens to be from Derby. Well, born in Canada, moved to Derby as a boy. Someone page Paul Warne.

your long southern crusade is nearly over, come home sweet prince

CBT's got more and more effective in the last few games, which is great to see. I think the wet surface held him back against Pompey, plus the crack fox incident. He stepped up when Nat had a quiet night.

Great feet, good pace, and is willing to run at defenders, who didn't quite know what to do with him. Add some more tracking & closing down into that package, he could be a very good player for Derby. With NML, Ward, Wilson, and maybe Sibley and Barks next season, then we'll have multiple good options on the wings (depending on formation, obvs).

CBT's got more and more effective in the last few games, which is great to see. I think the wet surface held him back against Pompey, plus the crack fox incident. He stepped up when Nat had a quiet night.

Great feet, good pace, and is willing to run at defenders, who didn't quite know what to do with him. Add some more tracking & closing down into that package, he could be a very good player for Derby. With NML, Ward, Wilson, and maybe Sibley and Barks next season, then we'll have multiple good options on the wings (depending on formation, obvs).

He'll be fine next season then.