Food for thought from a new poster:
In the Covid season 2021 Paul Warne's Rotherham beat Derby County 1-0 at Pride Park (Rotherham possession 35%, Derby 65%, Rotherham passes 237, Derby 429, Rotherham passing accuracy 59% Derby 76%).
In the return fixture Rotherham won 3-0 (Rotherham possession 35% Derby 65%, Rotherham passes 260, Derby 488, Rotherham passing accuracy 57%, derby 77 %).
Fast forward to this season, using FotMob statistics, Paul Warne's Derby County are next to bottom (above Millwall) with 41.3% average possesion and next to bottom (above Millwall) with 244.7 accurate passes per match.
So despite having, on the face of it, better players than his 2021 Rotherham championship squad, Warne has not changed his tactics. He is either not interested in or believes he doesn't possess the necessary qualities in his team to play possession football. Fine you may argue, that's his choice as manager. And it is also fine that some supporters (but not all) don't like watching that style of football.
But in a recent interview for Rams TV under 18 coach Danny Maye talks about trying to get a style of play that develops players for the highest level...ready for the Premier League....not only about working hard, pressing but it's about dominating the ball. He goes on the say that they are often reaching 60/65 per cent possession.
The under 18s currently top a league that includes Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool.
What's the point of the academy playing this way if the first team is the complete opposite with a manager seemingly more obsessed with players “gassing out.”
Surely all teams at Derby County, at whatever level, should be consistent in their style of football.
Our local media, hoodwinked by Warne's homespun, folksy, Forest Gump waffle about bobble hats, his dog, his brother, his Benidorm mates, coffee, blah, blah, don't seem interested in asking about why Derby County play this way. Why is there not more emphasis on actually keeping the ball.
The under 21s now include the likes of Cruz Allen, Lennon Wheeldon and Niall McAndrew, all academy products, all now getting international recognition.
If you were their parent or agent, do you think (given the chance that is) their career will advance playing for a side managed by someone whose tactic in some matches is to play Ebou Adams, a whole-hearted and strong tackling individual but with the technical passing skills of a competent League One performer as the most advance midfield close to the strikers and yet the skillful imaginative Kenzo Goudmijn as the most deep lying holding player despite having scored twice in previous matches.
It's a tactic which has puzzled Radio Derby ex-professionals Eric Steele, Darren Robinson and Malcolm Christie. Me too. Bonkers.
Accomplished midfield players such as Max Bird, Jason Knight and Louis Sibley have chosen to pursue careers elsewhere. Wonder why?
Sunderland midfield Dan Neil in an interview about new manager Regis Le Bris said: "He has definitely brought new ideas, new ways of playing, especially in possession.
"I feel like the way we are playing now is a lot more structured. Everybody knows their roles in and out of possession."
A BBC article adds: “There's no longer the 'pass to the attacking players and hope for the best' kind of mindset that seemed prevalent in the club's recent past.”
Sound familiar?
“Le Bris' style of play hinges on his midfield talent - Rigg, Bellingham and Neil - to create triangles of space on the pitch and build into an attack rather than a gung-ho approach.”
The Rams should be congratulated for upgrading their recruitment department, data analysis, and academy set-up.
Is Paul Warne interested or capable of adapting to the challenges ahead? Or will he stick to tested and tried methods which have brought him success in the past.
He deserves praise for getting Derby out of League One (although on his own admission it was a failure not to achieve that at the first attempt) and if he keeps the Rams in the Championship this season then again he will deserve praise.
But David Clowes and Stephen Pearce should already be utilising all the data available to them to ready move on to the next level.