ben_dcfc

3 minutes ago, BaaLocks said:

It is a fact - he resigned with no other job to go to (at the time of resigning). You can make up all the stories you want to paint him as the new snake (and he may well have been talking to them at the point he resigned - as I said, you don't know and I don't either, which is why I am not doing what others seem to be doing and letting my head voices become reality). But he didn't quit to join another club - Rowett, Lampard and McClaren did. It really is (it really is) as simple as that.

Steve McClaren got sacked? 

6 minutes ago, Anna said:

What/who was the round of applause for? Couldn't tell what was being sung!

Think they were singing 'stand up for the 56'. 56 people died in the Bradford stadium fire so guess the Bradford fans were applauding Derby fans singing.

37 minutes ago, rammieib said:

10 in 35. Our next best was 5 with ravel.

My point is Knight (3 in 35), Sibley (1 in 23), Bird (2 in 40), Thompson (0 in 18), CKR (4 in 25), Plange (3 in 21), Shinnie (1 in 23). Wher eis the criticism of these players?

I think English fans love to attack the players who are a bit more out there but we give a free ride to bang average players. Without Lawrence last season we would have been relegated 1-2 months earlier.

He was our best offensive player hands down. Lets try keeping the best players and letting the mediocre players go.

4 of the players you mentioned came through the academy, so you'd expect fans would have a bit more leniency to them. However, they still do get a lot of criticism. Maybe not so much last season, but before that Bird appeared to be a bit of a scapegoat with constant criticism of his supposed negativity and sideways passing. I've seen lots of criticism for Sibley, he has a lot of posters who really like him and are desperate for him to succeed (myself included), but also gets criticized for his strength, discipline and general footballing ability. The amount of hate Plange got on here in the games after joining Palace was ridiculous, his drop in form wasn't down to him being a young lad in a struggling team, but him giving up and not putting in any effort of course.

Of the players you mentioned, only CKR, Plange and Sibley should be challenging Lawrence in terms of goals. But none of them played consistently enough for a variety of reasons, or in some cases in the correct position. I agree with you on him being our best offensive player last season, but as you've pointed out with the returns of our other attacking players, that isn't a huge achievement. If we could keep him in league one, I don't think anyone would be complaining, but realistically that seems very unlikely. 

Maybe without him last season we'd have been relegated sooner, maybe someone would have stepped up in his place and we'd have done better, maybe if he hadn't decided to try and seriously injure a Peterborough player, we'd have stayed up. Who knows. 

9 hours ago, rammieib said:

Why do fans dislike players who score 10-15 goals a season but like players who score 2-3? 
 

I don’t think he would stay but I’d be over the moon if he does. Why - because it’s a guaranteed 10-15 goals. Something we don’t have yet.

Think you mean between 3-11 goals a season if you're talking about Tom Lawrence. 

53 minutes ago, Bris Vegas said:

I think the subs really hurt them. Zinchenko is solid but not as strong or quick defensively as Walker. Fernandinho looks shot, especially compared to Camavinga who was a bundle of energy for Real Madrid. Jack Grealish was also poor and I’m surprised he came on instead of Raheem Sterling late on.

It showed in the Fa Cup semi-final. City’s starting XI is the best in the world but when they make changes they are notably weaker, especially against the better teams.

Over both legs City were largely superior and they will be kicking themselves.

Still, if Liverpool are to win it, I’d rather they beat Real Madrid in the final.

Sterling was awful when he came on though, whereas Grealish played well in normal time, was denied two great goals by a clearance off the line and then a really good save. I do agree the difference in energy between Camavinga and the City midfield subs was stark. 

The subs may have hurt them in terms of extra time, but they were very comfortable until the 90th minute. A bad piece of defending by Cancelo and suddenly they seemed to lose their heads and never really recovered. Played into Madrid's hands in extra time, silly fouls that allowed them to waste time and constantly kicking it long. They generally seem to struggle when games get emotional.

It always seems petty to moan about added on time, but that was a joke at the end of the second half of ET. There were two stoppages for Militao that added up to nearly 5 minutes. Then things like that ridiculous foul he gave against Foden, took around 1 minute to take the free kick where the ref clearly wasn't adding any time on for. Added to the bizzare leniency for Casemiro, it was a very odd refereeing performance. 

43 minutes ago, SouthStandDan said:

Rob Green in the QPR play off final, particularly the first 45 minutes was unbelievable. Some of the saves were world class. A brick wall.

Think we had 1 shot on target in the first half?

14 hours ago, jimbo jones said:

Century and most wickets in the match on debut for Critchley. Can’t wait for him to be playing for England and Derbyshire get absolutely no credit for bringing him through ?

All it took was 1 game for Essex and his England prospects are being talked about in an article on The Guardian website.

1 minute ago, Andicis said:

Not embarrassing at all, it's been proven time and time again if you don't go down you don't get the decision.

He doesn't get fouled though... ( or at least not every time)

Just now, Yani P said:

Festy does throw himself to ground a lot - a bit embarrassing at times..

Not as much as Knight does though! May win us a lot of free kicks but like you say, embarrassing.

Ref was poor, but feel like Luton have more to complain about than us. Anytime Byrne was under pressure, he dived down towards the ball and the ref fell for it. Seemed all night that all a player had to do was appeal for it, especially in defensive positions, and the ref would give the free kick. 

Roos - 7 Crucial save late on and generally accurate kicking to Fozzy. 

Byrne-  4.5 Really struggled against the winger and didn't offer much going forward.

Forsyth- 8 MOTM Excellent going forward - our best outlet and good passing.

Davies - 6.5 Exposed by lack of pace and high full backs at times but reads the game so well.

Stearman - 6 Did as well as could be expected - we're going to be hit on the break badly if we have play them together all season.

Bird - 6.5 Struggled to get on the ball - we are a much better team when he has the ball. Two of our best moves came from his passes - to Watson and through the lines to Sibley second half.

Shinnie - 5 Started brightly but started to lose his battles towards the end of the 1st half. 

Watson -6 Worked hard on and off the ball. Not suited to the wing but looks like he has something. 

Lawrence - 6 Worked very hard but poor quality on the ball, aside from 1 lovely turn. 

Jozwiak -4.5 Couldn't get in the game, and seems to either lack confidence or know what he's trying to do. 

Kazim - 6.5 Won most things - needs other attackers to be running off him. So frustrating when you can see he's going to flick the ball on but the wingers don't anticipate it.

Sibley - 7 Has to play. He's going to do some silly things but he makes us look so much more dangerous. Give him a run in the team and don't drop him after 1 bad game!

Ebosele - 6.5 Exciting player - not just speed and power but looks to have composure of the ball too. Needs to make better runs off the ball in to space - but that seems a team wide problem.