Mr Tibbs

1 minute ago, RoyMac5 said:

He doesn't care, he wants Cashin gone so he can spend the money!

Cashin must be undecided about what to do having watched players like Matt Clarke not get a sniff at Brighton and be constantly loaned out. But it seems Warne is trying to make it as difficult as he can for Cashin to sign a deal and stay?

One s*** joke and you’ve come to that conclusion? 
 

Delighted with the win. 

Team still on its arse 70 minutes onwards though, the recruitment from last year and so far this year to blame. 

If we can get some consistency and a couple more additions in then I’m hopeful for top 6. The team will get better with time. Hope we get a midfielder better than Smith in because he’s about as average as they come. 

This is not like you MRIG. 

To be fair, it's not even the most miserable post you've managed today, so there is that?

10 hours ago, Ambitious said:

One of the most rancid, repugnant, putrid performances I’ve ever seen at Pride Park. What a f****** mess Warne has concocted! 

I said don't post tonight... 👀

On reflection it's actually not far off. Awful. The bad bits have been done to death. 

Thompson looked good, he's got to start at the weekend. I don't really fancy him at this level most of the time but got to say the match up vs Oxford was in his favour for once (height wise) and his performance put most of the teams to shame - purposeful, busy, involved, positive, direct.. everything the midfield lacked.

The formation and manager are obviously not getting the most out of Smith, Bird and Hourihane but they have to have a look at themselves after that. A very typical Max Bird performance after a cracker at the weekend, completely invisible. I don't see how we give it a go with that midfield three this year, it's got to change. They don't compete. No second balls, no movement, nobody showing for the ball... a joy to play against. There was more conviction from the incompetent Pride Park catering staff last night. 

41 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

We didn't miss an open goal, their goalie saved it - there's a difference.

It's ok to just admit he missed it Roy. 

He can play really well and still miss a sitter. 9 times out of 10 he puts that in. The 'deviation' or speed of the cross isn't beyond the reaction times of the average professional footballer to adjust accordingly. He fluffed it - and that's ok. 

I described he first 20 minutes of the second half as green shoots of potential from the Bird - Collo - NML partnership, to a mate. I'd say by the end of the half it was a masterclass. Pretty much all providing for each other at some point, if we were a little more clinical it could easily have been 4 or 5. 

There will be debates on Bird's best position still but that is exactly what I think we've lacked from him previously - leaving his mark on the game. It doesn't have to be a stat or goal but having him in the thick of the play is going to benefit him and us IMO. 

Great play, great goal. Been a good response this second half. 

Imagine if we don’t win this game. What a miss. 

Another chance gone begging after a beauty of a ball from Bird. 

NML having one of his worst days I reckon. Lazy challenge, deserved yellow. 

Just haven’t had the quality in those moments that matter. NML X2 and Bird wasteful in the final third, all in great positions. 

6 minutes ago, Yoxoram said:

He'd make my starting 11. One of the top performing players in League 1 last season.

Agreed - still don't think the midfield we assembled last year is balanced correctly mind. Just food for thought when we're looking at how our resources are being used. 

1 minute ago, Jimbo Ram said:

Why make Conor captain in that case 🤔

He didn't - PW left it to his players to decide. 

If Hourihane is our top paid player and isn't making most peoples starting 11 I'd argue it's not just this summers spending which is hampering the budget!

25 minutes ago, IlsonDerby said:

I was quite excited about the initial noises when he joined but watched him manage us to not even getting a shot on target in some matches which (obviously you expect to lose matches) simply isn’t acceptable at this level with this club. 0 shots on target. 

Seems a strange/harsh take considering we only failed to have an SoT in one match, away at Ipswich. Probably the best team we faced all year, where if it wasn’t for mistakes (again) we’d have pulled off a decent away point. 

Hope he sticks with his three at the back, 180 minutes isn't enough evidence to give up on the last 5 weeks prep for IMO. Especially when, for periods on Saturday, we looked pretty good. 

Just read Cashin is a kick it/head it type of defender. Good lord. Probably one of the best on the ball for us last year. Anticipation is great, which is needed for his lack of pace. Even Nelson looked alright at the weekend. I swear some people just make s*** up to fit an argument. Some really dangerous opinions on here. 

Derby fans; hate three at the back, hate route one, hate old players, hate overlapping centre backs. 

Also Derby fans; let’s replace Warne with Moore or Wilder.

This place is mental. 

1 hour ago, sage said:

We need a DCM with a lot of pace. This will allow the slow CBs to drop 10 yards but not have the CM overrun when we press.

I don't think it's pace, it's positioning for me. The other three just aren't very good at being in the right place at the right time. A good CDM knows when to go and when to sit, none of our CM's really have that quality. 

Thorne/Eustace/Huddlestone all did a pretty good job being that pivot and enforcer without any pace at all. 

25 minutes ago, Ram a lamb a ding dong said:

If its the latter its a bigger worry as it shows we haven't got the monies available to add those players who can make a difference.

Is it a big worry? A big worry was almost going out of business.

If DC is at his limits with investment and care is taken to protect the clubs finances then so be it. I think better communication from him in his interview during pre-season would have injected some realism into the fan base but people seem to have taken it the other way. 

41 minutes ago, Yoxoram said:

Off a deflection the ball hit his head. He did at least jump for it but it was hardly a directed header. It luckily found Fozzy.

I think people are being a bit pedantic here with your original post buddy... the case in study is a great example of his poor heading ability. Mistimed and weak. We'll take it all day though and it's a tick in the stat column. 

It was not Thorne to Johnny Russell, let's be reyt. 

3 hours ago, alram said:

I remember taking stick on here a few weeks ago saying the players we are bringing in like Bradley are not of the same quality as those last year and have never made any meaningful impact at championship level, bradleys debut was not encouraging at all and sadly isn’t proving me wrong yet 

The same quality as in one centre half is now with Solihull Moors and the other without a club after making about three appearances for us? 
 

4 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Why pick on Bird who did more than Smith and/or as much as Hourihane?

Because he’s twice the player than both of them. People are outraged about the result but when your best player continues to be a passenger at this level it’s not hard to see why we come up short against the better teams.

I’ve said in other posts he’s not the only one mind, Smith and Hourihane added to the ineffectiveness. They were all guilty of being caught on the ball, wayward simple passing and not quite taking opportunities when winning the ball further up the pitch. All just a bit powderpuff and meh. 

9 minutes ago, Leeds Ram said:

I don't think we looked dangerous at all. The fact that we had 4 shots on target in the entire game hardly speaks to a menacing attack. I thought Wigan actually contained us quite easily. They were dogged, won their headers in the box and defend the space relatively well, basically inviting us to cross it which we duly did. We struggled to build up a head of steam, and the tempo was desperately slow, which is the opposite of what you want when you're crossing plenty and you need to move the defence about so they struggle to mark your forward line or defend the space well. 

We looked more controlled in the second half, before giving away another goal, but we didn't really offer much in terms of chances. Didn't think NML offered anything up today and was almost invisible apart from a single shot 20 yards out. Smith had a mixed game but was better than Bird who had an absolute stinker. 

 

Think this is the fascinating thing about football, we all see it so differently. 
I think we could easily have scored 4 on another day, three sitters. Collins 6 yards out unmarked, Bradley free header and Fozzy at the back stick from 5 yards.. easily could have had more on another day. 

I think the last time we really looked toothless like you’re describing was under Rooney where we seemed to be 0-0 at HT every game and zero SOT was a regular occurrence. 

We’re a bit of quality away from cracking it IMO. 

Don’t think we need to jump to conclusions after one game but that was a very Max Bird performance which was a shame. 

He’s technically better than most players at this level, he just doesn’t execute it very well at all. 

Hoping he can shake off the pre-season cobwebs soon but he’s not the only one. 

7 minutes ago, CornwallRam said:On that showing, we need 2 strikers and creative midfielder if we're going to compete.

When you say compete do you mean for top 2? Top 6? Because I think we’ll slap a lot of the poorer teams in this division with that kind of performance, errors avoided obviously.

I can see a similar finish to last season unless we improve the squad (which I think we will). Let’s not pretend this division is stacked with great teams, after about 10th there’s a lot of crap, without trying to be too harsh/entitled.