The Key Club King

We only have 4 stands so to name one after someone like Igor Stimac who played less than 100 games for us, I'm just not having.

Clough, Hector, Roy Mac, Bloomer, Guthrie -yes.

Though I may accept the "Ebou Adams Arena" 🥰

21 hours ago, Day said:

Unfortunately the world we live in, I’ll give it a month before some disrespectful moron comes along and adds their own stamp on it. Wouldn’t put it past one of those down the A52 to make a special trip.

Without wanting to tempt fate, the Derby County mural at Cotton Lane near the old BBG was not messed with despite there being lots of grafitti on the surrounding pedestrian rail bridge. 

2 hours ago, NottsRam77 said:

Love the way people say the league is of its lowest quality for years.

Good job IF we do go up were going into the championship thats of equally low quality.

This weekend 2 of its top 3 lost to relegation threatened sides.. one infront of their own fans heaven forbid 😱

 

I've been watching Derby for 40 years and every year many people say "it's a really poor league this year". The quality of football does actually improve year on year - watch anything from the 90s and it looks like non-league football. 

1 hour ago, SK47 said:

Warne always refers to Liverpool or Man City in interviews when talking about tactics/good teams and I know he would love us to be this multidimensional team that can effortlessly switch systems but we are in the 3rd tier of English football, We are Derby County, NOT Liverpool or Man City, that is the reality.

Drastically changing to 3 at the back with absolutely zero proof that we play better that way to see games out, we don't. Every time we go 3 at the back we completely lose any edge and become this unorganised, disjointed team on the back foot. It seems we alway revert to that because for some reason Warne loves yanking his chain over it. 

The reality is, we (imo) need to go to a 4123, stick with it for the rest of the season. 1 system, 1 lot of instructions, simplify it. Players should be then picked on form to play in that system, not shoe horning everyone in with a complete change of system because you see Man City, a billion pound team, do it on Match Of The Day.

We have more than enough to get out this league, but we need to play to our strengths and admit defeat when something isn't working, because right now reverting back to type is not it.

Still alot of games to play and no doubt there will be more drama, but we need to stomp this bottling out now.

🙏

I can't keep up with what formation we have played this season, but we have tried them all, including Herbert Chapman's "W-M" formation from the 1930s. It has made little difference as the style of play remians the same. 

Whenever we play 442, then 3 at the back is immediately though to be the solution to all our problems, and vice versa.

Having said that, didn't Cashin play left back tonight in a flat back four?

22 minutes ago, Jram said:

Don’t be silly. We’ve played well in lots of games. Lots of teams have had periods of poor form. Everyone raved about Portsmouth- they were naff over Xmas. Everyone raved about Peterborough- they’ve dropped off the face of the earth.

Both Derby and Bolton are currently in a mini slump. Not the end of the world. All will look rosy again on Saturday when we batter Port Vale 

Ah, I've fallen for that logic before I'm afraid. We think we are in a mini slump, when in fact we were in a mini-period of success and the slump is the normal state of affairs. Gets me every year!

1 hour ago, DCFC Kicks said:

He's just refusing to let the 5 at the back go. It doesn't work and it doesn't suit our club. I honestly think he's persisting with it because its the only system he fully understands. Even when we play with a back 4 it feels like there's large tactical elements just missing from our play like Warne just doesn't know how to play it fully. 

It really does not matter about the formation or which personnel in what position. This is how Warne wants to play - pragmatic, hard-working but with little movement or creativity. It's like watching the straight lines English football of the 1980s. 

I genuinley cannot stand any team who will take any opportunity to lump the ball in the box from a free-kick from absolutely anywhere on the pitch. This makes sense for a team with little resources, but we are the wealthiest team in the division! Warne seems to consider these as our best chance to score rather than back our players to pass the ball around and create space.

The sooner this season is over, the better. Either we bore our way to a joyless promotion or he gets sacked for not achieving it. 

I wish I had that option like on Football Manager where you can go on holiday and come back at the end and hope everything has worked out alright. 

Steve Gibson recently converted £107m worth of debt into shares, as he has done before and was fully expected. If he had not done this and just left the club with the debt and a spiral of problems occured similar to Derby, would Middlesborough's CEO/CFO be blamed? 

Having said that when I went to the loo at 2am whilst having a post night out curry with my mates at the Moghul on Green Lane in 1996, they ran off and left me behind and the owners definitely held me financially responsible for it. 

5 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

The U18s finished in a respectable 7th position last season, only 2 points off 4th spot. As far as I'm aware, we haven't recruited from other clubs for our U18 side this season, all progressing from our U16 side. The small improvement this season is from a combination of having a very talented group of 1st year scholars, as well as not needing to fast track too many into the U21 side.

The U21s certainly had a season to forget last year. Results have improved, but even the games we are losing are typically by just 1 goal (we've only lost by 2 or more 3 times, the last was in September). There are a few reasons for the improvement. The 3 main one being:

1. More high potential U18s progressing into the U21s. Last year's 1st year pros were all released in the summer, with only 1 2nd year pro retained (Bardell). This to me highlights the low potential of the U21 squad last season.

2. Solid recruitment - Weston, Gibson-Hammond, Bartley, etc. These signings have helped us maintain a healthier flow of U18s into the U21 side. Jeffcott and Lindsay helped plug gaps too.

3. Perhaps the most important- having good CBs playing at CB. For most of last season and early this one, we had players filling in. Bartley returned from injury in October and gave us a good platform to build from. Bardell is back now too. Early this season we had DRobinson, Radcliffe, and Bradley Johnson filling in. Last season Grewal-Pollard and Clarke were often played there too.

That's a great synopsis. Thanks. 

Looks like things are moving in the right direction. I'd expect it to take a good few years to get to where we were but maybe the reputation we had before, along with being Cat 1, means it may happen sooner than I anticipated. 

I don't know much about our academy but it's seems as if results have improved a lot since last year. Obviously there were struggles last season as we were starting from scratch, but has our improvement been a result of our much maligned recruitment team? Whilst we are lamenting the potential purchase of another 30+ year old striker, is it that our recruitment focus has been on stocking the academy up with future talent and getting it back to where it was pre administration? 

There is a lot going on in these accounts and it is only 9 months but it's probably reasonable to say that with our wage bill that high (in L1 terms) we are not sustainable unless the owner bankrolls the club and covers the losses. That's something worth considering when we spent half the season moaning that we did not buy Peterborough's reserve striker. Clowes is indeed a saint! 

I remember when so many people here thought that Jody Morris was the brains behind the Lampard era. His time at Swindon has now dispelled that myth. Though Lampard's subsequent spells at Chelsea and Everton suggest there were little brains involved at all. 

So many on here embarrassed by our songs highlight the problem with the atmosphere. We are too self conscious about what we look and sound like to join in with something that isn't cool or original. 

It really isn't that important.

As Adam Ant once sang "ridicule is nothing to be scared of". Though the alternative lyrics to that are the best football chant I've ever heard:

"East Stirling,

East Stirling,

Cowdenbeath are nothing to be scared of." 

1 hour ago, ariotofmyown said:

Not sure if we are that bad historically. Perhaps bad when we've splashed the cash, good when funds were limited.

But sellers? Is anyone as bad as us? From Goddard onwards, have we ever sold somone for more than we believed they were worth? Vydra maybe?

Ince, Hendrick, Bogle, Christie, Plange, Jozwiak, Luke Thomas, Brayford. Some good sales there where we got peak value. Even Will Hughes was sold for less when he moved on. 

Sales is a mixed picture overall skewed by the fire sales around the periods of administration.

Having said that, selling Goddard was the Derby equivalent of Leeds selling Eric Cantona. Never understood that. 

13 minutes ago, McMuffin said:

Will Hughes would p1ss all over anything in this league every week. He wouldn’t have our entire fanbase making excuses for him every week and still asking the questions like where is he effective. Hughes would dominate and run games from deep in this league and I’m pretty sure if he was playing no. 10 there would be plenty of goals and assists.

Let me be clear - Will Hughes is better than Max Bird. I just think that Bird is not suited to our style of football which is largely about running around a lot and flinging the ball in the box from anywhere. He'd be better off in Peterborough's team - which is a great shame in my opinion. 

37 minutes ago, McMuffin said:

Please do not compare Max Bird to Will Hughes ever again 

Like Will he will go on to a team in a higher division. Oops, I did it again! 

Can we not be a bunch of moaning Minnies about minor refereeing decisions? Go on the opposition forum and they'll be saying the same things about the ref. It was a good game that Peterborough edged as they were better than us, not because we might have had a throw in awarded to us in our own half. 

20 minutes ago, McMuffin said:

A central midfielder is a central midfielder. All the talk about bird is for the last 2 years is he’s not effective because of the system, he’s playing too deep, he’s playing too further forward, who he’s playing with?

maybe he’s just not that good 

I suspect Bird is a good footballer that plays for a team that has no aspiration to play good football. He would be better off with a possession based team. A bit like Rowett selling Will Hughes. 

3 hours ago, Crewton said:

Certainly any sexist abuse needs to be stamped on but if women are going to be referees in the men's game they will have to learn to deal with vociferous, often antagonistic crowds. They may have aspirations to referee in European competition too and if that's the case they'll encounter much bigger, noisier, dinosaurs than any at Pride Park. To imagine that will ever be different is optimistic.

Surely the way to deal with a voiceferous, antagonistic crowd would be to ignore the calls and abuse and make the right decisions anyway. This is what she did. Almost all refs will favour the home crowd - which is the root of home advantage. She certainly was not swayed by the 400 Wycombe fans in the corner. 

44 minutes ago, jimtastic56 said:

I don’t understand why fans get hysterical over the opposition wasting a bit of time . It all gets added on at the end , that’s why we are having 100 minute games . What is annoying is pro players hoofing crosses into the crowd when you just have to keep the ball for a few more minutes.

And you want find Warne complaining about time-wasting as we do it just as bad as anyone else. 

6 hours ago, uttoxram75 said:

Investigation for homophobic chants at the Shitty Ground going on. 

Seems a bit lame tbh, maybe an investigation into potential money laundering about someone who has been investigated for industrial scale drug smuggling, murder, match fixing, and owns football clubs in England and Greece would be justified as well?

All teams have their idiot fans and hopefully they'll be dealt with. What was more noticeable in the statement by the Proud Forest group was the liberal use of "World Famous City Ground" - even to the point they used WFCG as an acronym. Even if it is world famous (and it isn't), I'm not sure it'd be for the reasons they think it is. 

Every year I say the same thing - I'd have money on all the teams doubling our tally of 11 points. I think only a couple of teams have not got to 22 points since we set the record. 

Derby were in a pretty unique position when we were relegated as we had absolutely no dead wood in the squad. Most big relegated teams tend to have some high earners in their squad that they can't shift often creating a toxic atmosphere that is difficult to shift. We only had players we wanted to keep and in addition had one of the highest wage budgets in the league to recruit more.

Of course we were hampered by lack of planning time and a fee-paying embargo, but I'd still argue we were actually in a decent place. I thought we'd get top two but given the top three all got 95 points then hindsight suggests I expected too much. Not making the playoffs though was a major failure. 

I expected the same this season as I hoped for in the last. 

I'll tip us for relegation next year instead! 

8 hours ago, Leeds Ram said:

Sibbo isn't our Greek god laid low, but he's got more firepower and creativity in his little toe than Washington. He needs a run of games in the no.10 position with the freedom to run with the ball, be creative with it, take risks and have runners around him to open up that space. 

I'd wager that Connor Washington has had a better career than Louis Sibley will have. The game is littered with skilled players who don't know how to get the best out of their ability. 

Waghorn may be marginally better but I don't think he's a good footballer. He has some excellent qualities such as striking a dead ball but as with all our forward players (except Barkhuizen) I wouldn't trust them to control the ball under pressure, turn on the ball and play a pass into space for someone. Having said that, I suspect paul Warne has banned even attempting anything but crossing the ball from absolutely anywhere and flinging a head at it. 

1 hour ago, rammieib said:

Game by game the fun is being sucked out of the game by our manager.

Thoroughly depressing watch his football.

Summed up nicely in the 80th minute when Korey Smith though a free kick from the centre circle would be best served up by a weak direct kick to the centre of their box.

Absolutely dreadful.

This sums up our ambition quite well. Wherever we get a free kick - including in our own half - we just lob it into the box to little or no effect. The chances of us scoring from these are very slim, yet the management think these represent our best opportunity rather than go to the trouble of passing the ball around and creating actual chances.

Its like we are playing against Man City and its our only hope. Drives me nuts - this season and the last.