May Contain Nuts

Put it this way, even my mate who sits next to me and challenges my opinions about Warne who questions everything I say about our tactics and play, said he didn't understand what we were aiming for for the first hour and a bit, want sure that the subs were right and fully expected Sibley to come on to replace Elder and was of the opinion Hourihane should have come on before Smith. FFS it's gone red again. ie... even someone very positive thought we got it wrong for the most part. I even asked him (even after Sibley came on) would he attribute a potential victory to Warne's changes? He said no not really. ...but the way Warne has some people so wrapped around his little finger I struggle to view their opinions objectively. See my earlier post which was laughed at... despite being pretty well balanced - by one of the regular 'absolvers' who think they can bully people into sharing their opinion of Warne. As always I hope you don't think I'm counting you in this rant! I just think there are certain posters on this forum who are absolute w******.

Getting it wrong for 70 minutes but recognising that and changing it deserves some credit, but not getting it wrong in the first place would deserve far more. Warne learns but he learns slowly. They key difference was having an actual RWB at RWB, before we changed there wasn't anyone aside from the 3CBs who looked comfortable in their role. Bradley was excellent today against a team who never ran at him, and with a proper midfield infront of him. That said I'd have been happy with a point today given the circumstances so I'm delighted we won

ALWAYS had a feeling about this guy, and can't really think of a time his signing wouldn't have been perfect for our needs. With Collins out I'm fairly certain he's already secured the POTY vote

The defend everything and make out that anyone dissatisfied in any way is the enemy lot though, never miss an opportunity to get in there ahead of criticism. ...and I'm not even critical of today's team.

I also don't understand why away fans are still walking down Shaftesbury Street and getting their heads kicked in? The Baseball Ground hasn't been there since 2003 and we stopped playing there in 1997. What exactly are they doing?

I'm still waiting for us to show exactly why we're by far the greatest team the world has ever seen.

For 3 months, yes, but he / his family were still Bristol based and funnily enough he ended up at.... Bristol (I meant Rovers, not City, obviously. Slip of the tongue)

Chris Martin was never going to go anywhere other than Bristol City or another team in that area.

Question is, is he injured and is that stopping him busting a gut? Nobody seems to know what the truth is, we get mixed messages from the management in both words and action.

Yawn. More divisive b******* that completely (intentionally) misrepresents people's arguments.

Collins being out would only really be a problem because every other striker we signed ended up crocked, but then you can hardly have expected Waghorn & TJJ to last the pace, and some of our other signings may not represent VFM until next season. The end of the January window was well explained and understandable, though. I guess you could question when talking of the need for a player to improve just us how well judged that criteria is.

Perhaps they see him as a walking yellow/ red card risk (I mean, he sort of is) and want a different sort of midfielder?

The man in the mirror

Got a spare £20m?

As has already been said - EVERYTHING on here is opinion. Some opinions are stronger than others. Everybody (well... mostly everyone) expresses their opinion differently. My opinions are based on things I've observed when watching Derby play, arguments and analysis I've either done myself or seen other reputable posters put forward in a clear and concise manner. When I'm writing a post I try to put things in an order I can understand, a logical and analytical path I can follow. It's a process to help me keep things clear in my head. Sometimes I write and re-write things so often, trying to cover as many bases as possible while keeping things 'straight', that it actually ends up making my posts into a bit of a jumble. ...and sometimes I just think f*** it, I can't be arsed to spend 15 minutes turning it over and just post on the fly. I'm sorry if it doesn't meet your pre-approved idea of how someone should type out their opinion on a football forum.

I don't sit anywhere within your rules. You're not my boss and I don't answer to you.

1 basic rule for posting on this thread now and in future: Foresight is unwelcome, and hindsight will be dismissed. (Or is that 2 rules?)

No doubt someone will try to claim that his signing has spurred Barkhuizen on to better performances so he's already proving his worth. Charlton fans said he was half arsed defensively but maybe we'll drill a bit more effort into him. It was also noted that he didn't cope well (/was easily nullified) when being doubled up on (but tbf not many wingers do) They also said that he'd improved his fitness record / levels and was now able to play 90 mins game in game out... so of course he misses a couple of games injured before we sign him and his debut performances are marred by an apparent fitness issue. He needs space to run into but the one through-ball we played in front of him he couldn't reach, but if he gets his pace and fitness back from wherever it's disappeared to he should be a good rotation option with Barkhuizen for the rest of this season's away games.

It is a bit odd, but I've always had Ap4 down as a bit of a parody account, intentionally presenting this info in a way which makes the position of those who the dismiss and ridicule the use of stats stronger. I can definitely picture one or two posters being sad enough to create a second account & use a VPN just to do that, tbh. Even so it does still tell you something - all those opportunities and they didn't test our keeper? That doesn't point to us defending well (although we did a lot of good) it points to the opposition being bloody rubbish whenever it actually mattered - If the boot was on the other foot we'd be frustrated and saying how poor we were.

Most of the positives listed above. He was still scoring goals in the 2021/22 season at Premier League level so had clearly developed as a player rather a lot since his last spell in League one in 2012/13. When it came to facing League One defences for us he took the piss out of them with his ability to find space, hold onto the ball and see things one or two steps ahead of his opponents and some of his passing deserved more assists than it ended up producing. There is some credit for Warne there, in that he didn't waste his talents by asking him to do a job that didn't suit him (unlike, say, Pearson with Martin - but Pearson did that because he wanted him out of the club and to justify bringing his own playes in) , but to not take advantage would have been criminal. He also scored a few free kicks, the manager doesn't affect a player's ability to strike a dead ball past a wall from 25-30 yards. There were people last season claiming that we were too reliant on McGoldrick , to the detriment of the team as a whole because meant that the opportunities weren't shared around. I don't subscribe to that view though. You only have to look at Jordan Rhodes' & Chris Martin's scoring records this season vs their last 4 or 5 in the Championship, or even look at Waghorn's start here before injury to see that a step down to League One after a few fallow years in the Championship can seemingly turn them into world-beaters. The managers play a part, but sometimes it really is as simple as the level of opposition faced being the biggest contributory factor. It may also give people cause to think that perhaps the step back up to The Championship isn't as small as they're making it out to be.

There's not really that much that gets posted which is really "Pro-Warne" as such, you still rarely see any well constructed posts that actually explain why they think he's the right man for the long term etc, or give evidence that actually proves people's concrns unfounded. You do get the odd PR statement full of ifs, buts and maybes designed to make people doubt what they've seen with their own eyes, of course. Perhaps that's because the evidence doesn't or can't really exist yet (until we are in the Champiuonship with him), or perhaps it's just easier to shout people down and be part of the 'in crowd' because you get less hassle that way, and rarely have to actually explain yourself? I'd much rather be on their side of things, or on your fence, truth be told. Except I can't be, because I'm true to myself and I feel what I sfeel / see what I see. No, rather than pro-Warne it's mainly "Anti-Anti-Warne" which is fine I guess, but it gets annoying when it becomes "Ridicule and round on anyone who's Anti-Warne" "Accuse people who are Anti-Warne of ruining the forum", when people try to throw a fire blanket over the slightest spark of doubt that Warne's doing a tremendous job and act as if his management is beyond reproach etc. It reminds me of when Keogh was here and there was almost like a 'wall' of posters ready to jump in ahead of any criticism they perceived was about to come his way, whether it came or not, and whether whatever had caused this pre-emptive strike actually was down to Keogh or not - he became made of Teflon, anyone criticising him was accused of being unable to let Wembley go and that was that.

Playing alongside a more greedy player was just one example, using it as an example doesn't mean I'm stating it as a fact that he is. Without watching Notts County play any 'take' would have to involve some guesswork, but a quick look at transfermarkt shows that he's been used more as an attacking midfielder & even on the wing this season. They're the 2nd highest scorers in their league, with Macaulay Langstaff their top scorer (22 goals in 31 appearances) so you'd have to assume they see McGoldrick's role as more of a support player than the main striker. It seems to work for them, they're happ[y with it. It doesn't mean that their manager is getting less out of him than Warne did, or he's having a 'worse' season. It's about the team. vs He's hardly played as a CF. He's also a year older, which when talking about 36 year olds can be a massive difference - see the difference in Curtis Davies over 2 seasons - although I don't think that's actually the case here.

Wrong. Other factors like the experience they've gained from careers played at higher levels, the current quality of opposition they're up against and the standing of their current team within it, the quality (and type) of teammate too because one season you could be playing alongside a greedy b****** who gives you no supply, the next a selfless player. You can throw in popularity with fans as well, and personal circumstances away from football make a difference too. It's not a fair crack at the whip you want him to be given though, it's for him to be given all the credit for his grandmother's ability to suck eggs. Nowhere did I say that Warne isn't a contributing factor, but attributing the reason for them having their best directly to Warne is just daft. Nothing I've posted is unfair on Warne, it's just an assessment based on what I see while holding him to the standards set by his billing, his comments and our aims and objectives.

They've had their 'best' seasons (although McGoldrick had a better goals per game ratio the previous time he dropped down to L1, I believe) but attributing it to them playing under Warne ignores a number of other factors. NML was a player I was desperate for us to sign when we were trying to survive under Rooney, he only ended up at League One level due to personal problems, not footballing ability.