May Contain Nuts

21 hours ago, sage said:

He was a terrible signing. He ruined our pattern of play. Signing him and Bent was the beginning of the end of that Steve McClaren purple patch

Worse still, some would welcome him back! 🤯

That said, there's not really anything for him to ruin this time!

2 minutes ago, ilkleyram said:

Can we sing about his tackle, or won’t people like that? 

He does talk of being good friends with NML so perhaps we can have a new chant incorporating aspects of his, 2 players 1 chant.

9 minutes ago, Curtains said:

He didn’t just say that did he !

Have you dissected the interview on Rams tv 

 Approximately 2mins 45 seconds in he says “he loves a tackle”

 

What he does in his private life is no concern of mine!

I haven't listened to the interview, and my previous posts on the topic suggest I think he's a promising signing who may well provide something we're lacking.

The above post was just a bit of fun.

3 hours ago, Curtains said:

Ha ha I knew you would turn it 

I mean...

It's not exactly twisting it when it comes from the horse's mouth

"I’d describe myself as a box-to-box midfielder"

For the uninitiated, that's what we in the business call a "quote"  (Even if it is 8 years old) 😅

2 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

To be fair, the injury which kept him out for all of last season was afreak accident "never seen before in football" and doesn't seem to be a problem which could reocurr. He's been releatively free from injuries throughout his career.

If his performances at Forest Green are anything to go by, he'll be the 'midfield enforcer' many people crave. He also had a good attacking output for a DM when playing for them. Much better than what you'd expect from Fornah and Smith.

George Thorne vibes. The only player never to return from a broken leg because of a random bone infection.

1 hour ago, duncanjwitham said:

I suppose it depends on what we do with him.  If he just comes in and replaces one of Bird or Hourihane, then I don't think he's learned anything - we've just replaced a footballer with a guy that runs around a lot, and not solved any of the underlying issues.  If he comes in with the intention of moving to a 3 in midfield, and using him to get Bird and Hourihane on the ball in more dangerous areas, then maybe.

Well yeah but I was giving Warne the benefit of doubt... then again I did that when we signed Fornah!

6 minutes ago, Waghorny said:

If this paves the way for Fornah to leave on loan, it makes a complete and uttery mockery of Warne's transfer policy...

Perhaps, and I'd rather we didn't make such mistakes in the first place, but admitting an error and making an attempt to correct it is better than just buggering on anyway.

Not that there's any real indication Fornah is going anywhere.

Anyway, if we sign this lad (which I have no doubt we will) then it goes some way to alleviating people's concerns about how he sees the team working better as a unit, which is what most people critical of Warne do actually want from him.

Awareness, learning, improvement. It's just that we haven't seen anywhere near enough of it.

6 minutes ago, Srg said:

They haven't though have they. Thompson and Fornah have been right there, as well as the likes of Robinson and Fapetu. He'd bombed Fornah out entirely for a game or two.

Gotta keep up the idea that anyone critical of Warne for any reason whatsoever is an idiot though, and rubbish any and all notions that he's actually responsible for any of the negatives we see.

29 minutes ago, Eoghan1884 said:

Ebou Adams set to sign for us, great midfielder at this level. The type we need a strong powerhouse to let players like Bird Hourihane and Tommo play more ball.

Must have been a really impressive 5 games!

Glad to see his stats have been mega-impressive this season in the league above though, limited as his appearances have been.

Typically if O'Rourke says something is agreed and will happen, it happens?

Thank the lord he sounds like a proper DM, although that's no guarantee he'll be used as one.

12 minutes ago, MACKWORTHRAM said:

It's a system we also still play. We don't just play one system. Sometimes it's a 5 at the back sometimes it's a 4..

Elder was signed as he's a left wing back AND a left back. He played left back for Hull when they were promoted. Not left wing back. 

Nyambe clearly bought in as he can play as a RCB if needed but mainly as a better defending right back.

You're making it sound like we've completely abandoned 352. We haven't. 

Whichever system we play we have the same issue though - the balance of the signings was haphazard, some don't suit the role they've been given and we're paying high wages for backups, or rotation players.

With 'limited' resources , can we afford to carry a squad with enough players to play these 2 formations with everyone getting adequate game time?

1 hour ago, MACKWORTHRAM said:

Sorry mate I would disagree here.

Forsyth was our only left back on the books in the summer. He signed a one year deal and most agreed he would have been a good squad player to have. We then signed Elder, who pretty much we all agreed on that it was a really good signing. 28 years old, won league one previously, had 10 assists from left back. Unfortunately for him he was injured in pre season and missed most of it. Missing pre season is massive for any player as they are playing catch up.

How do we know that he wouldn't get infront of Forsyth of he'd been fit and firing all season? We don't. He's clearly plenty good enough.

His other signings.

Wilson - Has potential to be really good. 

Bradley - Everyone was absolutely buzzing when we signed him. Didn't start great. Made a couple of mistakes (which is all you need to do in our fans cases before we write someone off) and he's unfortunate that Cashin and Nelson have been so good. We probably signed him expecting Cashin to go.

Fornah - Definitely has potential. Still young. Hardly any experience. But there's definitely a player in there. Sometimes to laid back but he'll learn.

Washington - A player Warne trusts. Just starting to see glimpses (the go against Northampton) of what he could do at this level, getting up to speed. Then he's injured on international duty.

Ward - Obviously with 352 in mind. But now he just looks like he's surplus to requirements. I might be wrong. But I just don't see him getting a game or even on the bench soon.

Waghorn - Steady played. No world beater. Cheap, convenient and will still contribute when he's back fit.

Nyambe - Brilliant signing. Really good defender. 

Vickers - A keeper. Not really don't anything wrong.

TJJ - Massive risk we felt we could take. Obviously looked at his ability and thought we couldn't get much better if we can get him fit. It's not worked out. 

Embleton - Can barely judge this. He did his thigh taking a corner in training.

Some signings don't work out as you hope. It's the way it goes. 

But we don't seem to give anyone a chance before we want them gone or say they are s****. I've seen some having a go at CBT already after playing 80 minutes of football for us.

I've just seen Brighton are letting Dahoud go. A midfielder they signed from Dortmund in the summer. Clearly not worked out it happens.

We're a league one club, with hardly any money, working to restrictions. We can only do what we can do. 

The point isn't whether they're decent players though, it's that they were bought for a system we dropped after a few games and some of them represent round pegs in square holes (or is the other way round? I can never remember)

Ward brought as a RWB, sure but then we stopped playing a RWB and he's not a good enough defender to play RB and he's not as good as NML so won't play RW... and Wilson is preferred there anyway.

Elder bought as a LWB but he's not a LWB

Bradley is a good CB and has played in a 3 but he's clearly unsuited to the way we played it at the start of the season.

Fornah doesn't really have a position, so how is he going to develop toward and be comfortable in any particular role?

We'll wait and see if CBT offers us much more than Barkhuizen, we're not sure how Warne will be askng hm to play yet tbf, hopefully we actually bother to give him the ball in the next match to find out!

Nelson, Bradley AND Niambe brought in on top of Cashin and Forsyth as options in a 3CB system? Who's 1st choice RCB? It would be one one of Nelson or Nyambe, which means one of those players (likely two of our higher earners) missing out.

With 3 at the back NML has to play centrally, so in competition with Collins, Washington, Waghorn AND TJJ - 5 players for 2 positions?

"We can only do what we can do" but "with hardly any money" we seemed rather willing to overstack certain positions with players on high wages who may not get as many minutes as the outlay would justify.

12 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

Not by me they’re not.
 

The gif was just a bit of fun, for clarity, I share the stance @Srg does on league one, and also agree that this Derby team could be playing better football within league one. But league one and ALL teams within it have deficiencies in my opinion.

Thanks for the carification.

Fun or not gifs do have a certain power to perpetuate a notion / thought or feeling more than words, and must be wielded responsibly! 😄😉

edit:

And yeah, I agree that all League One teams have their deficiencies, but IMO with our squad we should have fewer than most, and surely the point of hiring a promotion expert is that they know how to further cover these deficiences?

Rather than doing that, our manager exposes them.

18 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

 

...except now all fans unhappy with the quality of our play are going to be branded with this idea that they're delusional and expect McClaren-esque football, which quite frankly is a load of b******* for the most part.

The thanks you get for helping people, hey 🤣

27 minutes ago, DCFC Kicks said:

I'd argue a similar thing about Hourihane. It's a trend on here for all the Warne fans to blame Hourihane when he's being asked to be a player he isn't. His abilities have been wasted in my opinion.

 

Someone criticised him in another thread for playing too deep recently, standing too close to the centre backs and waving his arms around telling others what to do (for reference, this is not a quote) when a few games ago / earlier in the season he was getting about the pitch more.

I'm not sure it crossed their mind that maybe, 25+ games into a season where he's being asked to cover so much of the midfield, it might be because he needs a rest?

Anyway, for reference - or really just because I quite like like the way these things look - here's CH's season heatmap. Busy boy.

18 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

You keep on defending people for making theoretical things up to bash with Warne, I'll keep on calling them out 👍

Well done, you've successfully shown me evidence of someone either, at best, paraphrasing what the manager has said, or at worst making a statement based on conjecture - albeit one with plenty of evidence that points toward it being, if not the truth, not far from it. Absolutely nowhere is there a quote attributed to the manager.

I'm not defending anyone. As I said earlier, I think the discussion had gone awry because things were phrased badly, and there were two posters stubbornly locked into a 'You show me...' "No, YOU show me..' stalemate, which I sought to resolve by providing some evidence of what has actually been said.

I just think your attitude toward others and ceasless need to treat this place like a court of law are utterly ridiculous, and that's not just limited to this thread.

The irony of you being 'calling out' people for making things up to bash another with isn't lost on me.

15 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

There is no context to attributing quotes to someone who has not said what was being attributed to him.

I think you're confusing paraphrasing and hyperbole.

I'm not banging on about anything. Just pointing out that 'he is interested in a midfield' is just yet another made up thing to attack the manager with and can be filed along with:-

'Warneball'

'Nobody wants to play for him'

'He's a PE teacher'

'He wouldn't keep us in the Championship'

 

Nobody attributed a quote to him, unless you can point me to the post where someone has claimed Warne has actually used the phrase "I'm not interested in midfield".

At worst what's happened in this instance is the use of conjecture, not hyperbole. The evidence may be incomplete, but if you take what he did say, correlate it with his actions and study how the team performas then it's hardly the world's mmost 'out there' conclusion to come to.

And yes, you very much were banging on about it, repeating the same question multiple times to prove a point that nobody had actually argued against.

We spent the last couple of months of one season playing, and spent all summer and pre-season preparing and signing players for one system, but when it came to playing competitive games we were pretty much forced (the alternative doesn't bear thinking about) to change the system because of a combination of injuries and a number of the players, both new signings and existing players, looking terribly uncomfortable playing it.

...and we're supposed to look at this and turn it into praise for the manager's adaptability?

Can someone pass me the Valium because that just ain't gonna come naturally!

37 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

Of course I took it literally, how else was it supposed to be taken?

As has been countered by quotes saying he doesnt want to lose Max Bird and he wants his midfielders to be braver, and also by the fact that he signed Embleton and Fornah, saying he isn't interested in midfield doesn't seem to be true.

Like someone who understands how humans being speak, understands what the word paraphrasing means and like someone who actually wanted to discuss the topic at hand in a civilised manner, rather than like someone who wants to hold everyone to weirdly exacting standards like you're a prosecutor grilling a witness and need to find a way of proving them wrong?

Essentially it boils down to the original post saying "he's said so" instead of "he's said as much", which naturally you've jumped on. 

All the context has been explained to you, yet you're still banging on about midfielders he's using in an advanced / attacking role.

5 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

No, you've just steered what was said to fit your narrative.

If someone says the manager has said 'blah blah blah' then there should be no need to gather what was meant, you should be able to point people in the direction of where the quote was made and let them decide what was meant.

Of course if there is no quote to back it up then its clear that its just a false narrative to unfairly beat the manager with. 

FWIW I don't like the set up of Hourihane and Bird together, didnt do even before our winning streak, but I'm happy just to say that rather than make some more tripe up to make my point sound more convincing.

The only place I've steered the conversation toward was some form of resolution to your argument with another poster wherein neither of you seemed to want to budge.

24 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

There is a huge difference between prioritising a different area of the pic and saying he isn't interested in midfield.

Wouldn't the fact that he does not want to sell one of our 2 players that would likely fetch a decent fee, who happens to be a midfielder, say otherwise?

 

Think the discussion has gone awry tbh, partly because of the way things have been worded, and partly because you're more interested in using the way something is worded to steer the argument in your favour, than using common sense to figure out what was actually meant.

The insinuation, and what I suspect most people could gather from what was posted, isn't that he's not interested in any aspect of the midfield just the defensive side of things, so whatever he's said about one of our attacking midfielders is beside the point.

When you watch us play, do you think we look like a team where due care and attention has been given to the balance in midfield?

It seems to me that most people believe it to be a problem area for us and even those in support of Warne generally don't quite understand or don't agree with the way we set up in that central area.

It's not that hard, it was discussed on here the other day.

He's on record (RamsTV before FGR at home last season) as saying he's aware that his way of playing leaves us open to the counter attack, but "thats how I want to play"

That might not mean he has a total disregard for suring up the midfield, but he's OK with the compromise - at least for the time being - if it means we're an attacking side and we try to win every match, even if it causes us to lose. He's not interested in draws.

We haven't been linked to, and he hasn't talked about, signing any midfielders specifically to fill the holding/defensive role, the one midfielder he has brought in who previously played that role plays further forward when playing for Derby, he uses our only other player to have history playing that position (Max Bird) in a more advanced role too.

It hardly takes a genius see where his priorities lie, whether you go quote hunting or not.

Oh, but in your defence I do imagine / believe that you're a really good bloke IRL - there's only really one or two posters I don't believe that of - none of the above is meant to be personal, I just see your postings sometimes as almost coming from a fictional character! 😅