eccles the ram

Most important thing tonight, is not to pick up any injuries. ?

My first match was the chelsea match, what a night that was, hooked eversince, and what a day the march was. Lets roar the rams to a win.

Exactly one year ago I and 1000s of fellow Rams fans were marching towards what we thought was possibly Derby's last game EVER. I don't think the magnitude of that word 'ever' really sunk in to most of us. But what a game we saw and the finale of Bielik's goal I will never forget. Mr Clowes I will be ever grateful for you saving this fantastic club of ours. Tonight we are on tv, we can do this. Chelsea at the baseball ground in 1968? Could that atmosphere be replicated? I bloody hope so. UTR!

Exactly one year ago I and 1000s of fellow Rams fans were marching towards what we thought was possibly Derby's last game EVER. I don't think the magnitude of that word 'ever' really sunk in to most of us. But what a game we saw and the finale of Bielik's goal I will never forget. Mr Clowes I will be ever grateful for you saving this fantastic club of ours. Tonight we are on tv, we can do this. Chelsea at the baseball ground in 1968? Could that atmosphere be replicated? I bloody hope so. UTR!

Out of all the London teams i have had a bit of a soft spot for West Ham. In the 70s and 80s played some lovely attacking football which is how it should be played. Passionate,loyal fans who travel very well. I hope they enjoy their trip here, put some money into the local economy and leave feeling they have played at a ground whose support mirrors their own. The only downside of their trip is that we will be in the 5th round and they won't!  Sorry chaps but we have a free hit tomorrow and we are gonna take it! UTR!

It’s been 100 days since this wonderful raggle taggle group of youngsters, aging journeymen and free transfers lost a game of football. 
You can’t fail to be proud of how far Clowes, Warne and the players have bought this club so quickly,  after some of the darkest days in the clubs history. 
It’d be great to get to 101 days tomorrow and the magic number of 20 games unbeaten. We all know what happened last time we achieved that! 
It’s also 112 days since our last home defeat. 

We're all proud...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64282421

Your step sister agrees 

My dad says they don't work!

My dad says they don't work!

My dad says they don't work!

My dad says they don't work!

My dad says they don't work!

Great draw. Play like we can do with PP rocking and a tv audience we can burst those West Ham bubbles! 

Enjoy tomorrow Geriatram with a couple of sherberts. Was only a few months old when you were 14 but am priviledged to have seen some of the best (and worst) of this great club of ours. Will raise a toast to you tomorrow. Best wishes. UTR!

2022 eh?
It was the worst of years and the best of years.
I may have nicked that from somewhere!
We nearly died, it seemed half the football world wanted us to, from the hierarchy of the EFL to absolute chancers and grifters like Steve Gibson. I will always despise Rick Parry and Gibson. Despicable human beings who represent pretty much everything that is wrong with this world. Grubby, greedy little men who think they are above everyone else with no empathy for ordinary people.
We fought. Our support was unprecedented, unbelievable, superb, every game until the end of the season was the best I've ever seen. There were games toward the end where I just stood in the middle of the South Stand and marvelled at every stand singing as one, it was emotional, uplifting, it made me proud to be a Derby fan, proud to be from this beautiful, wonderful, part of the country.
The march on the day of the Birmingham match. Those of us who were there will never forget it. Looking back from the flyover near the station and seeing the road full all the way back to Traffic Street......its a wide road!
We've had our Christmas present, our club survived thanks to our unconditional support which I believe convinced David Clowes to step in and do what most of us would have done if we could.
Merry Christmas to all of you, keep the faith and get behind the Rams at every game you can get to.
?
 

It was my 14th birthday and the best present I had was the Rams beating Scunthorpe 4-0, On Boxing day we won 4-1 at Scunthorpe, it was a really happy Christmas for me and all Rams fans. Tomorrow wont be as happy as I am 80 so not a lot to be happy about. Just looking forward to a Wembley trip next year in the play offs. Merry Christmas RAMS fans everywhere .

Merry Christmas to all Rams fans around the world, all the players and staff associated with this great club of ours and especially to our owner, Mr Clowes, who without whom, there would have been no DCFC at this special time of year. Have a fantastic time everyone. I for one am looking forward to what is going to be a memorable 2023! UTR!

Merry Christmas to all Rams fans around the world, all the players and staff associated with this great club of ours and especially to our owner, Mr Clowes, who without whom, there would have been no DCFC at this special time of year. Have a fantastic time everyone. I for one am looking forward to what is going to be a memorable 2023! UTR!

Merry Christmas to all Rams fans around the world, all the players and staff associated with this great club of ours and especially to our owner, Mr Clowes, who without whom, there would have been no DCFC at this special time of year. Have a fantastic time everyone. I for one am looking forward to what is going to be a memorable 2023! UTR!

Merry Christmas to all Rams fans around the world, all the players and staff associated with this great club of ours and especially to our owner, Mr Clowes, who without whom, there would have been no DCFC at this special time of year. Have a fantastic time everyone. I for one am looking forward to what is going to be a memorable 2023! UTR!

Merry Christmas to all Rams fans around the world, all the players and staff associated with this great club of ours and especially to our owner, Mr Clowes, who without whom, there would have been no DCFC at this special time of year. Have a fantastic time everyone. I for one am looking forward to what is going to be a memorable 2023! UTR!

Merry Christmas to all Rams fans around the world, all the players and staff associated with this great club of ours and especially to our owner, Mr Clowes, who without whom, there would have been no DCFC at this special time of year. Have a fantastic time everyone. I for one am looking forward to what is going to be a memorable 2023! UTR!

Think Saturday's game will be the most difficult for us so far this season. They are on a long run of picking up points with no defeats. On Wednesday at Hillsborough by all accounts they played very well. They have given Plymouth a game as well. With over 3k of their fans (fair play to them)it will make for a great atmosphere. The first 20 minutes will be a marker as to how the match will pan out. They score first then it is going to be uphill for us. We score first hopefully we will go on to pick up 3 points. Heart says 2 1 to us. Head says 1 all. No matter how it goes let's get PP rocking (disappointing on Wednesday) and send the 'Gas' back to Bristol with 'good memories of the day' and no points. UTR!

So 5 league games into Warne's tenure and I think a pattern is emerging. The short version of this Warne isn't managing the fitness levels of the squad very well which when combined with a very narrow tactical outlook is leading to some of the mediocre performances we've been seeing. And there is reason to be concerned that if this isn't adjusted things will go downhill. 
Tactics
As everyone knows we've been setting up under Warne with a 352 with an attempt at pressing aggressively and attacking directly. With the two wingbacks being actually wingers. It's not hard to see how setting up like this asks a lot physically of any given player. With the wingbacks so aggressive there is often a lot of space to cover out wide meaning the midfield and the wider centre backs are often having to cover large swaths of ground just to plug gaps. I think a big reason why we've conceded so many penalties is because of how easily we can get stretched.
Also the midfield are all encouraged to press meaning there is no one to cover so they all have to keep moving or else again gaps appear. Then added on top of all of this is a seeming reluctance to try to keep the ball for any amount of time, even when we are up and even when we are looking gassed. I can remember times even when we've won that we were in a position just to slow the game down and keep the ball to take the sting out of the game only for players to be encouraged to go recklessly forwards.
What this leads to is almost an exhaustive amount of work than isn't entirely necessary and it's no wonder that frequently gaps starting really appearing in games for us after half time. I think the best example for this is in Warne's first game in charge we were one up and yet we are taking a long throw into the box with all the centre backs up field which is followed by a counter which all of them have to sprint back.
Fitness
Its worth noting that we had a short pre season meaning that the players didn't necessarily have the time to do the same amount of fitness work. Combined into this is several players carrying knocks at different stages in pre-season and most of the squad is either on one side or the other of where you'd expect them to be at their fittest from an age perspective. In short our squad isn't the fittest but that's not something you can solve in the short term. It's also exercabated by lack of depth in places. It's something as a manager you should be carefully managing both from a team selection stand point and from a tactical stand point. And yet Warne has often kept players playing well past the point they've looked knackered and players playing physically overdemanding positions are often getting started multiple times in a week. And I think you are seeing the effect this is having. Its no surprise that we've had now 4 injuries in 3 games and it shouldn't be taken lightly.
Performance
A more tired player is more likely to get injured. But also a player who is fatigued is going to be worse, they'll suddenly look a yard off the pace or their touch will desert them or they'll seemingly drift by in a game. Being tired affects you mentally as well as physically and I think so-so isn't doing enough can often be because they are knackered out. These things tend to spiral as well because if X is tiring, Y has to work harder to cover which leads to them tiring and so on.
Our best performances under Warne have come after an international and after a full week off. Whilst all of our performances where we've played Tuesday-Saturday have been mediocre at best. This isn't a coincidence, fatigue is leading to a drop off in performance levels. It's concerning that Warne is saying that we just aren't working hard enough because it means he's likely missing the forest for the trees. 
Going Forwards
We are currently in a very congested run of fixtures with another 5 games in the next 14 days. Thats a tough run physically on any squad. If things go they way they've been so far I think we will so another couple players pick up injuries and performances steadily get worse. The tactics and the management of players are just causing to much fatigue to build in a squad ill-equipped for it. And it's increasingly looking like Warne with his tactical rigidity and his focus on not working hard enough in his recent interview either doesn't seem where the issues is stemming from or doesn't have a solution.
After all if your only tool is a hammer every problem is a nail.