jono

When Sibley is good enough to do it. He isn't at the moment. He had nearly all of the second half, hardly a cameo. All of the players played their part today. Watson looked as threatening as Sibley but in a different way.

Do we set up to score goals or to not concede goals? The Euros saw Gareth Southgate pick 8 or 9 defensive players every game and it worked for a while but couldn't get him over the line, with an incredible array of attacking talent on his bench. Rooney has far fewer options but a very similar mindset.
Asked in today's Radio Derby interview why Louie Sibley doesn't start Rooney effectively said he doesn't trust him defensively. Sibbo is to Rooney what Jack Grealish is to Southgate. Rooney said he didn't play Sibbo specifically because his number one priority was not to fall behind in the match.
Here's the interview https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09pv3hb with the best version of the interview at 46:30.
Derby's problem is not scoring goals. Louie Sibley is the biggest goal threat our team has. Aston Villa built their team around Grealish until selling him for £100m. If Derby are going to survive (and maybe thrive) this season we need to build our team around Sibbo, not give him a cameo in which to try to make the difference. How best to do this?
I have long argued that the 4-2-3-1 does not work for us and we should be playing 4-3-3 (set up as 4-1-2-3). With the players available at the moment we should have Shinnie shielding the defence and then we can have Morrison and Sibley as the two more forward midfielders, which gives a forward line of Kazim-Richards central and Jozwiak and Thomas wide. So much more threatening than what we have at the moment.
With a team desperate for goals, having your 5 most dangerous attacking players in the line-up seems a no brainer. Rooney needs to learn to trust Sibley, and I am certain that trust would be rewarded.

I’d prefer to dwell on the punch he did in the second half. Old Roos would have punched out to the D and caused a big problem… New ROOOOOOOS got a great well timed punch in and knocked it some distance out to his left and out of the danger area. That and the excellent right boot save when he’d been sent the wrong way. Think he had a great game . The ball in for the goal was a dream delivery well taken by the scorer. 

No way ! Yes, The message is creeping through … not to the dyed in the wool intolerant and bigoted ( you won’t change them ever .. they just have lurk in the shadows a bit more ) .. It’s the ones that are basically ok but now recognise that tasteless jokes and casual remarks using old terminology are just not right. That’s progress and visible in all age groups.
The young are a mixed bag. Some/most are lovely, open, eager, passionate but some are very very intolerant of anything that even dares to question the new orthodoxy. Debate is stifled and those wishing to have one are vilified for even suggesting it. The suggestion that we should think in a different way is one thing; a dictatorship is another. 
 

I’d prefer to dwell on the punch he did in the second half. Old Roos would have punched out to the D and caused a big problem… New ROOOOOOOS got a great well timed punch in and knocked it some distance out to his left and out of the danger area. That and the excellent right boot save when he’d been sent the wrong way. Think he had a great game . The ball in for the goal was a dream delivery well taken by the scorer. 

I’d prefer to dwell on the punch he did in the second half. Old Roos would have punched out to the D and caused a big problem… New ROOOOOOOS got a great well timed punch in and knocked it some distance out to his left and out of the danger area. That and the excellent right boot save when he’d been sent the wrong way. Think he had a great game . The ball in for the goal was a dream delivery well taken by the scorer. 

Get real. It was a great ball in. At pace. The scorer is 6’5” and is running forward to jump. Correctly placed and executed, there is nothing anyone could do about it. 

It was a good ball in, I'm looking at the defenders over Roos there

I didn’t watch the full game but, from watching the highlights it seems from a lot of their set pieces he doesn’t seem to come and punch some when he maybe should. 
 
However, it did seem he was being blocked quite a lot, a tactic which set piece teams tend to use quite heavily when they feel a goalkeeper isn’t comfortably from crosses. 
 
That said, I like Roos and think he deserves another shot at number 1.

Yes; agree about the ref. Soft fk-giver but ducked some more obvious fouls. 

Cheers ! .. good highlights ! 
 
Lawrence one was nothing, two men fighting for the ball, end of (IMO)
Watson has a case .. looks like defender kind of gripped him a bit under the triceps not grubby bad, just competing. Ref needs to make a snap judgment. Fair enough 50/50 as you say. 
 
Didnt like this ref or his east stand Lino, but for the pens like this, it really does depend on which team you support. If we’d been Hudds and either were given against us we would be incandescent.

Contact slo@dcfc.co.uk : club supporter liaison officer. They’ll sort; there were a lot of people whose scan didn’t work and had to be let in via side gate. I’m sure they’ll help you & your bro-in-law. 

Check out HTFC’s highlights which is on the game thread. 50-50 I’d say. @jono

The link up this page has the extended highlights from HTFC

From my view in the east stand on the 6 yard line Lawrence’s looked more of a penalty. But watching the replay, Watsons was more of a penalty. 

There weren't many genuine shouts for a penalty around me when Lawrence went down which is normally a reliable indicator and the guy himself didn't make an attempt to appeal for one either so no for me.
Couldn't see the Watson incident clearly so can't really say on the second. 
In general thought ref was pretty poor but got at least the first penno claim right. 

Well Burton Albion, I think.  He was certainly on their bench in coaching capacity on Tuesday night last when a Burton Albion XI (mainly youth players) played Belper Town in a friendly.
At half-time he opened Belper's new 4G training facility too.
I might have been wrong but I'm sure I saw Eric Steele in the crowd too...
Bill
(Season ticket holder at Belper Town...)

It’s difficult with Ed. You know he’s a fan so I have some sympathy, but he is so petulant, gloom ridden and full of a sort of “I told you so” followed by a spoilt pout 

I’ve now had 3 passports with me wearing the same shirt. 
 
Mrs Wolfie noticed it on the second one, so when I renewed again this year I deliberately wore it again just to annoy her. 

For me it's a pair of socks with my name tag sewn in. From Chad Park junior I think. I left there in 1980

It’s difficult with Ed. You know he’s a fan so I have some sympathy, but he is so petulant, gloom ridden and full of a sort of “I told you so” followed by a spoilt pout 

I think Radio Derby have gone with Adam Boulder because he's cheap to employ. I overheard someone say that they'd got him for a Steele. 

At a guess, at the referees pre-season meet up at the Sneinton Masonic Lodge and Referee Indoctronation Centre - available for parties, weddings and events - they all decided "look, fans are going to be back in ground this season so we have to show we're not going to be influenced by crowds. Give the home teams nothing. Corwds have got to learn we're the only important ones."

Totally disagree.
Firstly, Bird's primary role playing at DM is controlling the tempo, which he does by knocking pop passes around (wrongly tarred as pointless sideways passes) whilst looking for forward players in space. He's also very under-rated defensively & often cuts out attacks with his positional intelligence as opposed to Shinnie's terrier like approach.
Secondly, he is very capable of playing killer passes. There were a couple in the Salford friendly & plenty from last season (Luton away, Huddersfield away criminally flagged offside & Boro at home..just off top of my head). 
My main criticism of him is that he needs to move into space a bit more, like he did when he first got into the team last Jan. Also believe he needs to be more advanced & central but thats a fault of current tactics rather than the player himself. Fully believe he's a very good player in the making & that opinion shared by those in the know...Cocu made him captain & Rooney has spoken about him one day being England quality. 

Think we have to give the lads and, I suppose, Rooney some credit. These are some incredibly turbulent times for the club and I thought that what is a makeshift team did well enough in the circumstances.
Sadly, I see one or two players already coming under fire on here after one game and one game only. Each to their own I guess, but thankfully the fans who attended the game were in really good voice and gave the lads plenty of encouragement. It was great to see fans back at PP and again, given the circumstances, I think the reported crowd of around 17k is far from shabby.
All in all, more positives to be taken than negatives, but clearly much work to be done, on and off the pitch.
COYR