BucksRam

Derby 9 Wigan 0
Nelson, Bradley and Cashin all with hat tricks.
Set piece practice pays off spectacularly as Washington and Collins focus solely on getting us corners.

To me this is a no brainer.
Won't take up much of the budget. Can play across the front line, threat from a set piece. Works his socks off. Loves the club. Confident he would chip in with around 10 goals.
Most clubs in this league would have Waghorn in a heartbeat.
Get him in on a one year deal. 

The Commuter.
Liam Neeson is an ordinary commuter on an ordinary train - then a whole lot of totally believable stuff happens and he emerges unscathed, which is more than you can say for the bad guys.
Does its job.
Fozzie/10.

https://fantasy.premierleague.com/leagues/auto-join/2k1ntw
 

It is absolutely a thing.
Football clubs play behind closed door games all of the time, and up until 10 or 15 years ago 90% of pre season games were not even announced to the public.
I think that this thread demonstrates why that was not necessarily a bad thing

Genuine question but is this a thing? I don't recall a pre-season clandestine BCD game before where no-one knows who played, the score or anything. Not just for Derby, but for anyone.  

That’s how secrets work 🤫😉

No idea pal just saw someone reply to Huddersfield saying 4-1 and the admins reply very much suggest it wasn’t 

Know what it was? Or that it def wasn't? I've seen 4-1 and 2-1 (both Derby wins) on Tw4tter. Not that it really matters, just nice to know. I'm more interested in who played.....

Know what it was? Or that it def wasn't? I've seen 4-1 and 2-1 (both Derby wins) on Tw4tter. Not that it really matters, just nice to know. I'm more interested in who played.....

I’ve heard the mood around the group is one of the best ever. 
 
This will be key for us to be successful. 
 
We could be in for a very exciting season. 

How can you not like him...
 

Have absolutely loved the last three days, I just hope the rain doesn't rob us of that pen-on-paper "W" we deserve so much. 
"Can they Bazball against Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc" - you bet we can! 

One Lester bother about

I'd missed this and feel a little happier now.

Another pre season win. Good workout. Getting more used to each other's strengths / weaknesses. And not forgetting RB's comment that they'd go into this game with tired legs from hard sessions on Tues, with the same for Saturday's game as no rest Thurs or Fri. 

If the club were to sign Rhodes - to give us three strikers in him, Collins and Washington - it would be very rare (if ever) that all three are on the pitch at the same time. What is more likely (given a two up top formation) is that any two of those three are on the pitch for virtually every minute of league football next season. That equates to 8,280 minutes of match time between them.
If the trio contributed one goal between them for every 200 minutes of match time played, that equates to 41 league goals over the season - that's eight more than McGoldrick and Collins achieved last season. 
Point of this is that instead of getting hooked up on the taste of the individual ingredients, lets concentrate on the taste of the cake... and let the coaching team get on and bake it!

https://twitter.com/tfrfootball_/status/1681389970496401409?s=46&t=rCtzpNFaUXR47elIx_pSzA
Can we use this as the moment we all collectively agree to never share any of the crap this guy tweets on this forum again?
 

Pinched from the Huddersfield forum regards Rhodes.

Hopefully he gets a decent L1 club that plays two up front and he can start banging them in again. He's looked decent for us even playing as a loan striker but asking him to tear around up front on his own just doesn't play to his strengths. Be good to see him scoring again at the right club. Scored some vital goals for us in his second spell.
 
…………………………………..seems a fair comment. 👍🐏

Another thing worth bearing in mind with Rhodes, focusing purely on the past 5 years on all players that played more than 800 minutes. 
22/23 - Best goal rate of Huddersfield's side in the Championship - 290 minutes per goal
21/22 - Best goal rate of Huddersfield's side in the Championship - 241 minutes per goal
20/21 - Best goal rate of Sheff Wed's side in the Championship - 212 minutes per goal
19/20 - Third best goal rate of Sheff Wed's side in the Championship - 228 minutes per goal
18/19 - Third best goal rate of Norwich's side in the Championship  - 168 minutes per goal
So he's had the best minutes per goal ratio for his side in the last three seasons. When you compare to the top League One goalscorers and how they did in the Championship: 
McGoldrick - scored a goal every 485 minutes in the Championship in 21/22. A goal every 126 minutes for us in League One. 
Clarke-Harris - scored a goal every 250 minutes in the Championship in 21/22. A goal every 154 minutes in League One last season. 
Chaplin - scored a goal every 534 minutes in the Championship in 20/21. A goal every 129 minutes in League One last season. 
Michael Smith - scored a goal every 314 minutes in the Championship in 20/21. A goal every 182 minutes in League One last season. 
Bishop - never played higher than League One - career average is a goal every 259 minutes. 
So I would argue that his ability to put the ball in the goal has been restricted by A) situation - he's still been more prolific than any other player in his sides in the last three years and B) minutes on the pitch. He's largely been injury free the last three seasons which is a big plus. 
He's a player that needs to supported, but I'm fairly positive he scores a good amount of goals at this level in this Derby team. If he gets the opportunity to get a run of games on the pitch then all the better. He started 15 games for Huddersfield last season, 10 of his 34 appearances were less than 15 minutes long. 
The drop in quality from Championship to League One is significant - I would back Rhodes (given the opportunities and games) to easily break the 20 goal mark next season based on his track record, not just over his career but also over the past five years. 

Maybe Warne & Clowes are just confident that he has what it takes to assemble and manage a squad capable of putting us in contention around Christmastime without spending fees, and instead we're holding what spends we do have back for that notoriously difficult January window so as not to be caught short when people inevitably raise their prices, thus actually allowing us bolster our ranks midway through the season for a change in order to help avoid the Feb-March energy slump identified in past seasons playing to the levels Warne expects.