Zag zig

It depends how we eventually set up in the attacking positions because it’s all quite disjointed. There has to be space for Corey Blackett-Taylor somewhere, you’d think Gayle and Waghorn, Sibley and Barkhuizen are currently in the mix, personally feel we could rest NML short term but there’s currently five/six players you’d think are starters currently for two/three positions.
You could drop Hourihane instead but he got another assist yesterday? It’s getting a balance, I’m sure it’ll work out. One thing I’ll say is that aside the two goals I thought we were defensively very good yesterday, which sounds a bit daft but I can’t see many attackers causing us that many problems.
Saying this though, and realising this after posting, a four might suit us better because it brings Nyambe at full back over Ward and Wilson. Glad I’m not the manager anyway!

Whenever I hear Malcolm Christie, even if after the game, in terms of punditry his analysis seems good, you’re given a feel he knows what he’s talking about but he’s far more upbeat.
Steele may have been a good goalkeeping coach, knows his onions but boy us he dull on the radio this season; he’s full on grumpy old man.

Good point.
Was thinking about this myself, but more along the lines, if we play a 3, with Adams sitting in and extra bite to stop teams running through us, could we play Bird and maybe Sibley in front for more creativity. Know Sibley gets his knockers but I genuinely felt taking him off yesterday, made it more comfortable for them.
My issue with the 3 is not so much it doesn’t work defensively, it’s more the capabilities of our wing backs going forward. Which I think is why you would suggest 4-3-3? So I’m trying to think what allows them to be more effective, ball players with attacking instincts in the middle?

Sonny Bradley is starting to play consistently well, but could this be a double-edged sword for us? 
In order to keep his place in the team, it more or less forces Warne to stick with three at the back.
I feel our best football this season has been played with a back four. I just can't see Bradley in that set-up.
 

Whenever I hear Malcolm Christie, even if after the game, in terms of punditry his analysis seems good, you’re given a feel he knows what he’s talking about but he’s far more upbeat.
Steele may have been a good goalkeeping coach, knows his onions but boy us he dull on the radio this season; he’s full on grumpy old man.

Whenever I hear Malcolm Christie, even if after the game, in terms of punditry his analysis seems good, you’re given a feel he knows what he’s talking about but he’s far more upbeat.
Steele may have been a good goalkeeping coach, knows his onions but boy us he dull on the radio this season; he’s full on grumpy old man.

Whenever I hear Malcolm Christie, even if after the game, in terms of punditry his analysis seems good, you’re given a feel he knows what he’s talking about but he’s far more upbeat.
Steele may have been a good goalkeeping coach, knows his onions but boy us he dull on the radio this season; he’s full on grumpy old man.

Been mulling this over since FT today but think this is my current hypothesis about Warne.
I think Warne gets the mentality of opposition teams who see Derby as ‘a big day out’ (or however you want to put it). I think he gets the different approaches when he comes up against the vast majority of league one sides and whilst it doesn’t always mean the prettiest football, he probably gets about 90% of decisions in these games correct. Hence our league position.
I think where PW struggles is where a team fancies it and aren’t treating themselves as underdogs.
What I mean is, that there are games where you need to encourage teams to play, let them have the ball and make mistakes and you capitalise. Again it doesn’t equal the best football but it’s effective. There’s also games like today where I think we need to be, for lack of a better term, Billy big bo****ks and play a professional game. What concerns me, for example in games like today is that they have a big attendance and we don’t go about shutting the crowd up. We let it all grow, the crowd gain confidence, the players gain confidence and we invite the pressure on. We’ve dropped major points in important games this season and i think we can see it’s from maybe not having that mentality to see a game out or poor game management.  PW will persist with players and tactics and gamble on the wrong outcome. Our joy today was through Cashin, Bird and Sibley linking up, but he upset that second half by taking Sibley off and changing shape. He persisted with Wilson, who did little today except, and NML on the wings which Barnsley could defend against, rather than the passing movement that was working a bit.
I like Warne and he’s smart enough to figure out how to overcome the problem he has in these matches, but he’s got to evolve past maybe relying on the easy decision (eg taking sibley off) and try and manage these games more smartly and frustrate teams. Keep the ball, slow the game down, don’t worry about entertainment etc etc 

Sadly that was the same for me especially with Eric Steele. I have been able to listen to the commentary of away games recently but today briefly turned it on but only lasted a couple of minutes. It always sounds so negative and leaves me feeling depressed and angry. I’m aware some like it but I’m not one of them.

He ruined the match commentary on the radio for me today. Never like it when miserable Eric Steele is on either. Switched it off. 

This assumes that our comments on here are a reflection of our support at the match. 
 
I don’t think Warne as a manager will be successful long term for us. I think eventually given enough chances he’ll get us out this division because that’s par for our wage bill etc. beyond promotion though I just simply don’t see success moving forwards. We will be buried in the championship if we approach games like we do down here. 
 
That doesn’t stop me singing about Paul warnes barmy army at the game regardless of my personal view about his suitability. That doesn’t stop me thinking he’s probably a great bloke but preferring a great coach instead. 

I have to say - he’s scored some incredibly important goals for us - but it feels like CH always takes the easy option. Either a pass back to the defence or a lump up field. 
 
I want to see someone with his left foot and ability attempting defence splitting through balls and directing the tempo from the middle. 

The two things that annoyed me most during the game were :
Ball was threaded to Hourihane in the middle of the pitch, if he'd turned he would have had room to run into. Instead he just passed it 20 yards backwards to a defender who under pressure passes it back to the keeper.
Bird collects the ball which has been cleared, Derby are on top,  he is facing the goal with a few yards to run into..he turns away and tries to slide a pass out wide that trickles out for a throw in.
They are our 'ball players' and seemed happy to leave the 'match winning' to our 'skillful' players- Wilson, NML, Barks..who all struggled to do that yesterday.
Defence largely looked solid. Adams worked his socks off ...really felt as a pair they contributed too little.  I know a lot will say its all down to Warne telling them to how to play but we just didn't look after the ball in midfield at all.

a) Attending football matches is not compulsory. If you don’t enjoy it, perhaps try doing something else on a Saturday afternoon. I promise you, you won’t be missed.
b) This is utter nonsense. We are second in the League. Any fan who works as part of a team that is second best out of 24 is not losing their job. They are probably getting a large bonus. The job of the players is to get us promotion. They may or may not achieve it, but they are on track so far.
c) May I ask what you were expecting for this season?? Win most games 5-0 and cruise to promotion?? We have only been promoted automatically once in the last 37 years, and now we have a great chance to make it twice. Two more away wins would make this our best away season ever. 20 more points from the last 12 games would make this our best season in modern times (in terms of total points and points per game since 3 points for a win; I’m not equating it to winning the entire League). We may not achieve that but goodness me, if this is the most negative you’ve ever been then I don’t know what to tell you. But it’s definitely a you problem, not the problem of the current players, manager and owner.

No, thought I'd leave them in peace to enjoy the game. Kids around us were very excited, more their thing than mine.
Some of the adults though, embarrassing! 

I’m constantly surprised by the number of people on here who seem to be expecting and indeed demanding that we cruise to promotion. It very rarely happens; even Leicester are no longer cruising to promotion this season. We’ve only managed automatic promotion once in 37 years, and we’ve recently been at probably the lowest ebb in our history. It would have been nice to win today, but guess what, the teams in first and third place didn’t win either. We still are in with a good chance.

Think we got cup finalled by Barnsley today
Filled their stadium, got their fans riled up, made the most of the home advantage and we shrank into ourselves under the pressure in our biggest game of the season so far
But Barnsley also caught us at a bad time, we’re without a striker and Gayle wasn’t ready to start. That doesn’t excuse the headless passing but we’d have made more of our chances with Collo playing today. It was still a fairly even game.
We’ll have a similar situation at Pompey so we need to learn from this and get a result there to make up for today. We also need to make sure we’re the ones ‘cup finalling’ Bolton when they come to town.
Stopping the calls for the head of a manager who’s clearly not getting sacked would be a good start. 

Really agree with this bit. Thought we never put many decent balls in and Wilson was particularly frustrating, as the number times he was in promising positions to cross and either held on too long, overhit or that moment which he did all the hard work but needed to cross sooner.
He was a bit guilty of flattering to deceive a fair bit, though I cut him some slack for keeping going to get in those positions; the end product, like the fane was just frustrating.

Just got back and don’t understand the real negativity. We were ok, they scored a worldie, it wasn’t a bad performance for me, just lacked killer instinct when we got in front. Stuttering start 2nd half and bizarrely got better towards end without creating clear cut chances.
Seen a lot worse performances at Barnsley away. Still all to play for.

Just got back and don’t understand the real negativity. We were ok, they scored a worldie, it wasn’t a bad performance for me, just lacked killer instinct when we got in front. Stuttering start 2nd half and bizarrely got better towards end without creating clear cut chances.
Seen a lot worse performances at Barnsley away. Still all to play for.

He didn’t look too bad in the stands today. Think if we’d have won he’d have started the bounce.
Good to see him, Vickers and Jake Rooney in the away end supporting the lads.

Not bad, but disappointing. 
They were a strong team, we got brushed off the ball too easily, our passing was off. They pressed very well - and it seemed to unsettle us. 
They looked beatable early doors, a bit jittery themselves but we never really pushed on after our goal.
I'm not a big fan of NML down the middle, Hourihane was lightweight in midfield (though his early deliveries were good.) 
Despite this, we more than matched them for attempts on goal, but they scored a great goal from a clearance, where was the defensive midfield? 
Then a header that looped over Wildsmith. 
One or two of our players were carrying injuries sustained during the game, we really don't seem to be having much luck on that front lately.
Or in front of goal - some poor decision making in the final third.
I hope we return to a back four on Tuesday, we looked far more balanced after Nyambe came on. But of course by then we were chasing the game and they defended their lead well.

Just got back and don’t understand the real negativity. We were ok, they scored a worldie, it wasn’t a bad performance for me, just lacked killer instinct when we got in front. Stuttering start 2nd half and bizarrely got better towards end without creating clear cut chances.
Seen a lot worse performances at Barnsley away. Still all to play for.

Really agree with this bit. Thought we never put many decent balls in and Wilson was particularly frustrating, as the number times he was in promising positions to cross and either held on too long, overhit or that moment which he did all the hard work but needed to cross sooner.
He was a bit guilty of flattering to deceive a fair bit, though I cut him some slack for keeping going to get in those positions; the end product, like the fane was just frustrating.

Bradley responsible for another goal FFS