DavesaRam

Suffice to say that on Saturday I was pining for the days of John Newman’s Derby County, it was that bad. I met John once, and that was way too many times, as he had the effect of sucking out the will to live of anybody who was unfortunate enough to get too near to him. But the football, although embodying Newman’s personality vacuum, was better than this troach.

Does George have a protege? Beautiful! WE miss you, George!

Well here is DavesaRam-come-lately, partly to calm down / drum up some enthusiasm, partly because of grandad duties! So .................. highlight of the day was getting past the first season-ticket check using my bus pass! And a statement - there is plenty of grass in no-mans land. At half time my intended match report was going to be a single full-stop, which would no doubt have surprised and delighted many on this forum! Second half was a bit different, after looking like mor of the same. We did seem to be playing at a slightly higher tempo, which is something Warne had asked for. But unlike many, I think our turn around wasn't the substitutions, it was the red card! What red card? The one that should have been given for the grievous bodily assault on Barkhuisen, which was two-footed, both feet off the ground. Instead it was just a yellow. The match officials, as ever, were appalling, but their incompetence was dwarfed by Derby's first half performance in particular. But the incident got the crowd going, and seemed to get Derby's dander up, and suddenly we had got the upper hand, and suddenly Cheltenham's shortcomings were exposed, resulting in a whole load of nasty trips and fouls around the area, leading to the stunning Max Bird goal. The substitutions consolidated our upper hand and we got 20 minutes of not too bad football. The substitutions did help, as some have mentioned, in that we did start to use the midfield more, so Cheltenham could no longer be sure of which way we were going to play the ball, and the defence began to open up. Up till then Cheltenham had done a job on us, yet it was no great prowess on their part. The "job" they did on us is the easiest job in the world. They started with a high press, which we struggle with, but they also knew that we vacate the middle of the pitch, so could play through it easily enough. And instead of parking the bus, they just drove it all around the pitch as they wished. They were very tight and compact, and moved as one, so as well as pressing well, they quickly moved back in defence as we moved forwards. And the "pack" moved across towards which ever wing we decided to fill with wide men to stifle our one form of gameplan. It was so easy. So should we booo like we did on Saturday? Well the alternative is to applaud the players and the coaching staff for what they are producing. My daughter was horrified at the cheering when Hourihane was substituted - what will that do to his confidence? There is a truth to this, but if you choose a vocation or career which has you performing in front of large crowds means having to deal with their responses. Is the protest at the players? Well, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But what if the protests are against what the players are being forced to play like? A few months ago Hourihane said "If you want to play, you play the way Warne tells you". IE in other words if you do anything else, such as play football, you are out. I've said in another thread that maybe it is the shear frustration of the fans knowing we could do so much m ore with this squad if only we would try football. And probably 70 or 80% of the crowd know that if they turned in performances like that, be it the players or Warne and his crew, they wouldn't last two weeks in their jobs, while millionaires, or about to be millionaires can swan about without a care in the world while we mere mortals pend a high proportion of our income supporting them We can always live in hope that Warne and his crew spotted something on Saturday, and we will go for 3 in the middle and play the ball at ground level, and mix things up a bit. But I shan't be holding my breath.

He has also limited the team by steadfastly refusing to play the youngsters when we are desperate for fresh legs, when we really need to give some if the old legs a rest.

I am one of those who think we've got a good squad for this League, but wonder whether or not they are allowed to be good enough. We should be "tonking" them, but it is more likely that it will be a tough, close, even dour game. I'll still back them and cheer them on.

The issue isn’t that we want the prettiest football in the history of the game, it isn’t that we want to make Manchester City look like a bunch of crude lumpers. It is that we know that if our players were allowed to play to their strengths they could storm this league. The weaknesses and deficiencies are plain and obvious and are holding us back. So instead of cementing our position in the automatic places, we are preparing ourselves to be glad we scraped into the play-offs. Credit us due that we are up there despite having controlled virtually none of our matches, but ignore the possibility that we are only still up near the top because League One is so weak. Then we start slagging our midfield off for being powder-puff and easy for the opposition to go marauding through at will when Warne admits to setting midfield up to be powder-puff and easy to maraud through. And all the opposition have to do is play the tallest central defenders they’ve got and double up down the flanks and we are stuffed. The issues are addressable but ignored so we continue to stutter when we should be motoring forwards. But despite all this I will be there and I will be noisy, helping the South Standers make our support heard. And shouting at the ref! COME ON YOU RAMS.

I believe he said in the pre-match interview. He said that Reading were very effective at the high press so we needed to move the ball on quickly before an opposition player got close. Sounds feasible, although he announced a fear of Cheltenham's midfield for the away match, even though at the time it was non-existent! By all accounts from the matchday thread there wasn't much of a press from them on Tuesday either, so it might have been Warne trying to justify minimising the midfield's involvement.

You’ve described the midfield issues well, but the problem is that Warne is happy with the deficiencies! He doesn’t mind the whole opposition team charging through our midfield, so long as the next time we get the ball we hoof it out to the wings. His other plan is to not care much about midfield so long as we get the ball out to the wings. 🙄

No need to worry - we’ve got Plans B and C, brand spanking new and unused, still in their wrappers!

All you have to do is watch the teams we are playing. They seem to control the midfield pretty well!

Unfortunately occasionally playing badly would be acceptable. But it isn’t occasionally. Even on the “good run” we rarely played well, we just “got away with it”. The problem is with the way Warne wants us to play. Despite 3 transfer windows he still hasn’t got the players he wants, but insists on “straightjacketing” the team into his system but can’t explain (or maybe even see) why, with said straightjacket rammed onto the players why they can’t move freely. Most people can see that we need to take the straightjacket off. How about it, Paul?

Because Paul Warne has instructed him to only have two touches of the ball. So after one touch to control it, he’s only got one touch left, either hoof it out to the wing or pass it back again. 🙄 Warne’s insistence on his one and only way of playing is under-using. NO: WASTING the players he has got, and is turning them into poor players.

I was replying to a comment which was as good as saying that Warne is fantastic and does nothing wrong, and that he is all we need.

Because they were rushing the pass having been ordered to only take two touches.

You probably want Boris Johnson back as Prime Minister in case there is another pandemic, and to oversee the “Honesty in Politics” initiative.

Actually its ALL Sibley’s fault.

Well I got lucky last night! Woo Hoo! But only in that I didn't watch the match! But I have done my penance by reading this thread all the way through, so now I am as miserable as everybody else! Someone said that Warne in one of his interviews admitted to by-passing the midfield, and that he only wanted the midfield players to have two touches of the ball - one to control it, and the second to move the ball on , either to where it came from, or out to the wings. I appreciate the desire to get the ball forwards quickly, and is why I enjoyed the change from Rosenior-ball, which was based on boring the opposition to sleep then attacking them while they were indisposed. And by-passing midfield is the problem, probably in more ways than one. If you remember when we went to Cheltenham, who were the weakest team in League One, who hadn't scored, and who had a non-existent midfield, so Warne decided to by-pass the midfield that wasn't there!!! Duhhh!!! And so caused the debacle of that match. It, and the matches immediately before and after triggered the fan response, which got everyone bollocked for not licking Warne's feet all the time. And suddenly there was a change, starting with the Lincoln (?) cup match where we played really well, as if he just sent the team out and let them get on with doing their thing! And we embarked on the good run, where we started to involve the midfield, and played the ball at ground level, and Collins started to put himself in the penalty are instead of out on the wings. Up until we were completely outplayed by Peterborough, since when we have slowly reverted back to what caused the fan outrage again. Did Warne use Peterborough's superiority to say "Right! That's it. We got outplayed, so its back to doing it my way"? Pure conjecture, but hopefully you can see where the idea fits in. So apparently all we did at Reading was get the ball out wide and lump the crosses in to our resident absentee striker/general offside man, and may have pointed out that all they had to do was double up in the flanks and Derby were like the proverbial Dalek at the foot of the stairs. Duhhh!!!! Again! Re the lack of passion and overall sloppy play: we have seen it from time to time, especially early on in the season, but not to the levels described last night. Could it be that the players are hacked off being forced to play sub-football, because they know they are capable of so much more? When you have Bird and Hourihane who are capable of playing a bit, but who are forced to just boot the ball to the wings or simply up the field? Did any of you see de Bruyne's return after injury in the match against Newcastle United? He came on midway through the second half and transformed the match. We could sign three de Bruynes and you'd never know they were on the pitch because of our abuse of midfield! Is that why so many people are fed up of Bird's apparent invisibility? (Now there's a conundrum!) Are the players therefore on a go slow in protest? A few weeks ago I was right on the edge of "Warne Out", but his apparent change of heart after the fans kicked off, and the good run made me shift back to backing the guy. If we carry on with this non-football against Cheltenham, I won't just move back to "Warne Out", I will be thinking of setting up a Crowd-fund to get him out. I am that cross and disappointed. Imagine who angry I might be if I'd had to watch the match as well!

Well I missed the match because of family business, so had an evening without football - a bit like Derby County only better!

Instead of a crowd-funding appeal, how about a crowd-kidnapping? I’m sure your wife would have sufficient sympathy! After all you would be forced to watch Reading, wouldn’t you?

Can’t make it tonight - family business. 😢

He did all right on Saturday, and he could affect the game in his Number 10 position if we used the midfield for more than just a vehicle to transport the ball out to the wing at the first opportunity. We slag Max Bird off for the same reason on this forum.

How do you know that Hourihane will still be on the pitch after Sibley has gone? .............. Oh wait .......................

My bad. But it was still Sibley first to get pulled. Again. Despite playing well.

Yes, but despite playing well he was still the first to get binned at half time.

because he kept bring played out of position. What? A player not reaching his potential because he is played out of position? At Derby County? That never happens, does it? 🙄