Sparkle

52 minutes ago, Ambitious said:

I would be fairly relaxed with allowing Bird to leave for funds to spend. 

He’s a good player technically, but has absolutely struggled to consistently to provide an impact for us. I’ve really like Fornah from what I’ve seen and honestly don’t believe we would lose much, if anything, losing Bird to give him more game time.

What have you seen Fornah do? Personally I haven’t hardly seen anything to include him in the matchday 18 and I expect not to be with us in a years time 

1 hour ago, Dethorn said:

Dug this old thread out, just to say well done to Fozzy.

I remember seeing him flying down the left and whipping in some terrifying crosses and thinking he was some player.

Then I saw him being given a lesson at home against Wolves and thought he was finished, likewise with the three ligament injuries.

But then he reinvents himself as a CD when needs must, with the signings of Nelson, Bradley and Elder I thought his days would be number.

But no Fozzy has re reinvented himself as a LB again and is keeping people out - assisting and scoring.

What an absolute legend, what a club man

 

£150,000 is about our best value signings - anyway what about £3 million for Scott Malone anybody on transfer deadline day - just makes the point about using what we already have.

5 hours ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

The list of left backs seen off by Fozzy is absolutely mental.

There has been loads hasn’t there, we probably brought in some of them due to him being out with his serious injuries but not one of the replacements have ever looked better 

Even playing at the highest level can make the best players look not up to much if those around you in your side aren’t up to it

There’s a striker in league one banging them in - very experienced at a much higher level 

has taken part in 16 league games and has 8 league goals this season 

Doesn’t run around a lot but doesn’t need to it seems 

would probably have got us promoted last season if we had taken him on to help McGoldrick 

yep he’s still good enough and out of contract in a couple of weeks - Chris Martin 

yet we don’t need him short term, what use would a goal every 2nd game be? 

2 hours ago, Sheepinthedales said:

Might be a learning thing but I've noticed with Cashin that forwards are dragging him into wide positions then when he tries to get tight to them, they roll him. Cost us a goal at Plymouth last season and did it twice against Peterborough. Quite a few reasons why he won't be a premier league defender for me, as good as he is at this level 

He gets rolled when he is forced wider in the three centre back role where he looks very clumsy - for me he is a two centre back man with a real left back near him 

1 hour ago, Kernow said:

If we are forced to sell because he won’t commit to a new contract then it might not be the worst thing, depending on how much we get.

I’ve seen figures of about £2mil banded about. If we were to spend £2mil on a midfielder, I’d expect to get somebody who is a standout midfielder in this league. Max Bird isn’t that.

For comparison, Finn Azaz is going from Villa to Boro for £2mil and he is a much better player than Bird. We can definitely improve the team with those funds, if we made smart decisions in the market. 

Azaz hasn’t really played better than the third division has he? Bird can handle himself in the championship - I wouldn’t be expecting £2 million if we sold Bird in January and nether would any club under the premiership I suspect ( apart from Peterborough)

35 minutes ago, Chellaston Ram said:

You don’t need pace as a defender if you can read the game….Mackay. McFarland, Stimac, Wright,  none of these had pace but played at the highest level 

True, Tony Adam’s did ok 

4 hours ago, Srg said:

What would be a top quality loan in your eyes? Remember we are in League One and not the Championship anymore. 

John Gregory - how did we get him to move to the third division 

5 minutes ago, Comrade 86 said:

Does seem rather cheap for a young'un banging in goals in the Championship. 

Depends if he has a release clause ?

25 minutes ago, TINMANTED said:

this is the problem,when we camp in our own box,we dont have the pace to break,highlighted twice today whith barks and birds breaks,their defenders were quicker than our forwards ,so the breaks came to nothing.having collins defending set pieces takes him out of any break away,leave at least him, preferably another,would take at least four players out of a congested area,and give us more options to break out of defence

Just one of those footballing simple things that are annoying - when opponents have a corner why not leave your 2 weakest defending players out wide on each side on the halfway line as that drags away 3 defenders from our box and we could actually counter attack if they have real pace as well 

16 minutes ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

It was all structured with installments and we are fully paid up on any installments we owed, we cleared out outstanding balances from admin when Clowes took over.

I think we were up to date with instalments but don’t pay future ones owed until they are due 

I don’t think it’s an issue about one player or the other it’s about balance and from day one Bird and Hourahan together haven’t looked right and they definitely need a third person in there. They are both on contracts that expire in the summer anyway so it will be resolved soon enough and we need them currently anyway. When you look at who warne has brought into midfield - White, Fornah Embleton - none of them looked any better and definitely not better options than Tompson and Sibley - for me Fornah is a big disappointment as he just ambles around and looks and plays in a half hearted way and that is why he gets pulled off at half time and loses a spot on a 7 man bench - I really don’t think he will be with us long if we can move him elsewhere. 

11 hours ago, europia said:

Really? Just another oversight by the recruitment team then? Wouldn't it be a novel idea to sign players who can actually play games??

Rooney, ward, Wilson. Are the prescribed cover yet sadly Rooney is broken as is emergency Smith so not very good at defending Ward or Wilson get the job for me it would be Ward - we have more cover at right back than anywhere but only one real right back 

14 hours ago, Poynton ram said:

NML needs a rest and probably not the only one

Not against the bottom side though 

1 hour ago, Srg said:

be surprised if he doesn’t stay. 

Depends how much money they can get out of anyone else - have we paid them the Belick money yet ? - probably not at a guess 

Some players need to be at the right club for them and Plymouth seem to be the place for him - just a shame we don’t receive any massive monies when he eventually gets sold for big money 

2 hours ago, HorsforthRam said:

I thought the atmosphere was a little flat yesterday like a lot of home games this season. The possession stats didn’t help and quick turnovers of possession that go with it. As @CBRammettesaid, seems to be a pattern in recent years; big crowd, disappointing game and quiet. We need the atmosphere for the second half of the season. COYR!

Being out footballed tends to do that and for me Peterborough played in a way that I want to see Derby play - getting promoted is paramount for us but you can see what would happen to us against footballing sides if we achieve promotion and continued as we are.

Just now, VulcanRam said:

This is certainly an important part of our development if we're going to improve on holding onto leads. Every player back and hoof to the opposition so they can come at us time and time again is rudimentary. In the end today Peterborough threw so many players forward because they knew what our "strategy" was that they were ripe for the counter attack if we had the courage to leave one or two players forward.

To be fair ten minutes into the game we were being pummelled in central midfield and immediately needed an extra player in there and I was surprised it took until half time to introduce one 

1 hour ago, Magicman said:

Best team won Wildsmith shaky again. Think we were lucky to get the peno . 

He made some good saves and it was most definitely a penalty and a deliberate handball 

Ok, disappointing result in the end but I really enjoyed the game as Peterborough played a lovely style of football and if we are looking to improve then they have some decent looking players.

Peterbourlgh obviously enjoyed playing on our pitch and currently I wouldn’t want to be playing them at Wembley as they were just too quick for most of our lads 

A draw would have been a fairer result in my opinion but it was great game to be at unlike the Wycombe lot a few weeks back 

1 hour ago, Millenniumram said:

Yeah it’s a real shame for a player with his level of technical ability. Another player whose potential has been ruined by injury - we’ve seen a fair few of them. 

Worth the gamble if he was free and wages were swayed on appearances 

Hard player to replace if we sold him as Bradley has looked not good enough whilst Forsyth would do a decent effort it’s not the same.

Does the lad want to leave? Could he see a future in the championship with us - I would hope so.

Up to £4 million seems a lot whilst in league one but we hope to be in the championship where we would need a fair few better players and changing centre half’s causes problems usually 

5 hours ago, Ellafella said:

I suspect 5% of STHs will be away so 1100 fans will be “missing” . It is New Year’s Day so suspect a crowd of circa 28.5k. 

Yep, my mate next to me has a season ticket and he isn’t traveling from Reading when he can watch it on Sky 

Worth noting that the ageing Chris Martin has 6 goals in this league already in not many minutes on the pitch - put it in the right place and someone who knows what they are doing will usually put it in the onion bag