Andrew3000

Anyway, if we sign this lad (which I have no doubt we will) then it goes some way to alleviating people's concerns about how he sees the team working better as a unit, which is what most people critical of Warne do actually want from him.
Awareness, learning, improvement. It's just that we haven't seen anywhere near enough of it.

About time we got an out and out CDM. Bird, Hourihane and Smith are all "keep the ball ticking over" players, they aren't all out attacking and certainly not all out defensive. Glad to see this position filled, now we just need a striker and that should be enough to see us through imo, but NOT Lee Gregory.

A player who did well for Forest Green in their League Two winning side, who has moved to the Championship but not really got a look in?
The last one like that is alright, so why not.

I asked an FGR supporting friend about him. 

She replied “He's fabulous.  Bit hot headed but loads of skill midfielder.  Very passionate”

I really hope this happens. This is what I called for in the midfield thread a few days ago. 
We have good attacking options but they aren't free to get forward and do their thing because no one is doing the nasty stuff to allow them to stop looking over their shoulders.
Love the idea of:
Adams (DM)
Thompson/Fornah (box to box engine)
Bird/Hourihane/Sibley (number 10 or attacking mid)
I've just got a feeling someone like Adams, in the mold of Eustace, will help knit it all together and we'll start seeing the benefits of our talented squad.

If this is true, hopefully a sign that Warne can no longer tolerate the imbalance. Start him with Bird. Hourihane to be a super sub in very advanced role, looking to provide those quality finishes when the game opens up.

Always a good sign when you see current fans wishing the lad good luck and saying they’re sad to see him go. Lots of them saying he’s a workhorse and is championship quality but has been unlucky with his time there.

Me too. The triumph of hope over expectation and reality!

I'll be honest, based on very little- I like the sound of this!

Presumably Fornah on his way?
Glad the midfield is being addressed, albeit I do think Fornah has been decent in his limited minutes. 

Sorry mate I would disagree here.
Forsyth was our only left back on the books in the summer. He signed a one year deal and most agreed he would have been a good squad player to have. We then signed Elder, who pretty much we all agreed on that it was a really good signing. 28 years old, won league one previously, had 10 assists from left back. Unfortunately for him he was injured in pre season and missed most of it. Missing pre season is massive for any player as they are playing catch up.
How do we know that he wouldn't get infront of Forsyth of he'd been fit and firing all season? We don't. He's clearly plenty good enough.
His other signings.
Wilson - Has potential to be really good. 
Bradley - Everyone was absolutely buzzing when we signed him. Didn't start great. Made a couple of mistakes (which is all you need to do in our fans cases before we write someone off) and he's unfortunate that Cashin and Nelson have been so good. We probably signed him expecting Cashin to go.
Fornah - Definitely has potential. Still young. Hardly any experience. But there's definitely a player in there. Sometimes to laid back but he'll learn.
Washington - A player Warne trusts. Just starting to see glimpses (the go against Northampton) of what he could do at this level, getting up to speed. Then he's injured on international duty.
Ward - Obviously with 352 in mind. But now he just looks like he's surplus to requirements. I might be wrong. But I just don't see him getting a game or even on the bench soon.
Waghorn - Steady played. No world beater. Cheap, convenient and will still contribute when he's back fit.
Nyambe - Brilliant signing. Really good defender. 
Vickers - A keeper. Not really don't anything wrong.
TJJ - Massive risk we felt we could take. Obviously looked at his ability and thought we couldn't get much better if we can get him fit. It's not worked out. 
Embleton - Can barely judge this. He did his thigh taking a corner in training.
Some signings don't work out as you hope. It's the way it goes. 
But we don't seem to give anyone a chance before we want them gone or say they are s****. I've seen some having a go at CBT already after playing 80 minutes of football for us.
I've just seen Brighton are letting Dahoud go. A midfielder they signed from Dortmund in the summer. Clearly not worked out it happens.
We're a league one club, with hardly any money, working to restrictions. We can only do what we can do. 

Dont go talking sense youth its not allowed here. Youre supposed to say everyones crap 😆

Based on current fitness levels at the club I assume he'll have got Dengue Fever, Measles, and a torn hamstring over the last 3 weeks. Still slightly fitter than Elder however, or the Albatross as he's better known.

31Vickers 6
2Wilson 6 Gave the ball away a few times but kept going. Lovely ball down the line to NML from which he crosses for the winner.
35Nelson 6.5
6Cashin 6.5
17Sibley 6.5 Determined display and some encouraging driving runs. 
7Barkhuizen 5.5 good early runs, then nowt really.
4Hourihane 5  Time to bench him and only bring on as an attacking sub. Cannot get near opponents nor drive past them.  I have never liked him and Bird together and never will. 
22Fornah 6 hope he doesn't leave, more to come from him.
8Bird 🦅 7 Extra point for the fab free kick. Otherwise struggled in that two.
5Bradley 6 Looks more confident and we looked more dangerous from set pieces with him up there.
27Blackett-Taylor 5 Looked a little lost, no understanding with team mates yet.  Didn't get given the ball much.  Too soon to judge, but underwhelming first impression.
16Thompson 6  Much needed dynamism but didn't get on the ball much.
11Méndez-Laing 7  Tireless shift where not a lot clicked but he covered so much ground and kept demanding more from his team mates. Looking more of a leader these days. What a lovely cross for the goal.
9Collins 7 superb finish. He's got bags of character. 
 
ATG
 

Fornah always gees up the crowd, he did it again yesterday too. I like him a bit more for it. Shows a bit of passion. He should be starting games for us. 

What would make Fraser any better than Dajaune Brown, who I think is more prolific in PL2? And that's saying something when he's playing for us, after everything our academy has been through. Not criticizing, just am genuinely curious.

I've heard that Fornah is going to Wycombe on loan, possibly permanent at the end of the season.

Isn't there quite a simple fix for this though?
There's no reason Bird can't sit in front of the back 4 and turn the ball over, it's what he's done under every other manager at senior level. Fornah or Thommo the engine and Hourihane between the lines as you describe.
I'm not saying it would work if we suddenly dropped what we were doing and switched the players around because it would have to be something we've worked on all season on the training ground.
While I understand that having Bird further forward allows him more involvement in big moments and gives him a nice little stat boost individually, is it really what's best for the team?
Our midfield doesn't look balanced because we're asking it to function normally whilst performing a headstand. It's upside down.

Just sitting having coffee then getting ready to set out on the treck to pp , this is set up to be one tough game and anyone thinking we should easily beat these then comming on here giving it the same old slating of the manager and players is barking mad in my opinion, we are prem league status club in many respects but we ARE a topish of league one club with league one players and riddled with injuries from the squad that has got us within touching distance of going top , I wish it wernt so and the mel era hadn’t happened but it has and we are where we are ,
I for one am gonna just turn up and get behind derby as I always do and hope for a win with the team producing what’s needed to bring us 3 points in the pressure situation that today is ,
come on derby ducking get into them , 3 points and I don’t give a shxt how you get them
im no b4 but the spelling is similar 😂

Anti football??, sitting 11 men behind the ball , stopping the other team scoring with no effort to score yourself , constant fouls and time wasting, that’s anti football, we go out trying to win every game under warne and at times we leave ourselves open and if we are not on it we look poor, we don’t play anti football, we play a style YOU don’t like,
god this forum becomes a grind at times , lose a game and it’s the manger is garbage , every other player is garbage , every thread becomes a tool to trash our manager and fav scapegoat player 🤷🏻‍♂️🥲

I agree with you, Archied, in that we are too attacking most games, leaving ourselves too open to the counter-attack.
It's a totally different style to Rowett's were we did sit in and score on the counter.
I'd still like us to have a bit more control, though, even if that means taking our time on the build-up.
Warne's style seems to work best when we play against teams who are better than us, so we can do the counter-attacking. Alas, there are few of these teams at our level, and that is our biggest problem. 

I think it would be very worthwhile to get Mark Thomas on one of the Derby podcasts, to give fans an insight into his day to day role and details of where they are scouting for players in both the U.K. and abroad. Over to you @SteveBloomersWatching or @Owen87ITK ???

Pollock rumour could well be right. Grimsby mate of mine with connections at the club just messaged me.

Would that be the 1minute or 5minute argument 😁

Saturday 27th January 2024. 3pm kick-off.
Believe this is the first time I have ever started a match day thread…
Will it start with us going on another long unbeaten run or turn out to be very short lived? Let’s hope it’s the former!
UTR! 🐏