Ellafella

1Wildsmith 6.5 Commanded the box; controlled the air traffic - should he have saved the goal? The crossbar is a close friend.

24Nyambe 7 Powerfully present & precision passes; 

35Nelson 8 Hassled, harried, headed them away. 

6Cashin 7.5 Pumping pistons & sprayed clearances. Picked the ball off opponents toes like the Artful Dodger.

2Wilson 6 Deftly mobile & busy fleet of feet but bovine banjo a no no. 

Bradley 6 10 minutes of steady guardsman duty. Halt who goes there!

12Smith 8.5 Marauding mobility, balletic turns and Pirloesque pirouettes then burst the onion bag. MotM

8Bird 🦅 7 Silent assassin of simple switch passes sweetly savoured. 

Hourihane 6 Brought calm and control patrol.

22Fornah 8 Policed the park and passed sublimely. 

Sibley 6 Late legs show; no sweat.

3Forsyth 7 Kept the decks cleared. A wonderful arcing fizz-ball sent spinning into Barks’ path was a joy.

9Collins 8 Huge honesty & heart; covered acres and smashed it in with left-foot aplomb.

10Waghorn 7 Snapped, crackled & popped. Energy & zipp. Goal #6 & all smiles.

11Méndez-Laing 7 Pacily posed the questions & a peach laid on for Smith. 

7Barkhuizen 7.5 Broke the Blackpool backs with galloping goal assists. Should’ve/Could’ve had one too. Huge impact. 
 

Tactical masterclass; Superb shape. Derby fans majestic. Memorable match of season-defining sliding-door moments.

Half-marks allowed; please rate all subs. Closes Thursday @ 18:00. Results by Thursday 22:00. Average is 6.00. Therefore, when a sub steps on the pitch he is on 6 - that's the baseline. Also indicate ATG (at the game) or TV (Tv).

1Wildsmith

24Nyambe

35Nelson

6Cashin

2Wilson

Bradley

12Smith

8Bird 🦅 

Hourihane

22Fornah

Sibley

3Forsyth

9Collins

10Waghorn

11Méndez-Laing

7Barkhuizen

1 minute ago, sage said:

Nyambe, Bird and Barkhuizen in. Small outbreaks of football, chips, sausage and curry on the sea front, jumpers for goalposts 

Marvellous…isn’t it? Mind that dog 5h1t..

If Carlsberg did away days…

We can win this. Confident first half. Defensively clockwork. Smith covering well. Smash n grab on 70 from Sibley/Barks; even but we have another gear. 

Can anyone explain that miss? 

Loud n proud…

Loud n proud…

In the ground…

2 minutes ago, Mucker1884 said:

I can't even claim to be the good looking one, with those options!

... And you can tell them I said so!

 

*Don't mention my name v2.  👀

Don’t tell him Pike! 

Even @Mucker1884’s here …

5 minutes ago, Foreveram said:

My Grandsons first away match, we are on the front row in the video. He loved it, he’s gutted he couldn’t go to this one on a school night. 
I’m in the mood now, off to the Manchester. COYR.

It’s rocking in The Manchester 😲

We’re on our way, we’re on our wayyyyy…

1 hour ago, Foreveram said:

Sat having a quiet drink in the castle, two coaches and a mini bus from the Neptune just turned up 😂

…may get messy 

1 hour ago, Carnero said:

I'm sure I've heard one at some point:

🎶

He's been here for so long

He's never had a song

Craig Forsyth

Woah-oh-oh

Craig Forsyth

Woah-oh-oh

🎶

“…he’s got no song but he’s got a big dong! Oh Craig Forsyth…just ask his wife”

would be entirely inappropriate and unacceptable and would merely proliferate the number of chants that seem to fixate on the sexual anatomy of Derby players. 😲

On 01/10/2023 at 14:13, hintonsboots said:

Why is Birdy in an England shirt ?

Isn’t that Rishi Sunak? 

13 minutes ago, Old Spalding Ram said:

Rioch, Nish, Todd, Lee, McFarland.

lm trying to search out the Graham Richards tribute to Francis Lee broadcast last night on the Radio Derby phone in.

…………...as he said “it was a privilege” to watch Derby County week in week out, those of a certain age were extremely lucky. 🐏

 

 

Football of the highest order played without fear. The play ran like a river, eddying and flowing with graceful purpose sweeping all before it, on famous mud. We’ll never see it repeated. An afternoon of beacon-like light in the dimness of the industrial and Smokey chimneys of the 70’s. 

6 minutes ago, Miggins said:

Thanks for doing this, @Ellafella. It makes very interesting reading. Your efforts are much appreciated.🐏

Thanks @Miggins , for your kind words. 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/gallery/2023/oct/02/francis-lee-a-life-in-pictures?CMP=share_btn_link

7 minutes ago, sage said:

Based on the ratings our best side is

                              Wildsmith

Nyambe        Rooney     Nelson     Fozzy

Wilson          Fornah       Tommo     Barkhuizen

                John-Jules    Waghorn

         

Interesting. It is noticeable how NML's average rating is one of those that has declined over the 8 games (ie was better 4 games in than 8 games in). Also, Cashin has started to show an improving rate, after a fairly dramatic "bomb" probably all caused by Brighton's alleged interest. He did have a couple of poor games (by his high standard) which he is now recovering from so it would probably be harsh to leave him out. But, if the numbers were given the job of selecting the team, this indeed is what it would be.   

Player Ratings after 8 League Games

A big thanks to those dedicated Rams fans who provide player ratings. You are fantastic examples of knowledgable and dedicated supporters and I bow to you all <bows head in reverance>

I have now analysed the first 8 league games & compared player ratings with the first 4 league games and the data is presented in Table 2, Figures 2 and 3 below. It's difficult to make the visualisation clear hence I've experimented a little but arguably Table 1 is the simplest (and clearest).

Table 1 shows Player Name, Average Rating after 8 games and average rating after 4 games. It also shows the whole team average (6.14). There are a few things to mention: 

• Players have played a different number of games; some have played all 8, other just 2 games (eg Nyambe).
• Some players (eg Fornah) didn't feature in the first 4 games - so don't have a 4-game average (No, honestly!)
• The comparison will become more robust as the number of games increase; although some players may disappear forever (eg Embleton)

The Analysis

Nyambe & Thompson are joint top of the ratings after 8 games on 6.73; obviously they haven't played all of the games, so there may be a "restriction of range" effect in play (ie they have had less opportunity to have a bad game) but credit where credit is due. Thompson was earning some consistently impressive ratings in the couple of games just prior to getting injured - evidencing what a hugely impressive character he has given that he drifted right out of favour last season. I predict he will storm back again. We fans need to recognise the heart he has put into Derby County in his as yet short career. 

Nyambe - 2 games in and looking solid and a very good acquisition. Early days yes but he threaded a couple of "eye of the needle" type attacking passes V Camb Utd showing he has a brain for the game.

If you study the visualizations, you'll start to get a feel for what the data says - there won't be any surprises - and start to see how some players have "drifted out" (ie worse average after 8 games - eg NML) and others have "driven upwards". Some players are just bang average and consistent (eg Smith). 

I'll add regularly to this "running average". It will be mostly confirmatory and descriptive. I'm also about to show some SPC charts which will show trends / and form (ie when a player's scores improve / decrease significantly) - I'll focus on Nelson, Waghorn and Forsyth to begin with because they are the players who have shown significant change thus far.

For those of you who have asked specific questions, I will get around to answer them soon. It's just that after a 9 hour working day, I have spent the entire evening doing this (another 5 hours!). Although it's all simple stuff, it is time-consuming. 

  Once again, thanks for your ratings and comments. I love reading them. My favourite so far was a rating of 5 given to a player with the comment "Lost at sea!". It made me laugh out loud.   

 If you click on each image, you'll get a clearer "pop-out" to look at. Note Fig 2 and Fig 3 present the same data but I am unhappy with Fig 2 so I also provided Fig 3 to see if that was easier to read.  

4 minutes ago, CBRammette said:

1Wildsmith 6

24Nyambe 7.5

35Nelson 7.5

6Cashin 6.5

3Forsyth 7

Wilson 6

12Smith 4

Bird 🦅 6 

22Fornah 7

11Méndez-Laing 4

10Waghorn 4

Washington 4

7Barkhuizen 6.5

Sibley 5

9Collins 4

ATG

fans, players and officials 10 at 31 mins

It was a beautiful tribute, and big credit to Cambridge fans & staff who joined in. Nothing ever cushions the blow of loss but the shared acknowledgement is a great support. 

1 hour ago, jono said:

There have been one or two old player birthdays recently along with glory day clips of golden goals. Interesting in the build ups how the great players move to receive the ball or move when they’ve passed, that old mantra, make your self available. I’m here, put it there, anticipation. 
 

I see a lot of zonal coaching, keeping shape, clichees like “transition” and “phase” … All well and good but we seem to be losing a lot of the basics and instincts of pass, move, anticipate. We don’t look for the player making a run, we don’t work enough in 2’s and 3’s with the ball or for say throw ins and overlaps. It’s this sort of basic attacking stuff that catches opponents flat footed while they are all trying to “keep their shape”

Nyambe yesterday did it at least 3 times, the difference was palpable. NML used to do lot when he first arrived but has gone off the boil. Thommo could do it too. Most of the players have it in their locker from their youth but I think it’s getting lost in the “tactical theorems” of the game at this level. Just Sunday morning musings 

Oh for the days of free-flowing football, when players express themselves and it all looks fluid and fluent and spontaneous. Now it’s mechanical and slow and stereotyped. And boring.