LeedsRam1999

Get Simon Clough in immediately. He knows what he’s doing. Since he went that department has performed worse than abysmally. 

Perhaps that's how he should approach it
 
Play the 3 at the back & wingbacks for the away games on the small pitches and try and play more football at home with a more tradional formation 
Would be able to naturally rotate a lot of players then for different types of games 

Bad results happen, but if anyone can pick a redeemable quality out of the philosophy and setup we are currently seeing on the pitch I'm all ears, because I can't see any and that is far more concerning than a the scorelines.

I honestly think the players we have are enough with one or two loans to be in and around the top 6 but....
3 Centre backs... it just seems to me as if no one knows who the big man is and command the box, first goal tonight all 3 nowhere near the attackers 
People talk about on here that the 3 midfielders not working but again I think it's due to formation all playing in a flat line no dynamics... who's the defensive mid, who is playing the creative passes 
I think we should either go 
4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1
Keep it on the floor and pass it round a bit, we don't play more than 5 passes in a row so no wonder we aren't confident on the ball when we get it.
You can still get crosses in the box but passing it round also gives us time to breathe...
Last season it was just Bang into McGoldrick coming deep turn 1 touch, second touch and play down the flanks worked so often... I think Waggy could do that for us this season to a certain extent
so in summary for the Fleetwood game I would play this with waggy in the hole
 
                 Wildsmith
Wilson Bradley Cashin Forsyth 
            Bird   Hourihane
NML        Waggy      Thompson
             Collins/Washington
 
My first proper post on here sorry for the waffle what we need is the opposite, just back to basics football on the floor ⚽️ Up The Rams 🐏 

Coming in here to have a go at people who have doubts when we get 1 win is honestly just as bad and reactionary as the people who start expressing their concerns when we get 1 loss
Warne himself has always talked about "not getting too high on wins, and not getting too down on losses".

He’s a good young player and it baffles me why some people give him stick 🤷

Awesome performance second half. Was involved in everything positive and should have got the goal his performance deserved. If he has bids in for him it didn't show and showed some quality link up play nml. Keep it going max lad 🐑

I felt the first 10 minutes showed real promise, we got off to a good start thanks to a fantastic delivery from Hourihane and header from Collins. Moments later, NML should’ve scored thanks to fantastic work from Collins. Forsyth then had that weird back pass header that looped over Wildsmith and out for a corner and then I felt the panic in the team. We were then comfortably second best all over the pitch, mostly in midfield, but Bradley had a few weird moments, as did Wildsmith. 
At half-time, I wanted to see a couple of changes and a bit of game management. Warne opted to keep the players who ended the first half on the pitch and from the kick off where we went back to Cashin and he was pressured to which Burton won a throw-in, you’re expecting the worse after how the week has gone. Nevertheless, from that moment onwards, we took control of the game and created a number of very good opportunities - it finished 3-0 but Bird should’ve scored and NML probably twice. The improvement in the midfield in the second half was excellent and very pleasing. If we can get the ball to Hourihane in and around the box then there is not many better in the league at that range and so it proved. Good to see Waghorn come on and have an immediate effect, honestly looks far too good for this level technically and is still fit enough to get about. Washington off the mark. All in all, a very good second half performance after what was a fairly concerning first one. 
An away win and a good second half performance is definitely two things we struggled with last season, though, so maybe this win is bigger than we thought - our first in the league at Burton too. 
Player ratings for what it’s worth - 
Wildsmith - 6
Nelson - 7
Bradley - 6
Cashin - 6
Ward - 7
Hourihane - 8
Smith - 6
Bird - 8
Forsyth - 7
NML - 7
Collins - 8
Waghorn - 7
Washington - 7
Thompson - 6
Elder, Wilson - N/A

So did Middlesborough, Wycombe and Stoke. All gravy 😎

Thanks for the messages, everyone!
Alice & her family actually aren’t football fans at all, but I’m slowly indoctrinating them. The three nieces & nephew's are all getting Derby kits for their next birthdays!  

I was sat in the stands thinking I could offer more 

To me this is a no brainer.
Won't take up much of the budget. Can play across the front line, threat from a set piece. Works his socks off. Loves the club. Confident he would chip in with around 10 goals.
Most clubs in this league would have Waghorn in a heartbeat.
Get him in on a one year deal. 

If you wouldn't be happy with this signing, then I'm not sure what you can realistically hope for....

Aw, I thought we were getting doctor who in then. 
He could just go back in time and trip Zamora up. 
(still makes me sad that there’s an alternate universe out there somewhere where he didn’t score, and we’re now European power houses). 

And I’m monitoring Margot Robbie as my next girlfriend.
We’ve been frustrated by not being able to add to our striking department in the way we wanted to. I don’t think we will then go to allow our main striker who has featured heavily in pre-season just leave. If we had a bigger budget and brought in 3 strikers Warne really wanted, then he could leave. But we don’t have a bigger budget, haven’t brought in the strikers Warne wants and Collins won’t be leaving.

There are some wristslashers on this forum…. It makes me sad.
We clearly have very good players at this level, and 1st, 2nd, 6th or 10th are settled on fine margins.  Collins is potentially a 20+ striker with the right rub.
I don’t doubt we’ll score plenty.
I don’t doubt that the average fan is thick as mince.  It bores me.
Have the common sense to see that we’re trying to recruit the players to win promotion and ideally the league.

There seems to be an assumption on the part of some posters that we need to replace all of Didzy's goal total for last season but this isn't necessarily the case. A tighter defence, particularly in the crunch games against other likely playoff opposition could mean we score fewer goals yet gain more points - let's not forget over a quarter of his league goals came in 2 games against teams which finished 22nd and 24th in the league, where there was a 9-0 aggregate scoreline.
I'm certainly not decrying his contribution last season - he was a class above every other member of our squad and produced much of the entertainment throughout the season - but I'm far from being convinced that we have to replace his 22 league goals for us to have a successful season and yes I'd still like to see us sign a young striker with pace to increase our attacking options.

He'd probably be putting the crosses in. I'm just amazed that after his two short cameos at this level he easily looks as good as Collins. He's smarter, faster and more skilful (ffs what?!), can't see we've anything to lose from giving him a 1 year deal.

I’d be happy with Waggy on a 1 year contract.  I think be a decent signing in L1.  He’s one of those that if he signed for another team at our level we’d say it’s a good signing.

Call me an old romantic but sign him up! That game against Wednesday he was immense and his reaction towards the end of the game and afterwards was superb.
 
Exactly the kind of character our club deserves. We could do a hell of a lot worse than Waghorn as a back up striker. 

Do not need to hear about how hard Nixon is.

I would prefer that Chris Martin comes back to the club over Jordan Rhodes. They are similar age and their records are not dissimilar over the second half of their careers.
Neither have done much for 7 years. Their careers have stalled somewhat
In that time, their (very average) records are comparable:
Jordan Rhodes 212 (games).  38 (goals).  (5.57 strike rate)
Chris Martin 171   32  (5.34 strike rate)
Conor Washington 218   43. (5.06 strike rate)
James Collins 308   110  (2.8 strike rate)
Collins really sticks out for his superior record. Get the ball to him and he will finish. Even the much maligned CW has a better record than Rhodes over that time period.
Warne has intimated that whoever he buys will be a rough diamond and represent something of a gamble. I don't think the need for a striker is as pressing as many make out. For me, we need creativity.
 
 

Erling Braut Collins

My biggest worry now with Collins is that the Saudis will surely be looking to snap him up. We'll be lucky to hold onto him.

"It has been evident that I want to play, ideally, with wing-backs. With Callum Elder being injured, Kane Wilson being down, and while Thommo has been excellent for me at left wing-back, he can't play 46 games there for me obviously.
"I think we could do with a bit more balance of bringing in another left-footed wing-back. If I can get a different one to Callum and a speedboat that's what I'll get.
"We need something up top and may be something more in the middle. Whether my budget will allow three excellent players, I am not so sure.
"It might just be two so it's what I need the most. I need a striker, but every club wants one. I still have players on my list that I am not sure who are going to improve us.
"I spoke to two Championship clubs this week and they're on their list. I am like he is on your list?! I went he's on my list and I am not sure he's good enough for us.
"It gets to the point where you don't want to be that guy, but you think something is better than nothing.
"There are two who I really like that I am trying to do. We can't sign the best strikers in League One currently because they are under contract and it will take big fees to get them out.
"So you're looking at players who have played at the Championship and while their age is not ideal but they will improve us. But the problem is and I would say 75 per cent of Champ clubs haven't got money for transfer fees so you're in the same shop as them.
"Hence why it's really difficult. There are three apples in the shop, but 30 clubs are chasing those three apples. That's where we are. Idealy I would get a nine, a 10 and another wing-back."
https://twitter.com/dcfc_live/status/1682833094267502592