StaffsRam

Gutted. Legend. 

RIP 😢

No Ipswich this year. No Sheff Wed this year. No Sunderland this year. Wigan with a points deduction. Reading with a points deduction, and Blackpool a team in transition.

Ideal opportunity to escape this awful league, but no, of course we have to absolutely p1ss away the chance.

PW must be a football genius, cos for the life of me I can't see where we're trying to get to with these tactics and system. 

1 minute ago, jameso said:

I wonder if the boos were half-directed at the officials - the usual silly little obvious but less significant decisions against us and the decision to play 3 minutes added time despite easily as many stoppages as in other games where we've played double that.

We may have played much better (in parts) in this game but I'm not sure we played that well, for all that. It isn't just a case of fine tuning. We set up to play with wingers and I counted one decent cross all afternoon.

Wouldn't have mattered if the ref played an extra 30 minutes, we weren't going to be scoring. 

Re the officials, yes they're sh*te at this level, but good teams will batter the likes of Cambridge to the extent that the officials' performance is largely irrelevant. Sadly, we don't fit into that bracket so every little decision counts.

We're mid-table, and that's exactly the team we have, a mid-table team, playing mid-table football, with mid-table tactics. If this is the height of our ambition then what delights we have to look forward to..... 🙄

3 wins from the last 13 home games.

11 goals scored in those 13 games. 

All the penetrative power of a team of eunuchs.

It's a shame that we didn't use the January transfer window last season. But for missing that opportunity, and then subsequently picking up injuries and getting increasingly leggy towards the end of the season, we'd have been a shoe-in for the playoffs. Whilst I don't think we were one of the top 3 sides in the division, anything can happen in the playoffs, so who knows what would have happened if we had made it. 

This year, it's an easier league. No Plymouth, no Ipswich, no Sheff Wed, and somehow we're making it look like we're playing the likes of Man City and Liverpool week in, week out. The points return is, I'd say, a perfect reflection of where we're at, middle of the road. Unless something changes, and that isn't necessarily a change of Manager, it could be a change of tactics, a change of luck, a change in the quality of the officiating in our games, that's likely where we'll end up finishing the season. If that happens, then by any definition I don't think we can really class that as progress. We have a number of players out of contract next summer, I hazard to think who we'll be looking to bring in to replace those who'll end up going. 

Seems to me that we have a number of round pegs that Warne is trying to bang into square holes. That ain't going to work. I'd just look at the players we have and build the system around them. Shouldn't be that way around, but for some reason we've recruited players not ideally suited to Warne's system, and given we can't really change the players until January at least, then we can only change the tactics in the short term. 

The prospect of playing mediocre teams at home and being respectful to the point of surrendering the impetus to them, I'm not a fan of. Most of the teams in this league are s***. Disrepect them. We should be taking most of them to the f****** cleaners, not trying to hang on to 1-0 leads as though we're in the World Cup final. 1) We're no good at that. 2) The best way of defending a lead is from the front. 3) See my previous comment about most of the teams in this league being s***.

Full disclosure, I've had more than a few tonight, and that seems to have magnified my aggravation. 

Just now, The Last Post said:

He got coffee machine fixed 😁

An obvious priority. Will need to keep folks awake somehow while they're watching us play.

4 minutes ago, strawhillram said:

That’s terrible and remember this is the third tier

Shrewsbury (D), Fleetwood (L), Ipswich (L), MK Dons (D), Burton (W), Portsmouth (L), Wigan (L), Blackpool (L), Oxford (L), Fleetwood (W), Portsmouth (D).

One's a cup game, which leaves 9 points from 10 games. At home, in the third tier.

Just now, oodledoodle said:

Don't agree with me, it's a dark sad path.

Already on the path mate. No idea how to get off. Football used to be a welcome relief every weekend, the chance to end the week on with a bit of entertainment and a good mood. Now, it's rapidly becoming a weekly kick in the nuts just to draw a line under the rest of an already depressing week.

Last season was almost entirely pure relief, that we still existed. The season before that, was just angry for most of it. Leeds away in the playoffs is probably the last time it was actually fun. Seems an eternity ago now.

3 minutes ago, oodledoodle said:

Absolute rubbish. Can't believe anyone could post something so wide of the truth.

It's going to be a long, disappointing 4 years. Please stick to the truth before you post.

2 wins from the last 11 home games, going back to the start of March. Think you might be right..... 😴

Thought we'd managed to sneak a jammy 1-0, but no, of course not. Can't say they didn't deserve a draw on balance of play.

We need a drastic tactical rethink because this clearly isn't working for us. It's going to be a long, disappointing season I fear.

3 minutes ago, Tyler Durden said:

If he's an intelligent bloke then why didn't he make the right decision the first time?

Or maybe he did.

On paper PW ticked a lot of boxes. A record of success at this level and used to achieving it on a shoestring. Unfortunately Derby aren’t Rotherham and the respective expectations are completely different, particularly where the fans are concerned. I’m not sure DC factored that in, but who knows 🤷‍♂️

Give PW until Christmas and review.

We won’t go down so we lose little by waiting. If we’re nowhere come the end of the year then see who else is about, get them in and then they’ll have the January window to do a little wheeling and dealing, and the rest of the season to shape the team how they want to play. Wheel and deal in the summer and then hit the ground running next season.
 

I want to believe that something will suddenly click but I’m not convinced. People are a lot more tolerant of poor football if you’re winning, but poor football and poor results and the writings on the wall.

Literally the day after the transfer window closes. Sometimes it’s difficult to remember that curses and such aren’t real…🙄

On the bright side, I don’t see us going down 😊

2 minutes ago, Gritstone Ram said:

The refs are bad but they aren’t losing us the games. 

We could start playing like Brazil and these clueless clowns would find a way to f*** us. I agree that we have far bigger problems at the moment but that makes it even worse, FFS footballing gods, give us a chance for Christ’s sake….w**k performances compounded by w**k officiating, it’s like fighting with both hands tied behind our back!

2 minutes ago, Ambitious said:

He just have absolutely no confidence in himself to do anything right the way his time here has gone. Fans already hate him and on his back. Players don’t often come back from that.

Remember that with Clod. Every time the ball went in his general direction you could almost feel everyone’s backsides clench, and see people getting ready to barrack him before he’d even touched the ball.

3 minutes ago, Gritstone Ram said:

A potato 

Steve Bruce?

I’ll let others comment on and analyse the tactics, performance etc, but FFS we HAVE to get out of this league. The standard of officiating is driving me absolutely bananas. Thought it was bad in the Champ but L1 is proper, and absolute amateur hour. Like when you’d go and watch your kids play junior football and the ref didn’t turn up so someone’s dad stepped in. Every. f******. Week.

Can only imagine the sh*t show that must be L2….

With the exception of last summer, for obvious reasons, this is pretty much on par with Derby transfer deadlines for the past 5 years - our biggest success is in holding on to a player rather than signing one. 

It’s a shame we couldn’t get a few more incomings over the line. It’s a pretty weak L1 this year and it kind of feels like with a few more signings we could have given ourselves a great chance of being right up there come the end of the season. We still could of course, but in true Derby style if we do we’ll have done it the hard way.

Got definite

Vibes from that interview….. 😳

52 minutes ago, dcfcjj said:

Just really can’t see us getting him. Rovers have the money, we don’t. Selling Collins wouldnt make up enough funds surely. 

F*** me, it was depressing enough when we started losing players to Bristol City. Rovers? Pass me the razor blades.....🙄

Was watching a Peterboro' VLOG/podcast a few days ago and they seemed convinced that JCH will go to either Bolton or back to Bristol Rovers this week. They decided he was more likely to go back to Bristol Rovers. He's on the transfer list, and Rovers can't exactly have a sh*t-load of £££ to throw around so I doubt he'll be going anywhere for a vast amount.

GTFI! 😎

My favourite game was back in the CM2 era. 

Started at Celtic and after a couple of years I got a new young regen striker that I started bringing off the bench towards the end of games. The following season I played him more and more to the point where by the end of the season he was a regular starter. Did about another five seasons at Celtic and then made the controversial move across the city to Rangers. Added to the drama by signing the aforementioned regen striker shortly after arriving at Ibrox. He went on to be a regular starter for me over the next decade. He finally retired at around 33/34 I think. I remember printing his career stats out when he retired and they were insane, something like 500 goals I think. Still the best striker I had on any iteration of the game. Shame he was a regen.

I played 23 (that was last year's right?) about 6 months ago maybe. Just for a laugh I started as PSG. Spent the bulk of my transfer budget buying Haaland so ended up with Mbappe, Haaland, Neymar and Messi. Probably the most boring season I've ever had. You'd think winning 5/6/7-0 a week would be fun, but turns out the appeal wore off after a handful of games. 

43 minutes ago, Reggie Greenwood said:

He has been coming off the bench for Norwich last few games 

Well someone's gotta go start the bath running when there's 5 minutes to go.