StaffsRam

European champions and World Cup finalists. It’s hard to be overly disappointed tbh…

Disappointing today obviously but no one’s infallible and everyone should be incredibly proud of what the Lionesses have achieved in the last 12 months.

In the wider context of the tournament though, European 1-2-3, highlighting the pivot in terms of the balance of power away from the United States. Interesting to see whether they can revive their dominance. With the rise in prominence of the European game they’re likely not going to be having it all their own way any more.

Referee awful, England just as bad. There can't be too many complaints about the result, Spain have clearly been the better side.

Spain were the better team in the first half and a 1-0 lead at HT certainly doesn't flatter them. A big team-talk needed at HT and a (much) better performance needed otherwise I can't see anything other than a Spain win. Spain looked far more likely to add a second than we did of equalizing. 

Why do the injury gods ALWAYS have it in for us? 🙄

3 points and a clean sheet.

Not overly convincing but better is better and it'll help confidence so I'll take the win. 

Hopefully we can now get the recruitment wheels turning ahead of the next game.

I’m not suggesting we should have kept LR, tbh I have no idea whether things would have turned out any better. However, we were never going down, so worst case scenario we’d still have been in League One. That being the case we only have to ponder whether we’d be in a better or worse position than we’re currently in. Hard to imagine it could be much worse, so…

The worst prepared side maybe. Man for man it’s not the worst squad of players, but the tactics, shape/formation etc….it’s not good.

The prem side under Davros was bad, but that was at a different level and Davros had thrown in the towel to prove a point, ie playing Big Dave up front when we were losing to send a message that we needed to sign another striker.

As a supporter I started following Derby the year after we’d last escaped this division. In all that time I’ve not seen anything as concerning as what we’ve seen so far this season. Being humiliated in the prem is one thing, being absolutely played off the park in the third tier is something else entirely.

Worrying times.

Legs going is not necessarily the end of the world. By the time he arrived here Big Dave was essentially just a heading machine, but boy could he head. Before that, Paul McGrath - couldn't even train, and yet was an amazing defender for us. 

Sadly, whilst they were both utilized to accentuate their remaining abilities and to cover for any deficiencies that doesn't seem to be the case with Bradley. Looks like we've committed a good portion of our wage budget on a white elephant (in this system).

Despite having misgivings about our lack of activity in bringing reinforcements up front, the one thing I was reassured by was that we looked like we'd put in place a defensive bedrock. If worst came to the worst then we'd be able to grind out wins with minimal goals because we'd be too good at the back for most offences in this league. 

Well, that theory's out of the window already. I've tried to banish it from my memory over the past 15 years but the only time I can remember us being this clueless at the back was in the Premier League season. The Clod Davis-led Keystone Cops defense didn't look any worse than what we have at the moment. Cash and Forsyth are not bad defenders, we've seen them play extremely well. Bradley and Nelson, as we understand it are not bad defenders. All of a sudden Wildsmith is being exposed repeatedly in every game we're playing. Wildsmith is not a bad keeper.  Confidence will start to play a factor now, and the negative atmosphere in the ground can't be helping, BUT, none of that explains the performances we've seen so far. As much as I like Warne personally I can't really move beyond "tactics and motivation", both of which I can only lay at his door. 

I'm not sure there's any way back from this. The one positive that the last few years have brought is is the siege/bunker mentality that we're all in this together and it's "us against everyone else" - all of that has been p1ssed away in a matter of weeks. Pride Park is brilliant when everyone's on board and they're in tune with the team. Look at the Birmingham and Peterboro games in the relegation season - you couldn't wish for a better harmony between team and supporters. Gone now, and whilst supporters can be fickle, once it gets this toxic it's very hard to get back.

I'd be interested to know what Clowes is thinking about now. This is his man, his pick. Not criticizing. On paper Warne looked a good/safe bet. Even under a business plan, with the amount of support we have I believe Clowes when he says we have a good budget for the division. 

Another home defeat to Fleetwood on Saturday and I think we'll be finding out whether or not we have the budget to replace Warne....

I don’t even know where to begin….so I’m not going to bother.

Fed up. Night all.

Good run out for Wales B though...

Just now, oodledoodle said:

Forest and Leeds lost.

So did Middlesborough, Wycombe and Stoke. All gravy 😎

3 goals. Clean sheet. 3 points.

After this past week I don't need anything more than that. 

🙂

Moot point if we can't reinvest. We'll be due compensation for him next year if he leaves, and for all intents and purposes we'll probably be offered (relative) peanuts for him anyway. In the meantime it would only hurt us this season, so what's the point?

I'm surprised that a business plan that we signed up to however seems to have no allowance for receiving decent transfer fees and reinvesting. 

1 hour ago, RoyMac5 said:

If it was 90% (did he say?) his fault then why did he need to through players under the bus? Maybe he didn't believe it was his fault?

He didn't quantify it like that, at least not in the bit I heard. He said he was to blame for some of it, and the players were to blame for other bits. In a performance of that kind of (negative) magnitude it can't really be either just the Manager or just the players, they all phoned it in.

I was surprised by the "heads turned" comment though, as that very publicly narrowed down the criticism to Bird and Cash. To me that seemed much more of a "heat of the moment" comment that he probably wishes he hadn't made in hindsight.

4 minutes ago, Mucker1884 said:

From what I've read on here*, he also included himself in the blame game, be that equally, or more so?  🤷‍♂️

*I admit, I ain't heard no interview, so apologies if I've misinterpreted some posts.

He did include himself in the blame game. Repeatedly. I don't think he was overly harsh on the players, not given the level of performance. Warne held his hand up over the tactics and communication, but ultimately there's only SO much he can do short of pulling on a pair of shorts and subbing himself on.

I'm not defending anyone particularly, I think there's plenty of culpability to go around for last night's performance. We've lost two home games, that's fair enough, and against two of the better sides in the division. Despite their problems, they are still good sides and will be further up the table than down it come the end of the season. However, the manner of those defeats is concerning, particularly last night's. Saturday, it looked like we were a couple of players short, and a few personal errors cost us. Last night, I don't really even know where to begin to explain that. We looked out of it, across the board. The players, the tactics, the communication, the morale, the fitness, everything was off. 

Big Trav said the mood "has" been low. I take that to mean before last night's game. I doubt that's just off the back of a home defeat to Wigan, so there's an obvious concern there around exactly why the mood's not great. Must be the first time in a while that's happened - in the relegation season we were galvanized and determined. Last season, we were defiant.

Just hope we can turn it around on Saturday and give Burton six of the best.

Still, three cheers for Ramirez….

Nigeria were unlucky. Very unlucky in fact.

That being said, I'm not sure what logic was applied in overturning our penalty. 

Goal line technology I'm all for. Anything that requires analysis, or is subject to interpretation, please just f*** it off. 

I think it’s just poorly worded and the signing in the building is Waghorn.

9 minutes ago, Eoghan1884 said:

I’m guessing the striker in the building is Rhodes 

All Rhodes lead to Roads. Or something like that…. 😂

Football’s well and truly back. It’s Saturday evening and I’m depressed. This is going to be a long ten months 😫

I thought it was a great interview. Refreshingly honest, warts an' all, which is what I'd expect from Paul Warne. Not happy at some of the answers, but that's more the circumstances around some of the answers rather than the actual answer itself.

It was mentioned at the top of the show that it was the first time they'd had a Derby Manager in the studio since 2017. Amazing that it's been that long. 

The strikers situation is obviously concerning, but it would be more concerning had we not at least sorted out the defense. It won't (hopefully) be anywhere near as porous as it has been in recent years. I would imagine there'll be more than a few games where we'll only need to be scoring one goal to win them. 

4 minutes ago, Wolfie20 said:

If they put a swear filter on that forum they may as well close it down - there'd be virtually nothing to see. What a load of foul-mouthed morons they have on there - when Stoke are losing (which is most of the time) I often have a quick look, it always cheers me up.

Loads of my mates are on there. Always nice to be able to remind them that they’re pikey scum…. 😂

23 hours ago, NorwichExile said:

I genuinely wouldn't wish it on anyone, and it's a constant reminder of how lucky we are.

I wouldn't wish the heartache or the stress on anyone, but the sense of humility and dose of realism that came from that experience I think 99% of football fans could do with. 

Last season, and this pre-season, have been a breath of fresh air for me, even despite missing out on the playoffs on the final game of the season. I'm just happy that the club exists and that I can still go and watch a game of football on a Saturday (or any other day) that I'm emotionally invested in. Had Derby gone bust then that would have been the end of football for me. so I'm relieved that I still care about the game (through Derby). 

Football, these days, in general, is predominantly a rat race. Everyone desperately chasing the dream of untold riches from the next league up and often going way beyond their means to try and get there. 

Hand in hand, it's the general distribution of wealth across the league pyramid, and a (extremely) poor governance model that purports to "protect" clubs that both drives extremely bad behaviours and tolerates them (perhaps even encouraging them). 

Football in many ways is better than it was in yesteryear, but in others, it's a million miles away from where it should (and needs) to be. 

9 hours ago, hintonsboots said:

Yes he played some lovely intricate sideways passes and looped a nice up and under into the box.

Better than the backwards passes and getting nowhere near their box football that we’d been playing beforehand….?