europia

Just third division football, IMO.

Two key admissions by Warne that both contribute to weakening our offensive play: that we lacked a focal point and the initial shape was wrong.
So, I'm hoping he addresses both. Firstly, we need yo stop the no striker experiment immediately.  We need Brown back purely to be a back up focal point. Neither Gayle nor Waggy can do 90 and it will take weeks before they can, if it all.  Therefore, Brown, whatever his current readiness, is required to ensure we have enough options to maintain a focal point.
Secondly, 4 at the back has to be our starting formation from now on. This allows CBT, NML, Barks and Wilson to rotate in their best positions.
Warne admits he has been caught between defensive or attacking advantages of the formation, but surely now it is clear that 3 at the back creates more problems than this, our overall play is far more suited to four at the back, too many players suffer as a result.
 

I went yesterday and wasn't too disappointed. I've not read through the thread so sorry if this is repeating what others have said. I thought we lacked a focal point and this challenged our attacking menace. However, once we got our 1st we easily could have had a 2nd in the next 5 mins. I think if we'd have gotten that we'd have won easily in the end. Midfield wise Adams was class with Bird and Hourihane not having great games. Bird's passing especially was pretty poor as was his decision-making when he did get forward. Gayle once he gets some service and minutes will bag goals in this division easily. Even though he was offside for the chance towards the end the way he peeled off their defence was great. 
I did question our pressing. Their big CB didn't know what to do with the ball and could not clearly pass or control it but instead of putting Laing on him to harass him into making errors we just kept off him until someone eventually broke our marking and he had an easy 5 yard pass on. It was quite infuriating to see this pattern in the second half.  We ran out of steam around the 70-minute mark and it showed. 
If we get these lot in the playoffs I fancy our chances tbh. I thought they looked really poor overall and don't have the players for the game they play. Another day we win that game 2 or 3-0 i think and at home we'll batter them.  Usually, I'm down about Warne and quite critical. Yesterday, we did shoot ourselves in the foot but if that's who are our biggest challengers we should come out on top in the long run. 

A really decent young player and a natural finisher. Probably needs good mentoring to bring out his best. 

So I’m going to be controversial here. Bradley was better on Saturday but for his size he is physically weak. He gets pushed over far too often for a centre half. 
I fear for us when we’re up against a real strong centre forward like 
Bishop or Vokes.
Bradley seems a bit of a flat track bully to me. Hope I’m wrong and that he establishes himself as we will need our defenders to be top rate between now and the end of the season.

Jake will be back playing before that bloody web page opens.

Lovely girl, she wouldn't quite be in wazzas preferred age range, but I expect she's progressed to Matron by now.....
 
,.....cue the Hattie Jacques gif!

There’s a gem there that just needs a little more polishing.
We’d be daft to let him go. 

Rooney humiliated a young kid in public, if you have issues with a worker you rollock him in private behind closed doors, mud often sticks and Liam followed Rooney in not giving Louie much of a chance, when Warne took over, plenty of staff are still at the club from Rooney days, and who knows what was said to Warne.
Sadly Cocu arrived at Derby at the wrong time, with all our problems, and wonder what Louie would have achieved under him with his record with young players at Feyenoord academy he brought through into the first team.
 

Fair comment, my good sir! Because this thread has been running since October, I hadn't read back from the beginning, so your original starter had slipped my mind!
Also: to the critics of Louie who keep referring to a succession of managers not giving him a decent run; he was actually brought into the 1st team by Cocu, who did give him room to express himself, hence the excitement at the time. The next manager was Rooney who throttled the flamboyance out of him. It may have been to get his fiery nature under control, but I suspect there was more. Maybe Rooney saw him as a number 10, but was also very keen on Max Bird, who had the potential to play the Number 10 role, so maybe Rooney was trying to create room for Max at Sibley's expense, even though he used Bird at CDM. Admittedly this is conjecture as I try to come up with a reason why Rooney would effectively break the lad. And then there is Paul Warne, who has done little more than prat him about.
So Sibley has only had 3 first team managers to contend with, one who blooded him, one who had personal issues and one who doesn't seem to know how to get the best out of what is available to him.
And yes, that last statement might mean that I had better go and get myself a tin hat. Hey ho! 

Rioch was phenomenal for us in his first stint. Just checked his record and he scored 34 goals in 104 games as a midfielder. Most of those goals were worldies. Top player, skillfull, hardworking and as hard as nails. He'd put a crunching tackle in then stroll away with the ball majestically.
Him and Archie in midfield with Zak and Charlie up front........can I sue DCFC for making me believe it would always be like that?
 
I'll forgive them if Collo pokes a 90th minute winner in at Charlton. 
COYR

A large corporate company making large profits and not paying much tax?
I’d be less surprised if he revealed a Tory MP was on the board.

Totally agree. There's no way that SP wasn't complicit. To suggest otherwise is rather fanciful. 

How can Blackett-Taylor go from being injury free all season, to being on his arse for fitness since joining 🤔 Had high hopes for him but looks totally out his depth in the cameos and picking up some random injuries all a sudden.
Washington is Thorne Mark II it seems, guy can't catch a break.
So my question is, whys he reluctant to bring Tony Weston into the mix? Rather continuing with no attacking options on the bench..

I'm not a lawyer but I find it hard to believe that Morris still has an NDA so wide-ranging around Pearce that he can't shed any light at all on how he felt while performing that job. I would think it would be very hard, if not impossible, to make an argument that Pearce's feelings on job performance and environment are part of confidential company information. As far as I am aware NDA's that are too broad or pertain to information which could not be considered confidential can be broken and have been. There is also a question that if he did sign an unbreakable NDA then there would also surely be questions as to the viability of his use in his position in the post-Morris era as presumably Pearce also couldn't discuss these issues with Clowes either. I find it odd that everyone just seems to have accepted this explanation with seemingly little to no probing at all, including local journalists. 
I think the sooner leaves the club the better. He helped drive the club off the cliff edge and repeatedly went on media shows telling us all everything was hunky dory when it wasn't. His discussion on radio derby where he says 'he'd rather not discuss the mel era' just shows his problems. I find it staggering that someone that high up in the club could comfortably state that given the trauma that the club and the fanbase went through. A trauma which he helped create and would have failed to mop up without a last minute local businessman saving his backside. 
Either the bloke was incompetent or he lied. Those are the two choices he's left with tbh. Our amortisation policy which he helped deploy was a recipe for disaster aside from the moral questionability of such a practice. Clowes kept him on for god knows what reason- perhaps he's a nice guy who believes the best in everyone or maybe he saw a giant organisation in an absolute state and needed someone to steer the ship for a year or two while he got more acquainted with it. However, the day Pearce leaves, either mutually or not, will be a day I'll be celebrating. 

To the first question I'd just put this up as an example as to what I'm talking about. 
 on the amortisation policy, my brother-in-law who worked as a senior accountant at a major firm described it to me as crooked and dangerous as a policy. He spotted it as a red flag immediately when he read reports of it tbh. Now I tend to trust his judgement in these matters as he's highly regarded in his field. 

On the third point I'd like him to show some f****** contrition. He's somehow been kept on a six figure salary after playing a significant role in almost killing the club. I don't think I've ever heard him even apologise for his role in this. When he's asked about his role in the media I don't think it's good enough for him to say he'd rather not talk about it. Given what the club and the fans went through it strikes me as exceedingly arrogant that he believes he can simply pretend it never happened. 

 

Not entirely relevant now but I've just realised that Dwight Gayle is another player that got picked up by Peterborough from the lower leagues then sold on for a fat profit a short time later. They manage to get one every season....another being Jack Marriott of course. 
Could we maybe try and buy someone cheap and sell them for lots of money? I'll put a note in Dave Clowes' suggestion box.

Really important result, a game that looked very tricky and did prove so on the day, but it was vital that we got three points. It would be great if that winner can give Sibley some confidence. He is one of our most technically gifted players, with a clear eye for goal but his form recently has not been up to it. He can help cover the absence of Collins if he can step up. 

I genuinely respect your opinion, and as you suggest, an individuals perspective will be influenced by their thoughts on the way things operated during Mel Morris's tenure. However, the vast majority would agree, that the financial management was totally shambolic. 
To the many people who've taken an interest, the whole thing with Pearce will seem odd. It's hard to imagine that someone so closely involved in what was without doubt, Derby County's darkest days, is actually still at the club. In most organisational changes (non football included) of the scale of what has taken place at DCFC, a top level restructuring would (at some point) see a wholesale clear out of the previous administration. Pearce still being at the club is strange enough, but to suggest that he can barely utter anything of relevance due to NDA's seems ridiculous and only fuels suspicions. 
It seems only a close knit group of people are aware of the motivation behind keeping SP at the club. It should be remembered that the loyal supporters played a massive part in saving the club, ensuring that it was worthwhile Mr Clowes getting involved. If the fans had turned their back, there would be no DCFC. Makes one wonder, if Mr Pearce has ever considered that it would be better to walk away, rather than apparently being muted by NDA's, and tainted by associated with the previous administrations murky finances. That's probably the honourable thing to do, but perhaps not in the world we currently live in. 

Well I think they are appropriate words for some of the anti arguments. The juvenile are often irrational, not sure what you mean by “lovely” Irony perchance.  That choice of words are part of my view on certain posters opinions. I know they have a view on mine and are comfortable voicing it. 
 
I think he’s a reasonably good league 1 manager, As a pro manager he has flaws, he isn’t a genius but is doing a sound enough job so far. I don’t think your addition of “a club with low to medium expectations” is accurate because: 
In the first place he is expected to and has been given the target of getting us promoted. That isn’t a “low/medium” expectation. What do you want .. an FA cup win thrown in for good measure ? 
Secondly .. we are in league one, like it or not. In this position and with our MM legacy we aren’t going to get Wenger out of retirement. That isn’t lack of ambition or expectation. It’s a simple fact and honest realism. 

I genuinely respect your opinion, and as you suggest, an individuals perspective will be influenced by their thoughts on the way things operated during Mel Morris's tenure. However, the vast majority would agree, that the financial management was totally shambolic. 
To the many people who've taken an interest, the whole thing with Pearce will seem odd. It's hard to imagine that someone so closely involved in what was without doubt, Derby County's darkest days, is actually still at the club. In most organisational changes (non football included) of the scale of what has taken place at DCFC, a top level restructuring would (at some point) see a wholesale clear out of the previous administration. Pearce still being at the club is strange enough, but to suggest that he can barely utter anything of relevance due to NDA's seems ridiculous and only fuels suspicions. 
It seems only a close knit group of people are aware of the motivation behind keeping SP at the club. It should be remembered that the loyal supporters played a massive part in saving the club, ensuring that it was worthwhile Mr Clowes getting involved. If the fans had turned their back, there would be no DCFC. Makes one wonder, if Mr Pearce has ever considered that it would be better to walk away, rather than apparently being muted by NDA's, and tainted by associated with the previous administrations murky finances. That's probably the honourable thing to do, but perhaps not in the world we currently live in. 

I genuinely respect your opinion, and as you suggest, an individuals perspective will be influenced by their thoughts on the way things operated during Mel Morris's tenure. However, the vast majority would agree, that the financial management was totally shambolic. 
To the many people who've taken an interest, the whole thing with Pearce will seem odd. It's hard to imagine that someone so closely involved in what was without doubt, Derby County's darkest days, is actually still at the club. In most organisational changes (non football included) of the scale of what has taken place at DCFC, a top level restructuring would (at some point) see a wholesale clear out of the previous administration. Pearce still being at the club is strange enough, but to suggest that he can barely utter anything of relevance due to NDA's seems ridiculous and only fuels suspicions. 
It seems only a close knit group of people are aware of the motivation behind keeping SP at the club. It should be remembered that the loyal supporters played a massive part in saving the club, ensuring that it was worthwhile Mr Clowes getting involved. If the fans had turned their back, there would be no DCFC. Makes one wonder, if Mr Pearce has ever considered that it would be better to walk away, rather than apparently being muted by NDA's, and tainted by associated with the previous administrations murky finances. That's probably the honourable thing to do, but perhaps not in the world we currently live in. 

All done by looking cumbersome generally - in terms of scoring goals NML seems to be the one who makes things happen and without him we would be halfway in my opinion 

It’s odd, we’re second top scorers in the league, joint fewest goals conceded, most away wins, in the automatic places yet it doesn’t feel like we’ve played well all season nor is there much optimism