CROSSWORD

I think it boils down to two things....possibly three:
Whether you think the team is better than its sum parts.......that's what good managers achieve and many don't believe PW hasn't achieved that, despite us being in 2nd place.
Is the football good to watch?........I see a lot of snarking at those who are openly critical of the style of play but very few who openly think it's great.
But, I get your point. I'm not sure how it works..... but you can enjoy the season and the results without particularly enjoying the football itself. I'm sort of in that position and reasonably confident we'll hold on to 2nd place.
The other possibility is that we get very high quality football pumped into our living rooms for the rest of the week and unrealistically expect our squad to play error-free in the same manner. I find Man City quite boring to watch on occasions but the game against Real Madrid was a thriller. City made nearly 700 passes with over 90% completion and their outfield players only played 10 long balls. Last night we made 375 passes with less than 70% completion with 60 long balls by outfield players. 
Mrs Bat said to me this morning "I know we've got season tickets again and we may get promoted but I can't stand another season of this sh*t"
That's where a lot of people are I'm afraid.

We have had multiple seasons of below moderate expectations ... even by the madness of the elite english  football world our recent history has been a dreadful downward spiral of a story .
Since the club was saved from the abyss we are making giant strides of progress behind the scenes with acadamy , corporate and communication being keystones . 
The disallusionment comes from the regular dire , just plain awful, performances of the first team .
Yes we are still 2nd 
Yes we can still get promotion via autos or playoffs 
With a squad so highly rated by many outside of the club , we ought to at least turn it on occasionally and take a comfortable victory .
Every game is on a knifeedge . 
The head coach will trot out how dangerous a team Leyton Orient / Cambridge and Carlisle are and that no team will come and get their bellies tickled . 
Ffs just thump them all 4.0 and hope posh and bolton dont match our results .   We need at least 1 big win as the precious goal difference advantage has almost vanished too.
How many times have we royally screwed up this seaaon when in a great position to really take an advantage ? 
Ad nauseum over the last quarter of a century ....
There is still time to get glory in 2024 .  
But that time is running out ..
 
From a fan who is teetering on the edge of losing the plot . 
 
 

As it is today 

The Mighty Rams!

Anyone you know?……………..Some happy folks on here!  👍😁
 
 

Who will win? The team that folds like a pack of cards when they go 1-0 down or the team that folds like a pack of cards when they go 1-0 up?

This is why I suspect he doesn't really 'enjoy' being Derby manager. More pressure, more expectations, less patience. Comes with the territory of managing a good sized club. His whole personality and setup just seems geared towards a club punching above it's weight, not a club expecting more than it currently has.

Apologies in advance if this just sounds like a load of waffle.
My issue with Paul Warne is that I don’t feel like he’s getting the most out of what he has available. Yes, we have lost our target man but you adjust accordingly and change the style to suit what you have. He seems to have a certain way of playing with very little ability or willingness to tweak it.
He’s a nice enough bloke. I don’t like his interviews and try to avoid them as they often make me cringe. 

I don’t think he has much ability for developing players, if anything it’s the opposite. How many players have been bit parts or seemed to have disappeared, for example Smith and Fornah etc. These are players he’s signed, if they don’t end up in and around the squad he’s basically wasted wages.
Yesterday was hard to watch when we were going toward. First half NML and Sibley were basically playing as wingers, out wide, expected to beat their man, try and cut inside and left with limited options. There was no runners from the midfield. Second half the only threat was Wilson from the right wing, who wasted multiple opportunities to play a ball into the box after doing the hard work.
We seem to have no ability to open team up with intricate passing. Everything is play it out wide and whip a cross in. With no height in the box, unless you play that ball across the floor likelihood is it will be cleared and us put back on the counter. I absolutely hate the fact that we can no longer pass a ball more than four times without losing it and 3 of those passes will be sideways or backwards.
The midfield was all wrong yesterday. Bird and Hourihane were guilty of far too many side and backward balls. It completely neutralises the attack. Get your head up and look for NML and Sibbs who should be waiting to be fed the ball and charge at the defence or hold it up for the midfield to catch up. 

For me, now we have Adam’s covering the middle of the park we have no excuse to not use players like Thompson and Fornah ahead of him to drive the ball forward. Both are capable of carrying the ball and trying to find a forward pass.
If we try and play how we do when Collins is in the team then signing Gayle will have been a waste of time and money.
The Academy is another concern, Paul has no interest in seeing players feed through. Weston for example was bright when he had his chances, only to disappear back to the academy not to be seen again. Fapetu and Robinson as well looked like very good prospects. 
 
I don’t feel like Paul’s using any of the resources he has available as well as he could, the style of play isn’t particularly interesting to watch, I won’t argue that we are in a good position for the final stretch of the season but also feel like this squad is capable of a far more exciting style of football and would definitely compete towards the top end of the league. 

which is exactly where this squad of players should be anyway
Are you happy getting a lucky 0-0 draw against lincoln, nicking a last min winner v burton albion, being outplayed by peterborough at pride park, being knocked out cups by crewe and bradford ?
I know i have a glass half empty view on things, can't help it😅, but i just don't see how we will survive in the championship playing this brand of football. 

Perfectly put @Anag Ram have thought this for a while. 
 
I love mangers and players having personality and displaying it but when PW does it I often find myself thinking why say that? Ie why say Barks scored a screamer? I know it might seem innocuous but I can’t help but think that behind the scenes he has similar traits that may not directly determine our season but I can’t help thinking a different approach (ie great to see barks get off the mark - works so hard in training/such a valuable member of the squad/reward for making g the run alongside Nat and not leaving him to it….) might provide more benefit somehow.
can’t out my finger on it .. but just simply unnecessary 
 
 

I still felt negative at half time although I think it was a better first half than against Bristol Rovers. The second half was pretty good though and there are some green shoots for the future in Wilson and Fornah. Obviously Cashin and Bird are good players and played well but I don't count them in the equation for the future because I just don't see them being here. Nelson has been a good signing and at 30 years old is one we can count on for the immediate future, including the Championship. When we can get Ward fit he will be a good player for us I'm sure and both he and Wildsmith are people we can build around as well, including for a championship team. We have debated Sibley to death but can anyone really see him making it here? I think he will move on and needs to for the sake of his career.  We have Rooney to come back and he is another one we can build with. But then we get to the people I listed in my post on the other thread. Collins, Washington, Waghorn, Smith, Hourihane, Bradley, Forsyth, Barkhuizen and NML. we are trying to squeeze the last drops out of that lot but its total short termism. We may get promoted with them but either way all of them need replacing. Thats why I struggle to summon up much enthusiasm but I'm a bit happier after last night and I'll be much happier if I see some positive churn of players in the transfer window. I appreciate that the main changes will have to come in the summer when contracts for all these players expire      

In my opinion, the criticism of Warne is fully deserved. The results are only just acceptable; the standard of play is sometimes good, but often poor; a couple of players aside, his signings are average at best; his use of the academy is awful; management of players fitness and doing his best to keep them injury free is shockingly bad.
However, there are enough positive signs to keep me clinging to the hope that he can take the club where it needs to be. Other people have different opinions, including those who don't think he is capable of improving, so think it's best to part ways now. That's their justified opinion.
A united club isn't one where the manager comes out with snide remarks, pushing some fans even further away. He should be doing everything he can to prove them wrong and get them back on board. Your comments are just as bad because they're divisive and you gain absolutely nothing from it

Whilst I'm not suggesting Clowes has done a single thing wrong, it's this kind of thinking that led us all to blindly follow Mel down his merry path.
No, I'm not suggesting Clowes is even remotely comparable to Mel, before you all pile on. Glad to have him, seems like a great owner so far.

For those saying that we should walk this league, how many other 'big' clubs have been in lg1 and straight away walked the league. The dirties, red dogs, Sunderland, Sheff Wed and Ipswich have all struggled to get back into the Championship and none of them have had to start from ground zero and work under severe restrictions like Derby.

Or the royal 'you'?

No sign of a teamwork 'we' there.

Well that was absolutely dreadful, pathetic, embarrassing etc etc from us. The worst performance we have put in for a long time which is pretty much the thoughts of the entire fanbase.
We set the team up with players playing out of position, despite that the lack of clear plan or seemingly effort was staggering and something I am not used to under our manager. We usually try and press high, but today we didnt do that or sit back with any sort of organisation. We did nothing but allow your players unbelievable amounts of space to just waltz through and around our team time and time again. As for Tyreece Simpson the less said the better, if you are not going to try at least try and buy a foul or something, but alas to no avail. The whole squad and manager come away with zero credit from that shambles.
I do remember this is a Derby forum though, not a Northampton one! You can only play who is in front of you and you took us to pieces, it could and probably should have been 6 or 7. We didnt handle your pace well, you had players on the half turn which we were unable to intercept or get near. Also all the finishes were tidy finishes which I felt our no keeper had any chance. Realistically we looked like a poor L2 side there, let alone a L1 side.
Anyways, all the best for the rest of the season, see you back here for the reverse fixture. I hope you pick up some form and get up the table, hopefully we get some players back from injury and can scrape enough wins to survive.

Is that a direct quote from Warne? 😀

If it helps - I don’t moan (too loudly) I don’t boo - I have had a season ticket for 40 years and shifted everything to attend games but tonight I have been invited to a small family meal so I have accepted the invitation and won’t be going to PP and I only live 3 miles away and could easily get there - I just can’t be bothered watching the nonsense every week 

I think my problem (for what it's worth) is that I just don't see a plan for the first team at least that has any kind of legs. It's not just about results or performances, it's the fact that even if we manage to make this style of football more effective, it seems based on an assumption that we are on the back foot. I'd just like to see us looking to dominate games and aspire to a style of football that is based on grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck. We're in League 1 and surely have the resources to match most if not all of our rivals. I'm not saying that we have a god-given right to blow the league away with champagne football, but surely we can do better than this mid-table mediocrity can't we ?
I saw the piece about the intention for us to play possession-based, swift attacking football from the academy up. It's really good to hear that but surely if that's the case then we need to be playing the same style of football through the different age groups to allow players when called on to step up but also to slot into a consistent style, one that they are familiar with and I'm 100% behind this approach. Problem is that although I naturally, really want any manager of Derby to have success, I'm just not seeing that this current manager is consistent with that vision of 'bottom to top' football. I can't really see much point in bringing players through who will be schooled in possession-based positive attacking football being put into a first team where our plan is 'get it out wide and bang some crosses in and we'll see how we get on' with a plan B of 'well we might score from a set piece'.
I don't enjoy writing this sort of post, I really don't 😟 I desperately want success for any Derby manager but I just can't see it with this one. Even if we somehow got out of this division with our current approach, I just can't see how this approach can prosper against better teams higher up. I don't know how to feel regarding a potential change of manager because I have been a big critic of constant chopping and changing in the past and besides, I have no idea if we could afford to do it, but even I have serious reservations. I can just feel my belief in what we are doing simply bleeding away.

He was willing to gamble the clubs entire existence though.

Thing is we are Not your average league one club,we have a league one team and manager no doubt.
BUT the facilities and support we have we deserve to be successful,especialy in this awful league.

Oxford were nearly relegated last season on the last day. Have recruited really well and are now flying. (No coincidence since the recruitment guy left for us) 
Portsmouth kept there core squad together and recruited frees and loans and are flying.
exeter the same and Lincoln. All were behind us last season. Smaller budgets surely but have got managers in with an identity on how they want to play and have recruited exceptionally well. Is on the other hand look like we’ve just launched bodies in with no plan and have shaped a squad that should have improved considering the manager has had a whole summer and most of last season and have somehow gone backwards. I don’t know what the game plan is and thus far teams have worked it out. On Saturday Cambridge knew exactly what we tried to do

He's a football manager. Perhaps he should have applied for the DCFC Chaplains post?
I'm getting bored with the 'he's a lovely man' stuff. He wasn't so lovely when he put the blame for not doing well on some of the squad - just paranoid. 
He's a nice bloke but I don't care I want a good football manager.

What utter nonsense. Everyone at the club has talked of winning promotion this season as the aim. Warne has even targeted top 3. Our budget at the very least is top 6, and a chance of it actually being the highest wage bill in the league this season. We are 8 games in, sit 9th in the table thanks to an over reliance on set pieces and Waggy magic, whilst performing more like a bottom half side not far off the relegation spots.
Anything less than promotion this season is a failure.