Indyram

"MAX BIRD KIDNAP SAGA FINALLY OVER" it says as a headline in the Sheeply Evening Telegraph. The culprit has finally come clean, saying that he ran around trying to look like the real Max Bird, but could never produce the football of a player of that stature.
WELCOME BACK, MAX BIRD!!!!
We had a bit of a difficult start because Hull played a tremendously high press, giving us no room or time anywhere on the pitch, and Buchanan in particular had a tough time. Their winger was pretty tricky! Davies was looking like man of the match already with some brilliant defensive play. But that is just the start.
Thankfully Hull couldn't keep that level of intensity for long, and we started to get a bit of a foothold in the match. I didn't see much of the pre-season, but the opinion was that Baldock wouldn't pull any trees up, just running around a lot, and never quite reaching through balls, and not shooting  very well, and my early observations were that yes, he does run around a lot, and isn't quite there when the ball comes through. Oh well.
Joswiak and Sibley played well - possibly their best game for the club, but faded after swopping wings for a while. Byrne and Buchannan had a tough time because Hull seemed to like getting the ball wide and getting crosses in. With Jagilka and Davies I don't mind that one bit though!
As ever we seemed very ponderous playing out from the back - it didn't seem that Shnnie played the ball forwards at any time in the 90 minutes, and we needed to get out much faster. Hull noticed, so as soon as we got the ball to Shinnie or Bird there was a swarm of Hull players in a diamond spread right in front of our player, who had nowhere to go. Good tactic, so we need to be more incisive. But how played was a decisive factor in beating that tactic, and our movement through the phases was a major factor in last night's success. The interplay was tremendous at times, with some superb touches, lay-offs and through balls. WE could have had 3 or 4 goals by half-time, but it didn't quite happen. We could have had 3 or 4 free-kicks and a penalty by half-time if we had got a ref on the pitch! Ho hum!
Ravel Morrison should have played Sibley in and we would have gone head, and probably turned Hull over big time, but he went for the lob and failed. He has great talent, but is a bit full of himself - not the arrogance of "what are you doing playing on my football pitch" attitude of Igor Stimac, but loads of confidence in his own ability. Long may it continue! 
Jagielka being hauled to the floor with a bear hug was an absolute nailed on penalty, yet Buchannan giving their man a single shoulder charge was a free-kick? Come on EFL. Sort your refs out! Same for when Stretton got booked or kicking the ball aw y late on in the game. No-one ever gets booked for that. Ever. Teams spend the entire match doing it against u, with no consequence. But this is a Derby player. And Roos - he caught a cross and was just coming back to ground, heading for the Hudd who deliberately put his shoulder into the keeper's chest, winding him. The very next moment Roos came for the cross and their CF not only made a back for him, but stepped backwards ensuring that he flipped Roos over, and there wasn't even a free-kick. This was deliberate bullying of the keeper, and Roos went apoplectic at the lino, and was booked. For protesting after being assaulted twice in two minutes. And the pull back on Baldock - did I mention his running? He caused them all sorts of trouble with it, pulling defenders away, getting in behind, and so on. The ref wasn't going to give anything. We don't do it often, but our players surrounded the ref while play was still going on, but the lino intervened, and the guy was carded. It wasn't a red, although quite close, but that the ref wasn't going to do anything yet gain was the disgrace. 
And the goal - Baldock was in the right place at the right time. Yahoooooo!!!! Did I mention his running? We now have two poachers who can score true striker's goals. We are rich beyond our wildest dreams!
At the start I thought Davies would be our man of the match by some margin, but when Roos's three harmlessly misplaced passes is about as bad as it gets, it is difficult to single one person out. So I am going to nominate a whole load of them as man of the match - the travelling supporters., who were stupendous yet again. The coverage was from Hull TV, but all we could here was our lot! Brilliant!
COME ON YOU FANS!

Feel like that’s a pressure lifter for a striker. We now have two strikers who have scored which is better than we could say for the start last season.
Would be great to get Joz and Sibley off the mark as I feel the goals would flow given the current pattern of play emerging.

Not sure what exactly constitutes a "crisis club". They have, apparently, the best right back in the division, two ex-England international centre backs, a current Polish international and a quality playmaker in Morrison. On tonight's showing I know which team I'd say was in a crisis.
Pinched from the Hull forum..........??

Just got home from match. Great feeling, win on the road. Missed these night away games a lot.
We watched from a private box, mid-goal - great view! 
Even missed sitting in the roadworks on the way home.
Football is back! 
 
 

Shouted to him as he got on the bus .
Said well done Max son .
Looked back and said thanks. 

Back at Hotel in Hull. 
 
Pint of John Smiths. 
 
Derby won  
Happy  away Day 

For those who renewed for 20/21 and are now receiving a "free" 21/22 season ticket but moaning about the price, don't forget you have also had the Huddersfield, Boro and Florist tickets as well as a whole season of free Rams TV coverage. I think the club has been more than fair at a time when it is clearly struggling financially.

I also renewed early pre-lockdown. I got my 10%  refund, a full season of free Rams TV, and now I am getting a whole other free season watching my team live from my chosen seat.
I suspect that my ticket might have been a little bit cheaper to buy new as I sit in one of the more expensive areas of the stadium but I haven't given it a thought.
I suspect others might be sitting in seats which would be slightly dearer to buy new so there will be gainers and losers as the club has simplified the pricing structure considerably.
I don't mind because I think they've been brilliant in terms of sticking with the loyal supporters when they are desperate for revenue.
(As a comparison, Derbyshire Cricket club charged members 50% for a season ticket this year, despite having paid a full membership last year and not seeing a ball bowled live.) 

Jack Thompson u15 playing for England u16 Vs Scotland today

I'd like to see Stretton for Baldock in the second half, give him a chance against some tired legs. 

We also miss Martin's assists,perhaps as much as his goals.
Probably our ultimate player own goal of late and which probably cost Cocu his job.

The decision not to keep hold of Martin sums up the past few seasons. Just bonkers! Goal and an assist tonight. What a kin surprise!
CKR has done great things for us but Chris Martin he ain't

I shouldn't look at this stuff, it only depresses me. They're 3-1 up, all scored by ex-Rams

Line up looks good but harsh on Stretton. When goals are such an issue for us he deserved to keep the shirt having scored at the weekend. I do think it's the wrong message, and especially when Baldock never looked like scoring all preseason. Even when he was one-on-one with the keeper he turned round and tried (and failed) to pass.
But the balance looks better overall. I hope this is the start of a long run for Sibbo in the team, and the ref doesn't victimize him as two have already this season.  Both Byrne and Joz owe us strong performances. Let's see what they're made of.
Huddlestone on the bench for them.
Come on you Rams!

I felt Stretton did enough to earn his start today as well. Hopefully he'll get a chance off the bench. 

There's the rub though. It will only bear fruit with the right coaching and if the environment is stable enough (i.e. they aren't all getting flogged for whatever we can get)

In fairness that's the one thing that I think we have in spades if the right manager can unlock it. I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that Buchanan, Ebosele, Knight, Bird, Sibley, Bielik (injury permitting), Watson, Jozwiak all have the potential to become substantially better players and that's without including a raft of other academy players who are just starting to look like they could reasonably contribute. We may have a bunch of aging average players in other places but I genuinely think we have a core of talented albeit unpolished players and that with the right coaching it could see our fortunes change pretty dramatically.

Might be tall but plays better with ball into feet rather than in the air. 
When I saw him at Matlock I thought he had got a bit stronger from last season, but the Brighton centre backs played him really well. Both much stronger than him. 
All the Brighton players were tall and strong physically, overly so on some occasions. Little to no protection from a poor referee. They are a Brighton first team in training, to be sure.

It’s such a strange thing, the whole sense of being a fan. Why do we do it.
I’ve told this tale before but it’s worth telling because this post makes a good point.
I never much liked Football as a kid, sure I knocked a ball in the garden but I liked cars, engines and motor sport … because that was what my Dad was in to.
My Grandad was a football man. He took my younger brother to Old Trafford every week.. then one day when I was about 15-16 my brother was ill .. I went instead. I was sold and in love way before kickoff, 2nd division  .. but that noise, the passion, the songs .. Then I lived through a time for the next 5 or 6 years when going to home games .. the win rate was like 70% . God I was on a role .. this was fun. Granddad got older, season tickets got expensive, girlfriends came along and I lost football ( Then 20 years on I moved to Derby.. sure I checked the papers, watched the TV, loved the treble season but it was as a plastic half fan. Not a glory hunter, I was a long time fan after all wasn’t I ? 
Odd game at pride park over the next 15 years and then Season ticket on a whim in 2014 .. Talk about born again. What had I been missing ! .. This was what I remembered football was all about. Thanks Mac ! 
Thing is I always made a once a year visit back to OT .. but it got worse and worse every time I went. Didn’t know the players, didn’t “feel” it. It was like an expensive Macdonalds .. so artificial, “match day experience” portion controlled, branded. 
 
I never understood what “triumph and disaster” meant until DCFC came a long .. god I love you, thank you Derby, now I really know ? .. league 1 league 2 .. whatever .. don’t care. It’s magic and exactly what I felt 50+ years ago. I see the same faces every game, they don’t know me, I don’t know them, but we know each other and we want the same thing. We wake up on Sunday after a win with a little smirk on our face, we get a little flutter when we set off for the ground on Saturday, you nod at the guys sitting near you even though you don’t know their names, only have that one thing in common. you laugh cry  banter and it means something .You can’t do that in the higher reaches of the prem .. it’s an artificial  money machine with football as the wall paper using our PIN numbers to make it work. Fans of the big clubs are a product to be milked. Fans of clubs like Derby are football and what it was always meant to be. It won’t die .. it will simply move down the leagues while the premier league becomes an investment commodity  like pork bellies or soya bean futures..good luck to them, I am not buying.
 
 

0-0 at halftime 
what’s the ref thinking in allowing Brighton to wear that strip? Totally confusing me in my arm chair! ?

Cocu got a pretty average Derby team to tenth during his first season in charge despite everything that went against him. Sibley, Bird and Knight all performed far better under him.
His transfer targets such as Dursun, Panzo and Moore had brilliant seasons last year.
Cocu was a slow burner. But he improved players and could spot potential transfer targets to move us forward. His time at PSV proved with the right pieces in place, he could succeed.
But he was undermined by Wayne Rooney's arrival while restricted from making any signings due to the circumstances caused by Mel Morris. Bizarre you would give up on him after the Charlton away game, which was about 10 game into his first season, working with an average squad. What were you expecting? Bielsa-ball?
There were signs after that we were on the right track. Like the back-to-back wins over Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn, the latter a crushing 3-0 win where Wayne Rooney didn't even play.
Post lockdown, we still had momentum and Louie Sibley was being talked about as a potential superstar. But by that point, Rooney's fitness was so dire we were starting games with ten players.
Cocu's job come the second season was impossible. We were obliged to play Rooney who was awful, while we started the season without a recognised striker due to an embargo and the Martin fiasco.
The subsequent improvement in form after Cocu's exit was down to Rooney retiring and Krystian Bielik coming back. Not only were we playing with 11 men again, but we had arguably the best midfielder in the league absolutely running it for us. 

The only reason Phillip Cocu abondoned his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation and switch to a back three was because we were carrying an overweight, unfit 35-year-old in midfield who was undroppable.
He had to get more defensive players to shore up central areas as we were embarrassingly overrun in that Blackburn game.
Wayne Rooney’s presence and the obligation to play him got Cocu the sack. It was inevitable, playing with virtually 10men every game.
It’s no coincidence that our best performances early last season (at Forest where we should have won and against Cardiff City) came during Rooney’s isolation period.

Wazza is not going to walk away from £50,000 a week , doing a job he has no qualifications for . With the likes of Roy Mac and Eric Steele constantly covering for him because he is a “Celebrity”.  Crikey me we could have got Katie Price for £2k a week!