Loughborough Ram

The goal was scored almost 2 minutes after the game was restarted, so this 'error' is barely worth a mention in relation to the defeat in my opinion.

I think that he's the best left wing back at the club. I don't think that he's in the top two in any other position. 

If Paul Warne decides to go with 3 centre halves and the two best wing backs, in ward and Sibley, from now on, I think that our home performances and results will improve, but our away performances may suffer.

I guess you pays your money, you takes your choice.

Personally I'd sooner they carried on with Dom Dietrich on commentary purely for the fact that I think he is a significantly better commentator then Ed Dawes. 

Just to make a small defence of Paul Warne, for years we've had managers who, regardless of the opposition, refused to budge on their playing principals. The complaint for a long time has been, "we don't have a plan B"! 

Well these days he changes formations, personal, and tactics within the games, to suit what is happening at the time, yet he is still criticised for his lack of tactical awareness. 

Another criticism of him is his poor substitutions, but it seems to me that over the course of this season, his substitutions have won us quite a few points.

I get that you either like the bloke or don't, and there will always be some valid points to use against him, but some of the criticism of him seems baseless if you look at the facts in my opinion.

Did anybody think that this game was ever going to be anything other than ugly turgid affair?

In my opinion today was about getting the three points while avoiding red cards or injuries, so to me it was job done. We stood up to a team that play the way that traditionally beats us, so to get a win with the little bonus of beating that cheating fat f***, Steve Evans is a very happy day.

Come on you Rams 

9 hours ago, Chris_Martin said:

what positive contribution did he have this game?

You'll realise if he isn't there one day, because he's injured. 

I'm not his greatest fan but the work he's doing at the moment is so important to what we're achieving.

I'm so angry I could throw the phone down

Forget the manager, the players are just a bunch of bottlers. Every time we have an opportunity we f**kin sh*t ourselves

How on God's green earth can we expect the current crop of inept buffoons to implement a new card correctly when they can even make the current rules work properly.

Putting aside the fact that the players are a bunch of mardy little cheats for the moment, referees are the ones who have chosen over the last couple of years to not automatically show a yellow card for a 'professional' foul. We see it all of the time a little pull here, a little trip there and the refs don't even speak to the players let alone yellow card them. They will probably argue that they would be showing 20 yellow cards a game if they did, but how does that explanation sit with the implementation of a new card.

I've always said "if you want a good rule ruining, ask a ref to implement it" and I stand by that. This is a stupid idea so God knows what a mess they'll make of it.

I've seen at least 3 stonewall penalties that he should have been given this season, where he's been assaulted at a set piece.

I'm hoping that when we play one of the other teams at the top, we will get a better referee that has the gumption and fortitude to make that big decision.

Well, I can't tell you how furious I was last night. I felt let down, misled and angry but now is the time to move on, and get behind the players we have. There's no point at all, giving up on promotion, and moaning about our lack of depth, the hierarchy at the club, the transfer strategy, the scouting department or even the owner. 

This has nothing to do with where we've come from in the last couple of years, that doesn't get you a free pass ad infinitum. The club need to look at what went wrong because they clearly had a plan and for whatever reason we came up short but there's nothing to be gained at this point, by singling out people for blame, we have to grab this league by the b**locks and forget what we haven't got.

Just one final point. I am somewhere in the middle on Paul Warne, I'm sure that he's a great bloke to know, but sometimes he gas to realise when to shut the f*** up. A lot of the feelings at the moment are down to him spouting off about what we want to do in the transfer window, just play it cool mate, tell the fans stuff on a need to know basis, lower expectations a little.

Anyway, come on you Rams, let's get the show on the road.

Selling him on a loan back is good business

Assuming there is any truth in this, It'd be sad to see him go but if we get decent money and if we have time to spend it, then let's do it.

Is he dominating games for us in league 1, is he one of the main reasons that we are in the play off positions, is his value going to increase? I'd argue that the answer to all of these is no so maybe it would be the right decision to let him go.

We are all experts on transfer strategies aren't we?

Yesterday Adams said that we had been working on his loan for a couple of months, yet nobody knew, no itk, and no leaks. 

Today might bring another surprise or two, it may not, but the time to slag the club off is once the window shuts and once we know who we have and who we dont.

25 minutes ago, Srg said:

Love his interview. Infectious energy and genuinely thrilled to be here. Hopefully he’s half as good on the pitch. 

Hopefully he's twice as good on the pitch, surely

Announcement incoming

1 hour ago, Bubbles said:

Heard whispers that we & Peterborough want Nathan Fraser on loan. 

Unfortunately I don't have any confidence that we can compete with any of our direct rivals at the moment, when it comes to attracting players. 

I think that our recent good results are built on a pretty consistent team selection. I'm hoping that we keep as close to the same team as we can.

Just seen the goal. Mendez Laings first touch with a spinning ball was brilliant, his second touch with the outside of his boot was superb and the finish was cool and emphasised the ability that John Jules has.

Keep John Jules fit, which seems a nigh on impossible job if recent history is anything to go by, and we could be in for an increasingly entertaining and successful season.

Another we'll effectively lose for cost price because of the outrageous way football is set up in this country.

Young people have different expectations of the game.

They love all of the talk of xg and other stats, they can reel off players from teams that I've never heard of abroad. They expect players to cheat, they accept the time it takes to come to a VAR decision, and they understand the need for players to concentrate on expanding their brand rather than committing to 50 games a season.

So despite the fact that football is dying on its arse for some of us, we have to face facts that it's a completely different game to the one we grew up with, and consequently it doesnt need our support any more, it has a completely different breed of fan who think that it's fantastic.

Whether we accept that or not is completely inconsequential, sadly.

I think that David Clowes should get a free pass.

This is down to an opinion, not a factual decision or anything designed to circumvent the rules. If he is keeping the wolf from the door and he thinks that Warne is the man to take us forward then that is his perogative, as the only man to step forward and put his money where his mouth is.

Disagree with his opinion if you want, but he should not be criticised for backing his judgement.

I think that the problem comes when the unhappy supporters do decide to stay at home.

Dwindling gates under 20,000 will become reality unless something changes soon.

57 minutes ago, lrm14 said:

Have you watched much of them this season? Their strikers have been awful which is exactly what those stats convey. If DCL stays fit they should climb up the table but that's a huge if.

1 hour ago, Bris Vegas said:

XG is a valuable statistic as it determines the quality of chances created. Of course it isn’t flawless because of the ability of the player. You’d expect Mo Salah to score more goals than Van Dijk if given the same opportunities.

But the whole idea is to describe the quality of chance. Shots and shots on goal can be misguided if your 30 attempts were all from 30 yards out. Likewise, Shrewsbury’s XG by half time against Derby was comfortably higher because of the penalty - a chance which came about due to a bizarre refereeing decision and not by any quality on Shrewsbury’s part.

If I don’t watch a game, the two most valuable statistics for me to judge are final third entries and XG. The final third entries generally shows which team is controlling the ball in dangerous areas (as opposed to 60% possession in your own half) and XG tells me which team is creating the better chances.

Possession, shots and even corners play a role in assisting the general consensus.

In Everton’s case, it doesn’t surprise me. But you have to take into account who they have played - Fulham, Wolves, Bournemouth, Luton at home it was well documented they created a lot of chances. Brentford and Sheffield United away too. 

 

I'm sorry but the enjoyment of football at my age, is watching a game, seeing goals, skill, tackles (make the most of them whilst they're still allowed),wingers going past full backs, towering headers at corners and brilliant teamwork, come on who thought that jumpers for goalposts was next?

I accept im old fashioned but I hate the over analysis of games, the constant barrage of pointless statistics, and the clinical dissection of every move by a media, driven by what they can sell on the back of this information.

Football in the seventies may have been of an inferior quality but in my opinion it was real, you felt part of it, the excitement and anticipation of actually seeing a game and everything that went with it. Now it just seems so dry and bereft of emotion unless you consider players rehersed celebrations as emotion, personally I hate them.

XG may have a point for somebody but for me it absolutely does not.

A presenter on the radio, seriously pointed out that Everton were doing OK and if the league was calculated on XG stats they would sit 4th in the Premier League.

I think that this is enough to confine XG stats to the bin for ever.