blackNwhites

I've seen them but they're just 'reported' sums, on transfermarkt it says £7.3m so maybe it's not that far wrong. Pretty much the going rate for any player that age these days. It says £2.5m on football manager though so I'm going with that one 😳. I don't think he's going to be as disappointing as Lawrence though, who looks exactly the same player now as he did since his debut game. Literally no signs of improvement, can't always blame the coaching side for that though, he's gotta shoulder the blame himself for that. The only thing that has changed is he seems more aggressive, but not in a good way.

Cocu has a 'philosophy' (I hate it when he says that) and, whilst it is very apparent we don't have the players that perfectly fit that 'philosophy', you can clearly see what he's trying to do. There was a moment in the early doors of the second half yesterday where we were passing down the left, and there was some lovely intricate, fast one touch passing going on that just sort of fell apart unfortunately because the players are still fine tuning themselves to that style. That's what's happening to us at the moment, lots of promising things that fizzle out at the crucial moments. Cocu seems to be well liked by the players, so do his Dutch assistants. They appear to me to be great man managers, they're coaching the players to learn new tricks. For example, Dowell probably looked the best he's looked at Derby since he arrived. I doubt he's got much of a future here because it'll take too much work, but he's definitely learning whilst here. Shinnie looks miles better than he did against Scunthorpe. Bielik is growing in stature. He looked completely different yesterday in the first half, he had confidence and was covering the whole midfield. He fell away in the second half because he was exhausted. He's covering for the midfield and defence. Defence looks terrible though, we need significant improvement there. I doubt Cocu had anything to do with any transfers this summer, his input may have been we need this, this and this. The best that was available was presented and he's had to take it on the chin. He's not going to have known anything about Paterson, Clarke, Hamer or Dowell is he? Maybe Bielik? I also doubt we spent £8-10m on Bielik, more like £2.5m? It's gonna be frustrating this year, but again, I'm confident we'll see steady improvement on the playing side and hopefully January we'll cover the defence area and maybe add a winger. We're not finishing top 6 this season. Not with the players we've lost.

Believe me, within I'm think WTF am I watching sometimes. I don't think I've particularly enjoyed any of the games I've watched this season. The first half today felt the best we've played since the first half at Huddersfield. We've lost a hell of a lot of players from last season, people point out Wilson, Mount and Tomori and rightly so. But we also lost Bryson and Johnson who played big parts last season as well, we've lost Carson for a year and Richard Keogh as well. 3 brilliant youngsters and 4 senior players are gone. That's massive. We've replaced all them with Clarke who I'm increasingly frustrated with, Dowell who looks like he's on the same level as Sibley and Knight, Paterson who looks decent at times and Bielik who shows promise (imo) but needs to carry that through a whole game. We're significantly weaker than last season. Marriott isn't gonna make it here, he'll thrive at a team like Millwall though. He's brilliant at what he does, but that isn't the way Derby play. We've got a lot of juggling about to do in the next 12 months, we'll probably be a completely different team come the beginning of next season. Players like Lawrence could be gone or bench players, maybe that's wishful thinking? Lots of work to do for Cocu and his assistants but I believe they're the right people for the job.

I just listened to it. Not the impression I got at all, said it's about progression for him under Phillip Cocu, it was a personalised question about himself. Of course he's going to say that. Only thing was he said it wasn't just about winning games, then corrected himself and got very nervous about it. He's Polish, so he's struggling for words to describe his feelings. That being said, he needs to look at his first half today and go from there. It wasn't perfect by any means but that was his best 45 mins by miles, second half was poor though and I put that down to fitness. On the whole, if we're gonna write this season off as a season of progressing strategically, there were lots of promising signs that first half. Looked like the 'philosophy' was coming together. Might not have all the pieces to the puzzle just yet but I have confidence we will eventually.

I'm not sure where you've got your info from, never heard him say that. If he's got ambition then fair play to him. I've never got the impression he's a 'prima donna', he certainly doesn't lack effort. Maybe something he needs to work on is his fitness, because he was everywhere first half and nowhere second.

I thought Bielik was quality first half, second half he's been really poor. Must be knackered.

Been a poor second half

Roos should've saved that, he was right there. Too busy looking at Curtis Davies. TBF Davies is much taller than the scorer, so he probably should've cleared it as well. Silly goal to concede.

Warra good game, both teams having a proper go. Dowell came into the game after appearing not to be involved at all. Agree with some earlier sentiments that Holmes needs to be sharper with his play, same goes for Lowe and Bogle. Clarke, not the sharpest tool in the shed is he. Just get rid of it mate, he also dwells on the ball for far too long.

He's fine, still operating at the same standard he's set for the first half hour. I really can't applaud him highly enough because this is by far his best performance for Derby.

Bielik down, hope it's nothing serious because he's dominating the midfield today.

Just made a brilliant pass to Lawrence, almost put in. Must admit, had forgotten he was playing before that.

I could only make one choice, so I chose left sided centre back as I don't believe Clarke is going to be good enough for us this season. He might get better over time, but by then he'll have moved on to pastures new. Doubt it will be with Brighton though. I'd also like to see right wing strengthened.

Really impressed with Bielik's start to the game. He's all over the pitch, he's not the most pleasing on the eye but his effort is non stop. Right there when you need him to break up their midfield. Defensively, we need to sort out the organisation in there. When the balls up in the air we're so panicked. I wonder what the instructions before a game are, are we trying to keep it no matter what? Sometimes we just need to clear it surely.

Yet, they've already got 8 points 😪