Kenavo

Harry Wilson, Craig Bryson, Robert Earnshaw, Joe Ledley, David Marshall...

Somewhere in the UK somebody, probably an accountant, is waking up this morning and is about to become the most important person in our (footballing) lives.  Our Administrator.
They will have a number of tasks but the first job after introducing themselves will be to understand the figures and then work out a way of reducing and closing the (roughly) £300,000 per week difference between our income and our expenditure.  Most of that will be in wages and most of those wages will be largely untouchable because they relate to the players.  So some tough decisions will have to be made should any players be on a pay as you play contract, or near to an appearance generating payment to the club they left to join us, or a bonus payment or, indeed, anything else that serves to increase our outgoings. There will be negotiations with the players about taking reductions in pay, short or long term.  Some may be more willing than others. Wayne might find that the Administrator is helping him to pick his team.
Then there will be those whose wages are not so protected - the canteen staff, ticket office staff, groundsmen, physios, Academy staff and the rest.  If anyone leaves they won’t be replaced even if that means that pitches at Moor Farm don’t get mowed or prepared, even if the Cat 1 status is lost. Staff on furlough won’t be coming back, redundancies will happen.
After that comes the extraneous costs.  16,000 crowds?  Shut the North Stand.  Ticket prices? Up £5 per seat and £10 for away fans. New equipment for the gym? Cancel the order.
Alongside all that will be a wish to sell the club as a going concern.  There will be interest - from the numpties who are taking the mickey to those who are genuinely interested but have no money and (hopefully, please dear God) maybe one or two consortia who genuinely have an interest and have the resources to back it up.  But football’s general situation and ours in particular could, just could, generate no interest at all. If that’s so then the game is up.  
And what about the other players in this saga.  Expect FA from the FA, the custodians of our game, and nothing from the Department of Media and Sport or local Councils nor from the source of all this, the Premier League. There will be a collective shoulder shrug.  Sad but not our problem guv. The gleaming, sparkly football family's latest divorce. The PFA will want to ensure that their members are sorted out first and foremost.
Expect no positive help at all from the EFL.  They will hand out point deductions like confetti; they will apply their rules extra rigorously to try to prevent us from being taken over by the 3 Amigos part 2 - it will be slow and silent; they will take their time to agree a 2 year business plan should we successfully gain new owners and then monitor it strictly; they will make it impossible for us to buy German centre halves or even pay Shaun Barker fees; they will ensure that our ex-captain is rewarded for his drunken escapade.  They genuinely won’t want to lose us from the leagues (though they won’t care if we fall through them as Bolton did) but neither will they go out of their way to help.  It’s too important for them to have a big scalp to draw the others into line and to be seen to be acting tough rather than to go out of their way to be helpful. Good luck Reading and Swansea and others.
So if we are to have new owners they will themselves have a tough job to sort through all that lot.  It will take time and patience from them, and especially from us.  
We can help in the short term - buy home match tickets even if you’re not intending to go to the match, buy a new season ticket if you can afford to lose the money; help Wayne develop a siege mentality - us v them; support the players on the pitch, make them feel loved and wanted; pressure the EFL at the appropriate moments; pray to whomsoever your God may be for a bit of luck; hope that ‘the emergence of a financially sustainable picture’ means what it suggests and makes us attractive to a buyer; avoid the rumour mills on Tweeter and the rest (they’re really not good for your health)
We could do with Wayne staying, for this season at least.  His name will help to make us more attractive around the world; we are lucky that the transfer window is 14 weeks away; we will probably need the players to be flexible about their pay; and above all we will need a good Administrator, preferably one that will help manage the EFL, the PFA and generate interest from buyers.
Buckle up for the ride.  It might get rough.

Not compared to Sunderland, Sheff Weds, Ipswich, etc...
Maybe Wolves, Soton etc are overperforming, the likes of Sunderland are underperforming, and we're just about where we should be...

Exactly. They all seem completely fair questions (as does 'Have the accounts been filed?'). They all could be answered without 'prejudicing' any discussions with the EFL (whatever that is supposed to mean), or more to the point annoying the EFL. They are all things fans really, and not unreasonably, want to know. The club could quite easily have released notes from the meeting after thinking about their wording, and even running it by the EFL. I find it really hard to believe that the EFL have said 'Don't tell fans ANYTHING about ANY financial aspects of your operation or we will give you a harsher punishment than the facts of the case deserve'. That would be ridiculous, and probably illegal, and if they have said that then all football fans (and the government) should know. 

In 48hrs 

Have they scraped up Zinkernagel's pumpernickels from Pride Park yet?

Have they scraped up Zinkernagel's pumpernickels from Pride Park yet?

Have they scraped up Zinkernagel's pumpernickels from Pride Park yet?

If it was intended fair play to him, he absolutely nailed it!

Yeah I would also like to “thank Mel” but genuinely not sarcastically….. for funding the clubs deficit in income for the last 7 years to the tune of about 200 million when no one else has stepped forward with the cash. So genuinely thanks Mr Morris. 

Got the ball for me. Nothing wrong here.

I'm writing this because I've been thinking about it for a little while and I feel that I keep see people misdiagnosing what we are trying to do and why it's not working. (Also because I'm a bit bored whilst a bit ill). This isn't necessarily an attempt to defend what we are trying to do or whether it's the best approach to take (although I do think there is merit) but more an attempt at explaining the tactical intent and why we aren't meeting that intent or at least not consistently. It's worth noting there is an amount of variation in what we have tried to do but I'll try to cover the gist of it and where and why it's varied a little.
The Intent
The primary goal of what Rooney is trying to tactically work towards is aiming to create a chasm of space in midfield in front of the opposition defence for the 3 attacking midfielders (Lawrence particularly) to exploit, with the secondary goal of if that doesn't work having an overload out wide. We do this by working the ball out from the back and having players drift from their starting positions into space we manufacture in turn creating more space where we want it. With that in mind we can look at the player's roles.
GK, CBs - Not much to really explain here and they aren't doing anything fancy. The important bit is that we expect the ball to move around between them a lot and so need to be comfortable on the ball and able to shift possession quickly and accurately. Also the centre backs may be called upon to cover the space wide that the full backs vacate so in an ideal world are positional aware and quick.
Fullbacks - Almost used as wing backs the idea is that when we are building possession they push very high and wide. This is to achieve a couple things; provide width, give an out-ball for CBs and GK or a switch ball for a midfielder and push the opposition wide players back and out of the way contributing to space opening up where you'd typically see the fullback. There has been a minor variant on this with one of the full backs playing high but narrow acting as a pseudo-midfielder with the attacking player in front of them providing the width.
DMs - With the space vacated by the full back the DM on the side possession is moving towards can freely move into that pocket of space hopefully dragging their opposite number out of position and if they aren't tracked they will have time and space to pick a pass. The idea is goes quickly into them and the quickly on either into the 10 or to a wide player on their side. By doing this it contributes to trying to moving the opposition around, get them out of position and ideally out of those central areas which brings me on to the next group.
AMs - This whole tactical system is designed to give these players a platform to play, with the movement of the fullbacks and the DMs the AMs should find it a lot easier (if the ball has been moved quickly) to find time and space in the centre of the park where they can turn and hurt the opposing team. My belief is that there is three nominal roles the left sided player operates as a wideish playmaker, the right sided player operates as the most direct of the three looking to run at the opposition or in behind and the central player is to be somewhat in between both whilst also being the primary target for most of the build up, possession and I suspect the player wanted to be on the ultimate end of the move. You'll notice that there is a big emphasis on getting the 10 on the ball as much as possible. Typically the wider players are inverted so they are more comfortable coming narrow.
CF - Unlike a lot of tactical set ups, the striker isn't here primarily as the focus of things and more as almost a decoy. The idea is they consistently make runs beyond dragging the opposition back and have them back peddling when an AM breaks into the space in front of them. The importance once again is all about disrupting how the opposition set up in order to create space.
Ideally in the build up you'd expect us to look like this (assuming an attack on the right)
 
      
 
And if you look at in that regard I believe you can start to see how we expect to create passing triangles in order to work possession. It then shifts to something closer to this further up the pitch (again assuming an attack on the right)
 

(Diagrams aren't perfect but I hope they get the point across)
The Execution
Whilst the above is the intent we often see it breakdown well before the final third giving the impression that we aren't going anywhere and it's partly we see some players end up consistently coming very deep. What's basically happening is to an extent we aren't able to execute what we are trying to do tactically and forever recycling the initial phase of it. The problem is rife throughout the team and there are a lot of players out there who are clearly unsuited to doing what is asked causing severe breaks in the tactical cohesion. 
GK Roos is actually perfect for the role in terms of his attributes. Whilst he may have his moments; at this level his distribution is excellent and he is fast off his line if somebody breaks beyond the defence. CBs Admittedly this feels a touch unfair to criticise and in fairness they've made about as a good a fist of it as can be expected but fundamentally we need CBs much more comfortable on the ball the Davies and Stearman if we want to build out from the back. Jagielka coming in will help this mind and if we can pick up Mengi as well we will be golden. Fullbacks  Forsyth just isn't really quick enough anymore to properly stretch the pitch and then return to position, Buchanan returning will improve this but I think we need start seriously considering bumping Williams up to second choice. Byrne whilst he has made mistakes is probably ok in the role with a couple caveats; ideally we'd have someone a little faster and more capable of drilling the ball into the box (as opposed to Byrne's floaters). Ebosele would fix some of the issues but is a little rawer in possession than Byrne. Also whilst Byrne is fine with the primary role, he is clearly supremely uncomfortable playing as an inverted full back as we saw against Peterborough. DMs Bird tactically and positionally completely gets what he should be doing and whilst it might look odd is following the plan set out for him to a T.  The ball comes into and back out from him quickly and reliably. The only minor problem is because of the position he is taking up the quick forwards pass is typically on his wrong foot  and he'd be far better off if he was playing on the left half of the pitch. Shinnie however is arguably one of the biggest issues in the current set up and blatantly unsuited for it. Tactical he looks unsure of his role and the number of times that one of the following happens when he gets the ball is significant; the momentum of the move is killed dead because he takes too many touches, he gives up possession or he passes in a such a way that the next player does. As much as he is liked if Rooney wants to tactically make work what he's trying to do, Shinnie has to come out of the side. AMs The system has been built with Lawrence playing at 10 in mind and whilst he hasn't perhaps pulled up any trees he does seem to tactically understand what his role and what he should be doing at a given time. Need a bit more creatively from him and I think we will see that once other things click into place. Morrison somewhat similar to Lawrence I feel was firmly in the coaching team's mind when thinking on how they want to play this season and does his role well The problem position is the RAM slot. The plan very clearly was to get Aluko in here. Jozwiak and Ebosele have started here but neither are really right for both being right footed and given that Byrne behind them can't play the compensatory role. The player very clearly most suited to it is Sibley but it's just a question of whether Rooney gets over his hangups with him as he looked like a clear fit when he came on versus Peterborough. CF This is also where there has been a bit of a problem. I really like CKR but this system needs someone energetic and spinning in behind to open up the space and keep the opposition honest and it's just not his game. It wasn't surprising to me that the game seemed to change when he got injured and Stretton came on because suddenly spaces started to appear. I'm relatively convinced Baldock was being brought in with this in mind and was going to be earmarked as first choice. Personally however I think Stretton looks a better fit and I suspect is more likely to be clinical when it comes to chance creation.  Whilst it might not look great now with perhaps a couple signings/players returning to fitness it could quickly click into place, it's just down to Rooney and Co to realise why it's not working and fix it. For example a theoretical line up along the lines of the following would likely execute the plan set out pretty well 

Well yes, but fans of other clubs genuinely think we've tried to cheat our way past FFP committing heinous crimes against the spirit & integrity of the competition, so excuse me if, quite frankly, I couldn't really give a damn about their misinformed opinions.
Getting what we deserve? Yeah right.

Is Wazza still registered as a player? Might need him to make up the numbers...

Is Wazza still registered as a player? Might need him to make up the numbers...

Is Wazza still registered as a player? Might need him to make up the numbers...

Leave our man boobs out of this!

Why are some folk so unable, unwilling or both, to assimilate a few simple facts concerning these charges? It's no small wonder that fans from other clubs have a poor opinion of us now, when some of our own fans, who ought to be better informed, are themselves the first to jump on any sniff of perceived wrongdoing. What possible benefit is there in wilfully ignoring what we know to be true in favour presupposing guilt at every corner? We've even got folk using the fact that we've not submitted the new accounts inside 48 hours as the latest stick with which to thrash the club. It simply beggars belief.
For the umpteenth time, there were two charges; one related to the valuation of our stadium and was summarily dismissed by the DC; the other related to our amortisation policy which was signed off on and approved under legal accounting standards by independent auditors, the auditors regulatory body, the DC and the ducking EFL themselves, the latter several times over a period of years. The amortisation policy charge was also initially dismissed by the DC for the aforementioned reasons. This left the EFL so desperate to save face that they appealed the decision, the outcome of which was predicted by myself and numerous others on this very thread: a small fine in order to secure the token win they need to maintain any ducking credibility at all AND NO POINTS DEDUCTION. 
At this point, I very much doubt that even the EFL will be willing to risk further embarrassment. They can kid themselves this paltry fine vindicates two years of unwarranted charges and appeals and get back to their principal role as lapdogs to Sky and the Premiership whilst paying themselves inflated salaries for doing so. As for the DC, I strongly suspect that they only agreed to what is a nominal fine in order to save the EFL from falling into further disrepute and to allow us to finally emerge from under an endless series of unfair and damaging embargos and to prevent the EFL from continuing what has become a spiteful and unwarranted campaign against a club whose chairman quite rightly questioned their business acumen. In doing so, they have vindicated Mel's opinion in spades, though the crushing irony of this has unsurprisingly escaped the EFL's notice and who will doubtless be celebrating spending millions to secure a £100k fine for their members' coffers.
If, as I strongly suspect, the EFL do not appeal this sanction, I think we will 'be the bigger man' and simply take the £100k hit in order to allow us to return to football matters rather than spending every waking hour addressing the embittered ramblings and actions of a so-called professional body that seems more intent on undermining its membership than serving it. 

Eaton Ram's reference to Rams Trust has made me wonder whether we could get something out of the EFL through a letter along the lines of the one sent to the Club recently signed by Rams Trust, Punjabi Rams, Ryan Hills etc.  The letter could ask the EFL:
How their approach meets with their stated aim of protecting clubs, particularly in respect of Derby.  Can they give any examples of where they have acted in good faith towards the club? What reassurances they can offer to DCFC staff whose jobs are under threat through the continued uncertainty Can they explain why an accounting technicality should lead to people losing their livelihoods, even when those people have had nothing to do with accounting procedures etc Is it their intention to continually appeal against any decision that does not go their way?  If so, can the explain the moral justification for such an approach? Can they also provide justification for deciding to reject an accounting practice that they had previously accepted when signing off the accounts?  Do they feel any responsibility for having made what they now seem to consider an error, and if so what redress are they making as a result? what, if any responsibility, do they feel towards the fans of DCFC, and do they understand the effect their actions are having on at least some of them? They have been reported to be keen to see Derby relegated.  Can they explain to the Derby fanbase whether this is in fact the case, and if so, their justification for acting in such a way? Etc Etc I think a letter coming from specific groups rather than an individual stands a better chance of getting a response.  That response is very likely to be that it's all Derby's fault, and that people will lose their jobs etc due to the clubs actions etc, they have to be fair to the other clubs blah blah.  However, it may be worth a try?

I would have thought that they must be in breach - why the hell would we have tempted fate by using an unusual method otherwise?

Mind the gap Nottingham 

Without Bielik, we would've been dead and buried bottom of the league for the last 2 months of the season. He's the sole reason we are still a Championship club. No other player: Byrne, Shinnie, whoever never did anything more than 'ok'. 
I get that he didn't play enough games to be voted by some, but do those same people realise that most of our wins came in the games he played? Any vote for any other player than Bielik is a vote for a player who was subsequently influential in our demise. 

You know, I was going to say, “a classy statement - accepting this year hasn’t been acceptable, recognising the fans and offering an apology” and wondering how long it would take for someone to post a negative view. It seems to have taken you less than a minute.