JustOneBiblicalKazim

I watched the game back and had a different impression from Saturday.

Derby dominated the first 30 minutes of each half and created chances. No-one played particularly badly.
Two awful mistakes - which you'd like to think won't happen again this season, let alone two in one game. We should have had a pen and a free-kick on the edge of the box in the first half - Lord knows why they weren't given. (There was also that corner we should have had but that's splitting hairs...)
Subs came too late - Fozzie's good chance came on 67 minutes, Wigan scored from nowhere on 72', subs came on 79 minutes. Two or three subs at 60 minutes, straight after the equaliser, would have made all the difference, especially given how dangerous Kane Wilson looked.
It was also concerning that from 80 minutes onwards any build-up down the middle was abandoned and all they did was frantically knock it wide for the cross.
Cashin is being asked to do too much. Nelson looked pretty comfortable coming forward and played some decent attacking & cross-field passes. Cashin can't cross for s*** and gave the ball away too often.
I was pleased their heads didn't drop after conceding the way they did. It was a frustrating game and a disappointing result, but I'm still optimistic for the season. I don't think this is the crisis it's being made out to be.

I put waghorn in with young lad upfront.

Is prioritising short term gain by giving over the hill players contracts rather than putting some faith in young talent not part of what put us here in the first place? Yet when we finally had our hand forced into playing said young talent they performed above what anyone could’ve asked or expected of them. I’d argue there’s equally as much if not more risk in giving a deal to a 37 year old Billy Sharp who scored two goals last season, hasn’t had a preseason and at that age may not even be able to find the fitness to play regularly without frequent injury, and makes he absolutely no sense when what we’re lacking is some pace and energy, he’s the opposite of what we need. At least Brown will be able to provide some energy up top, and how are we ever meant to know if these youngsters are good enough if they don’t get game time? 

Is prioritising short term gain by giving over the hill players contracts rather than putting some faith in young talent not part of what put us here in the first place? Yet when we finally had our hand forced into playing said young talent they performed above what anyone could’ve asked or expected of them. I’d argue there’s equally as much if not more risk in giving a deal to a 37 year old Billy Sharp who scored two goals last season, hasn’t had a preseason and at that age may not even be able to find the fitness to play regularly without frequent injury, and makes he absolutely no sense when what we’re lacking is some pace and energy, he’s the opposite of what we need. At least Brown will be able to provide some energy up top, and how are we ever meant to know if these youngsters are good enough if they don’t get game time? 

Bird was at his best under Cocu, same as many of our young academy graduates. Funny that... a manager known for developing youngsters gets the best out of young players.

Disagree...think Thommo is gifted, great 1st touch, good close control..
Totally underused, and personally, i would play him

Is prioritising short term gain by giving over the hill players contracts rather than putting some faith in young talent not part of what put us here in the first place? Yet when we finally had our hand forced into playing said young talent they performed above what anyone could’ve asked or expected of them. I’d argue there’s equally as much if not more risk in giving a deal to a 37 year old Billy Sharp who scored two goals last season, hasn’t had a preseason and at that age may not even be able to find the fitness to play regularly without frequent injury, and makes he absolutely no sense when what we’re lacking is some pace and energy, he’s the opposite of what we need. At least Brown will be able to provide some energy up top, and how are we ever meant to know if these youngsters are good enough if they don’t get game time? 

Vickers
           Rooney       Bradley     Cashin
Wilson                  Robinson                  Elder
           Thompson                    Bird
                 Brown              Washington 
Subs- Loach, Fozzy, Ward, Smith, Hourihane, Radcliffe, NML, Collins, Waghorn (assuming all is confirmed by then)
- 9 subs allowed in the cup I believe? Rooney and Thompson need to be playing games whenever they can so I want to see them starting basically every cup fixture if they aren’t starting in the league. Still allows Bradley and Cashin to gel as part of that back 3. Want to see Robinson and Brown at least getting a decent amount of minutes (20-30) if they don’t start, how are they going to prove themselves if we never give them the opportunity? Would like to see Brown play surrounded by first team level players, felt like most of his preseason minutes came towards the end of games when we were giving lots of young players minutes.
- Actually think this midfield might be better suited to the system than the one we saw on Saturday, obviously Robinson is an unknown quantity but there’s plenty of energy and legs and in Bird and Thompson you have a midfield pairing that played a good number of games together in the championship. I feel that Bird is better suited to the roles that Hourihane and Smith were playing on Saturday, where he can make interceptions and tackles, which for me are possibly his biggest strength, and have more time to pick his passes.

I’m all for a big number nine like Smith coming in but we have to have a Plan B.
We don’t have a single forward capable of turning defenders or beating them with pace. 
We’re assembling a team of slow players and hoping crosses will lead to goals.
As Wigan (and not Derby) showed yesterday, a well organised defence can deal with crosses from the wing.
Smith will help increase our chances of scoring. Collins seems a lovely character but I think even he knows he’s not a finisher.
But we definitely need a pacy 10 and a driving midfield player or we will struggle this year.
 

In that back three that played today I would be including young Rooney as we will desperately need some pace when opposing teams counter with any pace. 

I believe Martin offers more than any of the other 'oldtimers', scores comfortably with both feet and his head, takes great free kicks, intelligent, brings other players into the game and importantly, already a fan favourite, so no settling in required.

Is prioritising short term gain by giving over the hill players contracts rather than putting some faith in young talent not part of what put us here in the first place? Yet when we finally had our hand forced into playing said young talent they performed above what anyone could’ve asked or expected of them. I’d argue there’s equally as much if not more risk in giving a deal to a 37 year old Billy Sharp who scored two goals last season, hasn’t had a preseason and at that age may not even be able to find the fitness to play regularly without frequent injury, and makes he absolutely no sense when what we’re lacking is some pace and energy, he’s the opposite of what we need. At least Brown will be able to provide some energy up top, and how are we ever meant to know if these youngsters are good enough if they don’t get game time? 

Is prioritising short term gain by giving over the hill players contracts rather than putting some faith in young talent not part of what put us here in the first place? Yet when we finally had our hand forced into playing said young talent they performed above what anyone could’ve asked or expected of them. I’d argue there’s equally as much if not more risk in giving a deal to a 37 year old Billy Sharp who scored two goals last season, hasn’t had a preseason and at that age may not even be able to find the fitness to play regularly without frequent injury, and makes he absolutely no sense when what we’re lacking is some pace and energy, he’s the opposite of what we need. At least Brown will be able to provide some energy up top, and how are we ever meant to know if these youngsters are good enough if they don’t get game time? 

Crazy idea maybe but why not give Brown a chance instead of Sharp or Rhodes? Would offer something different, cheap and with potential sell on value. I mean it's L1 not the champions league after all so it would seem possible that the best striker in our academy might do a job for the first team maybe? If we have to go for either Sharp or Brown for the season I know who I would like the club to give the chance to. 

I have one request.
Start Dajaune Brown. 

Another bizarre decision.
Brown was a bright spark during pregnancy season and he doesn't even make the bench.

Looks like Jamie Ward coming into the U18s 

Not great when you look to the bench and you end up with Thompson up front. And that’s not even an indictment on Thompson. Why isn’t Dajaune Brown on the bench? At least has some pace. 

I completely understand people who point out it's not easy to sign players, sometimes targets go elsewhere, blah blah. But the clear fact is we massively prioritised the defence and wing back positions in our recruitment this summer and we've neglected the midfield and attack. If we've now run out of money and targets then that is on the management and ownership. Our midfield and attack have needed attention for a long time

What this game tells me more than anything is how desperately we need Sibley back. Without him we have so little guile and creativity around the opposition box. Would have made a big difference today. 

should have been 15 minutes ago

This half has highlighted perfectly the failure of our recruitment.
A whole summer to sort it out and we still start with Collins up front on his own.
Dunna worry, still 4 weeks left of window...nay bother if we are 10 points adrift by then.
On a positive note, these plastic pint pots are a beaut.

Hoping against hope this is irony...

If you wouldn't be happy with this signing, then I'm not sure what you can realistically hope for....

Honestly I'd be amazed if he goes to Blackpool.
If he wanted to go to Blackpool he'd be training with them now not us.
He lives in Derby, his son plays for the academy, goes to school in Derby. 
Not sure why he'd want to commute to Blackpool every day to potentially earn a bit more money. 
I think the mirror have said Blackpool are favourites cos we want Michael Smith