FlyBritishMidland

Not sure if this is the right place but a nice article in The i. And some nice quotes from Igor and Paulo 🐏. https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/derby-dream-good-times-2942535?ITO=newsnow

That’s not their fees. It’s everything, including running the club from the point of going into admin to DC taking over.

Exactly that. We were by far the worst. We’d just stayed up in the Championship the season before and had only just got rid of the 3 Amigo’s. The other 2 promoted teams went straight back up after relegation. We were very much an outlier. This season, Burnley bounced straight back up and both Sheff Utd and Luton had been in the play-offs the season before promotion. As a collective they are poor, but not one is singularly worse than the other. They were always going to take points off each other, plus a few off some of the other weaker teams, such as Forest 😉 and they were all likely to beat 11 points.

I think that’s a key point. We now have someone who can screen and protect the back 3 a bit more. This allows us to play more attack minded wingbacks such as Sibley and Ward as they can focus a bit more on the attacking side knowing there’s cover to slow down the opposition attacks, giving them time to get back.

I think LWB is the ideal position for him. Having played at LB for a fair chunk of last season I thought he’d be a good LWB for this. He already had the attacking side of his game and I think Warne and his team did a good job working on the defensive side last season. I find him a frustrating player when he’s in midfield. He’s too inconsistent and doesn’t seem to grab hold of the game. Also, I think at LWB he has a bit more space as he’s not marked as tightly. That gives him more time and space to create or, as he did yesterday, drift into the box to shoot.

Fair points. More so the first chance as that was at the start of the 2nd half when the score was 2-0. The 2nd one was right at the end when the game was effectively over. However, you’re ignoring Barkhuizen’s chance early in the 1st half that would have made it 2-0 after about 15mins and the one where Bird and Waghorn (I think) got in each others way. We deserved to win, and it could have been a lot easier.

Other than the last 15 - 20 mins of the 1st half that was a really good game and performance. I thought he’d stick with Wilson at RWB but pleased he went for Ward. I was surprised to see Hourihane on the bench again and I do wonder if that might be how he sets up now at home when the onus is on us to attack more. If Barkhuizen’s early chance goes in to make it 2-0 I think we’d have gone to get 5 or 6. The wingbacks were superb going forward and not really troubled defensively. I think Bradley enjoys being captain. It looks like he thrives under the responsibility and he looks more composed on the ball than earlier in the season. First game of an important month out the way.

This is the start of an important month. 4 out of 6 games at home should be an advantage but our home form has been a bit patchy. It really needs to come together starting today. Listening to Warne’s pre-match I think we’ll see 3 at the back. Wildsmith in goal and a back 3 of Nelson, Bradley & Cashin. Wilson & Sibley wingbacks, Adams, Bird & Hourihane in midfield with Gayle & NML up front. COYR 🐏.

If Warne came out and said something like “Port Vale are a bit rubbish aren’t they? That’s why they’re in a relegation scrap. Us on the other hand, we’re bloomin’ marvellous, that’s why we’re 2nd. We’ll go out a stuff these as we’re loads better, the table doesn’t lie” then he’s done Darren Moore’s team talk for him.

Derby 3 Port Vale 0 FRGS Gayle

We’ve done that too and snap, I’m also a blue. It’s amazing, and scary, how accurate the profiles are. I’ve been tempted to order it, think I might give it a go 👍.

Is Surrounded by Idiots a good read? I love all that sort of stuff and different personality styles.

I get that some aren’t enjoying the football. I can honestly say I’ve not enjoyed every game and we’ve not played consistently well for 90mins in any game this season. It’s been good it patches. But I find it bizarre that poor football is a reason to sack the manager when we sit 2nd with about 1/4 of the season to go. It’s the very reason Mad Mel sacked Clement. He said something like it’s not all about promotion it’s about how you do it and coined the infamous phrase “the Derby way”. And yet a lot are advocating the very same action is taken now. And easy on the eye football doesn’t guarantee anything. Mac 1 was some of the best football at PP, yet we lost a Play-off final and went from 1st to 8th in the last 1/4 of the season. I get we lost Martin but Warne has lost Collins. Mac 1 had Bent, Warne has Gayle. It seems like they’re very similar scenarios. And no, I’m not a Warne defender, pro-Warne, Warne supporter or whatever badge some want to put on me. I’m accepting our situation, position in the league stage of the season, etc. The time to review is in May, and see how we’ve done.

After reflecting over night I thought we played well for the first 15-20 mins. That said, we didn’t make the most of that by troubling their goalkeeper enough. We have to capitalise on those spells in games. They got back in but I thought we edged it at half-time and just about deserved the lead. But the 2nd half, what happened? It’s normal for the team behind to come out fired up and have a good 10-15 mins. It happens in most games, everywhere. But we couldn’t get a grip and lacked someone to calm things down a bit. I’ve no idea what Wildsmith was doing for the pen. I don’t think he needs to come out that far, it’s at the far corner of the area, others are getting back and the striker has a lot to do to score. The substitutions and tactical changes worried me. They just seemed a bit chaotic. When he brought Barkhuizen and Sibley on, I expected Sibley on the left as a LWB and Barkhuizen up front but it was the other way round. Then constant moving players around. Sibley was continually moved to different positions. It reminded me of Stevenage away when we had something like 4 RWBs in the 2nd half.

It’s a very loose argument about the Brennan Johnson sale, and I mean very loose. They knew the accounting period and should have got the best deal they could by end of June. And they sold him on deadline day. It’s not even as if they sold him in the 1st week of July and could have argued it took some time finalise, do a medical, etc. And even that would be tenuous at best!! Surely the panel will see through that!!

Barnsley 1 Derby 1 FRGS Barkhuizen

I’m sure you can beat that Dave 😂.

That’s right 👍. Completely forgot about that.

I remember Ian Hall saying in one game the Graham Poll thinks he’s the best referee in England when he isn’t even the best referee in Tring!!

I still say “I’ve taped it” or “I’m taping it”!!

You’re right there. We were in a mess and took a different approach compliant with accounting rules. The problem is that that approach isn’t custom and practice in the football world, hence the EFL updating their processes. A strong regulator should have done 1 of 2 things. They should either have told us we can’t do that, it gives us an advantage and we must do what the other 71 clubs do and changed their processes straight away. Or, they should have that that’s OK but not for that first year we did it. That way they could have made it clear that that is an option to other clubs from the following year. Either way makes it transparent with a level playing field. They did neither and let rumble on, to our cost.

I think you’ll find a certain Mr Clough had something to say about it. Along the lines of you can win a cup with luck, but the league goes to the best over the season. Are you seriously trying to say that only 1 team finished where they deserved last season??

Who says there is one? Anyway, I reckon the DCFC admin are watching the weather forecast to seen when they can unveil him with the headline “The forecast is for Gayle’s in Derby”.

The restrictions of the BP are in place for the rest of this season. I think he wasn’t anticipating we would need to make any further signings this season but now that we do we need to comply with the BP. He did say they had to agree the Nyambe deal with the EFL, which was a similar situation. Otherwise, when it comes to the next window we can operate the same as any other club. That’s my take on it anyway.

He’d do a job in the last 1/3 of the season. He could come in, play 10-12 games and maybe get around 5 goals, give or take. Couple of things I picked up on Warne’s interview. He said we’d been working with the EFL on the deal ahead of submitting it on Friday. Given our new improved relationship with them, I’d like to think we’ve put something together that meets their criteria and this gets done early next week. He also said Waggy’s fit enough to play 20mins, another week of training and he could be on the bench next week 🤞.