Deej

I'll bite - even though I normally ignore your more obvious arsey comments.
Square pegs? He's expecting both Jags & Curtis to be ball playing centre-halves - not something that they are naturals at....He's picking Roos for his ball-playing ability - something he may show in training, but something he's incapable of doing in pressure situations.....He's playing Bird & Shinnie next to each other which, as we've seen over many games, limits both of them....He's playing Morrison to give us quality going forward, but Morrison is then having to drop back to in front of the centre-halves to get the ball because Bird & Shinnie aren't doing the basics as CDMs...Last night he played Sibley on the right which dramatically limited his effectiveness....He played Tom Lawrence who at times looks more like a square peg than a professional footballer - always on his heels and more often looking for a fight rather than looking to hurt the opposition with his play....
As far as shots on target, maybe we did have as many as they did - who scored the most goals and got the 3 points?
 

It was a bit of levity, you know humour, the kind of stuff that’s been lacking on the forum of late. You wouldn’t have given it the “really” treatment if I was one of your clique would you ? Nah. ?

You have referenced about the only incident the ref got wrong in our favour. Sky were all over it of course! And yes, those Sibley incidents might not have led to a goal, but we’ll never know, will we? It would be nice to have the chance.
It is worth noting the foul comoetition, which Birmingham one comfortably, even though loads if their fouls weren’t even included in the count. But we managed to snatch the most yellow cards, though! And that is the pattern for most matches, going back several seasons.
Bur we ended up losing because if our “Barca at the back” fixation. Bowyer spotted it and adapted the team to take advantage. We didn't adapt, to our cost.

A lot better in the middle. Not sure what we gain playing him out on the wing. 

He was doubling down in a bid to sell it.
Mel has treated Derby like a desperate, drunk, addicted gambler at the roulette table.
 

I have great respect for Rooney as a player, I admire his desire to continue to be involved in football through management and it's a fact that he has inherited a poisoned chalice, but hey, the guy is clueless. Anyone who sticks Roos between the uprights and asks him to play pretty football should stick to Lego! 
Ah well, it'll soon be Xmas, I might get some new golf clubs from Santa! 

But we don't plug the gap in the back with a cdm (central defensive midfielder I presume), we plug the gap with one of our attacking midfielders. So Morrison drops back to collect the ball from a centre back, both reducing our attacking threat, and leaving him to either punt up field to one of our strikers (who were completely dominated by their defenders), or a pass to Bird or Shinnie, who are then more advanced than Morrison.
I just don't get it.
And as for pressing the opposition, how come every team seems to be able to do it except us?
Completely dillusioned with the performance of the team at the moment. Still going backwards in my opinion.

Where did I say that? I intimated that the play it out from the back, tippy tappy approach is beyond our players and puts them under too much pressure. A change of formation might put round pegs in round holes and let us play through the midfield. Can I politely suggest you watch a bit more football where you may discover there are many ways for a team to set up rather than just the two you seem to comprehend….

We all know Rooney has had it difficult but watching last nights game i think we'd be in a better position if we had lee bowyer. He's worked magic with two clubs that were a complete mess. The football might not be pretty but he has got results at charlton & now at birmingham. Fair play to him

Can't say I'd be disappointed if he was out for 3 games.
I much prefer us without him in the team.

He's his coach?

Yep. I agree. But that exuberance has gone. I don’t think Rooney handled him well at all last season. He should have been our key to safety. Rooney messed his confidence up and I don’t think he’s regained that. Play to his strengths. We haven’t since Cocu. He could be worth millions or an average champ player. I think he has amazing potential. It’s a shame we’re not unlocking that. 

I think tonight encapsulated all of the concerns surrounding Rooney and the team.
It would be easy to be very critical after such a flat and disappointing performance, but it was only weeks ago that people were claiming that Jagielka was the signing of the summer and there were green shoots appearing.
For me, we have to see how results and performances trend over the next 10-15 games. If the quality of performance is similar to tonight’s, that will be beyond concerning.
What worries me is that we haven’t played anyone particularly good yet, but we are still showing major frailties and finding ways to implode.
If Birmingham were a quality side, tonight wouldn’t be much of a concern. But to be honest, it was a game where quality was extremely sparse.
The difference between the two sides was that Birmingham were well drilled, organised, and set up with a good tactical plan to exploit our weaknesses.
You can understand why we’ve only won 1 in 6.

Unfortunately not. Although I think Bird is getting back to his better performances. Confidence is a big thing in football. Hopefully it isn’t knocked out of Bird if we suffer some negative results.
I wish we had the Sibley of Cocu’s first season.  He was so exciting. I’m not sure he’s been handled very well. Almost as if they’re coaching him out of his natural game to be something else. 

I still can't see any of the inherent qualities of a captain being present within Lawrence, I'm assuming that the rationale behind this decision was that Lawrence might start to mature and respond given the newfound responsibility of being the captain but I don't think he has any idea of the components needed to be a captain - leading by example, being a role model being two of them. 

I know this is a hill you will die on, and I do respect your opinion, but I always thought we were a lesser team with Ince as part of it. Yes his stats were good, but something never quite gelled with the him and the style of play. 
But the pickings are really, really poor. For those who are wondering, there's a list here (with Morris taking fill control in September 2015 if Wikipedia is to be believed): https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/Derby-county/alletransfers/verein/22
If loans count as transfers the best was Fikayo Tomori. If it's permanent transfers only, I'm a bit stumped. Probably Curtis Davies, or maybe Duane Holmes.

Roos - 3                        Terrible. Can't catch and can't use his feet. Only thing he has going for him is shot stopping ability
Byrne - 4                       Quiet. struggled a lot physically. Every time he got over halfway, gave the ball away. 
Buchanan - 5                Same as usual, decent going forward, not so good defensively
Jagielka - 5                   First game he has actually looked 39 years old. 
Davies - 6                     Average.
Shinnie - 5                    Not involved too much, probably subbed off for the yellow card.  
Bird - 6                          Looked to pass forward when possible, but no one available most times. 
Morrison - 5                  Some good moments. Gave the ball away a lot, got frustrated. Looked like a red card waiting to happen. 
Sibley - 4                      Very quiet. Struggled to make an impact, but was being played out of position again
Lawrence - 4               1 or 2 good moments on the rare occasion we upped the tempo, but overall poor. Would have been sent off if wasn't subbed. Annoyed me when he kept laughing with their defenders even though we're losing the game. Nothing he did on the pitch was good captain material.
Baldock - 4                  Decent pressing first half. One chance in 2nd half which he messed up. Overall very quiet.
Stretton - 5                  Tried hard. Battled away, made some decent runs, but struggled physically. 

I thought they had a very interesting tactic, at times they pushed both up strikers in a diagonal line to our CB with the ball.
One striker blocked the central passing option to Morrison and the other blocked the channel option to bird. Their wide player then sat on our FB. This left us with a pass to the other CB, back to Roos or punt it.
We are too predictable and don’t mix our tactics up when things aren’t working. The only thing we change is dropping Morrison deeper to get on the ball (but they stick Chong on him) this dragged us even further back and broke up the link between the midfield and attack.
The sad thing is we can play some nice stuff and we are a more technical team than Brum…………sadly we are no where near as effective.

Play the full backs in defence.
If you want to play them further forward, as wing backs if you will, then play three central defenders.
This tactic of the two central midfielders covering for the full backs doesn't work. They're coming from a central area, so cannot cut out the run down the wing and the cross into the area. Jagielka and Davies are way too exposed.
I used to laugh that you never saw Roberto Carlos of Brazil ever appearing in his own half. We're not Brazil and Nathan Byrne, much as I like him, is no Roberto.
I'd like to see Byrne's heat map, showing his average position. I did see, time and time again, Birmingham attacks down their left and wondering where the flip is our Nathan? Only for the camera to pan out and, oh there he is, in their half, while they're attacking our goal.
I'm not blaming Byrne. That's the well documented tactic.
It just doesn't work.
4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 5-3-2, 3-4-3
Take your pick of formation.
But please, no more 2-2-5-1.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. Birmingham "pressed higher than in any other game this season" because they've seen our matches and know we will likely gift them a goal or two as a result. The thing Rooney needs to realize and sharpish is that every team will do the same this season. He's very stubborn and you watch today's game and think, if we continue to play this way, we will be relegated.
We need points sharpish. And to get over this sharpish.
I never thought I would say this, but thank goodness for Ravel Morrison. He was the daddy in our team of boys versus men tonight. We are the side in which he will get the responsibility to demonstrate whether he has it or not. Not a brilliant game but decent. He stood up and never shirked, driving us forward and not taking it from the opposition or the ref. Shame he didn't have more composure for that shooting chance from distance.
Disappointed with Sibley at the moment, but the team shape and his position doesn't suit him. Of course the second goal isn't all on him, but I'd say 40%, which is still significant. He can see the Brummie forward alone on the edge of our box, but still makes the tackle to send the ball that way. You have to be smarter than that.
I really like the look of Stretton, but this is a tough team to come into at the moment.
Our players had no protection at all from the referee, which was terrible, and having played in games like that I know how it leads to frustration. But again you have to be smarter than Lawrence, who was very lucky to leave the field as a sub instead of seeing red. Maybe as skipper he felt he needed to protest to the ref and try to protect his lads, but he didn't do it the right way.
Great to see Jason Knight back on the field.
But a game that could point to a long hard season unless we can change it quickly and go on a run.
 

Hiring Phillip Cocu who has an excellent record of bringing through and developing youth was exactly what we needed given our situation.
The biggest error was immediately undermining him by bringing in Wayne Rooney as a platform for him to go into management.
Mel did it to raise the profile of the club so he could sell it. It has backfired spectacularly.
 

How on earth can you blame them for the goals?
Roos had initially rescued Buchanan.
Sibley's was a ricochet.
Tactics lost that game.

I’ll always call out any captain when they act like that, especially when we needed the opposite from him at that time. 
I couldn’t give a rats ass it was Lawrence.
He wears the armband, he needs to act like he’s wearing it.  
And two shots from distance, I’ll give you that, but it doesn’t excuse his general poor play and giving the ball away constantly. 

Keep possession, knock it backwards, don't show for the ball. 

As a captain though it's not just his performance,the last thing you need your captain doing is losing his head.