Alty_Ram

The logic of controlling the ball from the back is all well and good and there is something to be said for drawing the opposition on to you to then suddenly going through the gears with snappy passing and bypassing them, and if your defence have the first touch of a Man City defender then all well and good but doing it at all costs in all situations is inviting trouble, particularly with a Champ/League 1 squad.
There is a perception that this is how football is played these days, and it may well be at the upper levels level, but you need every player to be calm and comfortable on the ball and their team mates to be mobile and creating space and actively wanting the ball. If nobody shows for the ball then a pass gets delayed and your defender gets closed down and mugged and you concede a goal and your defence and keeper look like chumps.
At this stage in the process of (hopefully) rebuilding a quality side, I would rather that we were pragmatic and mixed it up. If the opposition are all over us and closing us down and are forcing errors then sometimes you just have to be a bit cannier and mix it up with some balls down the channels or whatever. A high energy hard-pressing game is hard work and if that's what the opposition are doing then you should get more opportunities later but I don't see the point of playing to 'pure' football principles in every situation if the opposition are just going to force error after error because of the quality of their press and/or the limitations of your defenders. We'll face some ruthless forwards this year compared to last and you can't just constantly gift opportunities by over-playing.

Looking at just the league table its been an amazing year by any reckoning. Amassing 92 points, securing a record number of away wins etc. Pompey had to come up with something pretty special to beat that. And yet, it seems weird how there is still a feeling that there were so many unnecessary points that we seemed to drop. Obviously, that's just the way it goes and you can't win every game but in amongst the excellent wins, there were definitely a decent number of soft points dropped.
Just glancing down the results list - failure to see a poor Cambridge off at home, conceding a gutting late equaliser vs Pompey, really poor official decisions at Bolton, drawing at Cheltenham who hadn't scored in 12 games, conceding a 98th minute penalty equaliser against bloody Wycombe, the late collapse at home against Peterborough from leading the game at 84 mins to losing it, chucking away a lead at home to Charlton to leave empty handed, conceding 87th minute equaliser against Shrewsbury at home. You then realise how many points we could have actually ended up with - well North of 100 which would have been truly remarkable by any means !! 😃

Sure, there were times when I'd loved to have seen a bit more swagger and flair but by any standards, the relentless points accumulation was hugely impressive, and ultimately it simply broke the spirit of the chasing pack. PW and the lads earned that.

Looking at just the league table its been an amazing year by any reckoning. Amassing 92 points, securing a record number of away wins etc. Pompey had to come up with something pretty special to beat that. And yet, it seems weird how there is still a feeling that there were so many unnecessary points that we seemed to drop. Obviously, that's just the way it goes and you can't win every game but in amongst the excellent wins, there were definitely a decent number of soft points dropped.
Just glancing down the results list - failure to see a poor Cambridge off at home, conceding a gutting late equaliser vs Pompey, really poor official decisions at Bolton, drawing at Cheltenham who hadn't scored in 12 games, conceding a 98th minute penalty equaliser against bloody Wycombe, the late collapse at home against Peterborough from leading the game at 84 mins to losing it, chucking away a lead at home to Charlton to leave empty handed, conceding 87th minute equaliser against Shrewsbury at home. You then realise how many points we could have actually ended up with - well North of 100 which would have been truly remarkable by any means !! 😃

Sure, there were times when I'd loved to have seen a bit more swagger and flair but by any standards, the relentless points accumulation was hugely impressive, and ultimately it simply broke the spirit of the chasing pack. PW and the lads earned that.

Looking at just the league table its been an amazing year by any reckoning. Amassing 92 points, securing a record number of away wins etc. Pompey had to come up with something pretty special to beat that. And yet, it seems weird how there is still a feeling that there were so many unnecessary points that we seemed to drop. Obviously, that's just the way it goes and you can't win every game but in amongst the excellent wins, there were definitely a decent number of soft points dropped.
Just glancing down the results list - failure to see a poor Cambridge off at home, conceding a gutting late equaliser vs Pompey, really poor official decisions at Bolton, drawing at Cheltenham who hadn't scored in 12 games, conceding a 98th minute penalty equaliser against bloody Wycombe, the late collapse at home against Peterborough from leading the game at 84 mins to losing it, chucking away a lead at home to Charlton to leave empty handed, conceding 87th minute equaliser against Shrewsbury at home. You then realise how many points we could have actually ended up with - well North of 100 which would have been truly remarkable by any means !! 😃

Sure, there were times when I'd loved to have seen a bit more swagger and flair but by any standards, the relentless points accumulation was hugely impressive, and ultimately it simply broke the spirit of the chasing pack. PW and the lads earned that.

Looking at just the league table its been an amazing year by any reckoning. Amassing 92 points, securing a record number of away wins etc. Pompey had to come up with something pretty special to beat that. And yet, it seems weird how there is still a feeling that there were so many unnecessary points that we seemed to drop. Obviously, that's just the way it goes and you can't win every game but in amongst the excellent wins, there were definitely a decent number of soft points dropped.
Just glancing down the results list - failure to see a poor Cambridge off at home, conceding a gutting late equaliser vs Pompey, really poor official decisions at Bolton, drawing at Cheltenham who hadn't scored in 12 games, conceding a 98th minute penalty equaliser against bloody Wycombe, the late collapse at home against Peterborough from leading the game at 84 mins to losing it, chucking away a lead at home to Charlton to leave empty handed, conceding 87th minute equaliser against Shrewsbury at home. You then realise how many points we could have actually ended up with - well North of 100 which would have been truly remarkable by any means !! 😃

Sure, there were times when I'd loved to have seen a bit more swagger and flair but by any standards, the relentless points accumulation was hugely impressive, and ultimately it simply broke the spirit of the chasing pack. PW and the lads earned that.

Looking at just the league table its been an amazing year by any reckoning. Amassing 92 points, securing a record number of away wins etc. Pompey had to come up with something pretty special to beat that. And yet, it seems weird how there is still a feeling that there were so many unnecessary points that we seemed to drop. Obviously, that's just the way it goes and you can't win every game but in amongst the excellent wins, there were definitely a decent number of soft points dropped.
Just glancing down the results list - failure to see a poor Cambridge off at home, conceding a gutting late equaliser vs Pompey, really poor official decisions at Bolton, drawing at Cheltenham who hadn't scored in 12 games, conceding a 98th minute penalty equaliser against bloody Wycombe, the late collapse at home against Peterborough from leading the game at 84 mins to losing it, chucking away a lead at home to Charlton to leave empty handed, conceding 87th minute equaliser against Shrewsbury at home. You then realise how many points we could have actually ended up with - well North of 100 which would have been truly remarkable by any means !! 😃

Sure, there were times when I'd loved to have seen a bit more swagger and flair but by any standards, the relentless points accumulation was hugely impressive, and ultimately it simply broke the spirit of the chasing pack. PW and the lads earned that.

This. The way things have been allowed to develop, there seems no alternative to spending heavily to even up the playing field to stand a chance of surviving. An amount that may not be sustainable if it doesn't work, even with parachute payments, if you drop into an uber-competitive top 8-10 of the championship with a bunch of similar clubs with parachute money eager for another go.
Sure, you might build a really fortunate blend of highly promising players in your promotion season that you can use most in your PL season, but you won't know that until it's either worked or you are already 12 points adrift at Christmas.
I think what sums this up is Sheff Utd. They've made Even Burnley and Luton look adequate. They've been absolute dog**** this season but who'd be surprised if they were right in the mix again next year in the Championship ?

I'll bet. That sort of stuff can age you 10 years ! 😨 In terms of the performance, yeah, in these situations its always nice to win it at a canter, but sometimes getting the job done when your backs are against the wall can be better prep for difficult tasks and situations ahead.

That QPR game was horrific. We should have won that so the late horror show was absolutely sickening ☹️ Then again, we rather mugged WBA a few years earlier so..
Anyway, objective one achieved, a trip to Wembley. Oxford await. I guess you'll probably be fairly strong favourites and that can bring its own pressures and they only hopped into the playoffs on the last day so there is probably still a bit of a feeling of it being a free swing for them. Ultimately you were 10 points better over the season though and you need to bring that belief. Easier said than done though of course. As they say, 'the playoffs are a lottery'. Best of luck.

That always seemed the most likely outcome to be fair, Forest just a bit better than the relegation fodder down there. For all the "Plucky, spirited Luton" narrative of recent months the reality is that they went down with a bit of a whimper in the end and the bottom three will all finish below 30 points even if they win next week. Luton lost 4 and drew 1 of the last 5. Burnley had 1 win in the last 6 games. They simply didn't put any real pressure on Forest at the sharp end of the season. Sheff Utd were just rubbish and are on a run of 6 straight defeats and setting some records.

That always seemed the most likely outcome to be fair, Forest just a bit better than the relegation fodder down there. For all the "Plucky, spirited Luton" narrative of recent months the reality is that they went down with a bit of a whimper in the end and the bottom three will all finish below 30 points even if they win next week. Luton lost 4 and drew 1 of the last 5. Burnley had 1 win in the last 6 games. They simply didn't put any real pressure on Forest at the sharp end of the season. Sheff Utd were just rubbish and are on a run of 6 straight defeats and setting some records.

I'll bet. That sort of stuff can age you 10 years ! 😨 In terms of the performance, yeah, in these situations its always nice to win it at a canter, but sometimes getting the job done when your backs are against the wall can be better prep for difficult tasks and situations ahead.

That QPR game was horrific. We should have won that so the late horror show was absolutely sickening ☹️ Then again, we rather mugged WBA a few years earlier so..
Anyway, objective one achieved, a trip to Wembley. Oxford await. I guess you'll probably be fairly strong favourites and that can bring its own pressures and they only hopped into the playoffs on the last day so there is probably still a bit of a feeling of it being a free swing for them. Ultimately you were 10 points better over the season though and you need to bring that belief. Easier said than done though of course. As they say, 'the playoffs are a lottery'. Best of luck.

Big step towards Wembley for Bolton last night. Fair play to them. I'm happy to see Barn-se-leh missing out and it'd take something pretty unlikely from here for them to overturn things in the 2nd leg. That 94th minute 3rd goal is probably the clincher but in all honesty they've been in shocking form recently - 2 points from the last 6 games and another defeat last night., so their season has really gone into a tailspin.

I know that we are back within one tier of the PL but I can't say that I have any great urgency to get back in there. I don't know how you become competitive without spending either a shedload of money (and spend it well) or have really good business model like one or two of the smaller teams that have managed to get established (but they are the exception to the rule).

Otherwise it just looks like a 38 game season where you have to get the better of your clashes against the half dozen relegation fodder clubs around you and otherwise just accept regular rogerings from the likes of Man City while while pundits describe your 5-0 home defeat as "pathetic", "hopeless", "spineless" or whatever, despite the fact that your squad cost less than De Bryne's boots. I've watched quite a lot of games this year and the Sheff Utd games have just been relentlessly depressing and yet I fully expect them to be right up there in the Championship next year. 
This last year it's been nice to watch Derby games with a decent expectation of victory home or away, but for a whole bunch of clubs, the PL seems to be about trying to get 40 points or a point a game and hoping that there are 3 teams worse than you and getting put to the sword in most of the others. At least to be fair to them, Forest have had a go in most games and haven't been battered too often. Obviously our last effort in the PL re-defined abysmal, but this year Sheff Utd have just been awful and must be a really hard watch for their fans. They have just broken the 100 goals conceded milestone with still 2 games to go and that puts even our record to shame. So we never held the most goals conceded in a single PL game and now we don't even have the most goas conceded in a 38 game season. They are on 16 points which is only slightly better than our record breaking awful season. If there hadn't been some other really poor teams to steal points off then they might even have beaten it.

Might just be me, but it seems a bit odd that we stopped renewals earlier than usual (before season end) but haven't released those un-renewed tickets for sale yet and nor could you get a new ticket if you wanted one. Can't we just sell the ones that had nobody in last year and release the others later ? Or is this delay all about shuffling folk around who want to move  and giving them the widest choice ?

I can see that sentiment. Var in particular absolutely sucks the life out of football. 
However isn't it coming in for th championship too? Can't escape it 😞

So as far as I can tell, tickets went off sale last Friday and are not available to folks that want them yet? Not a big deal I guess, but a few tickets expiring sounds like a quick update job and doesn't seem like something that should result in the ticketing part of the website being deactivated for days. Is there perhaps something a bit more radical planned with this delay for 'Phase 2' ?
Ride the wave DCFC! Get folk signed up while everyone is still buzzing !

This. I'm not one to moan about the Premier League too much, particularly as the title race has been genuinely exciting the last couple of years. But if you don't support a team with sufficient resources or a super-smart business model that allows you to compete in the top half, I can only think the experience is pretty much as you describe.
I always, always want Derby to do as well as we possibly can, and that includes wanting to see us play in the Premier League. If we were to get there, you wouldn't stop me dreaming of a European push one day, no matter how unlikely it seems.
But if we do go up from the Championship, it will be difficult to escape the thought that the following year will be a bit crap. Which is partly why the League One promotion was so joyful, because that thought didn't exist.

Oh no, that's just awful news. I hope they're OK...

Oh no, that's just awful news. I hope they're OK...

So as far as I can tell, tickets went off sale last Friday and are not available to folks that want them yet? Not a big deal I guess, but a few tickets expiring sounds like a quick update job and doesn't seem like something that should result in the ticketing part of the website being deactivated for days. Is there perhaps something a bit more radical planned with this delay for 'Phase 2' ?
Ride the wave DCFC! Get folk signed up while everyone is still buzzing !

No and it is a real factor/problem for some folks. You can just tell by some of the usernames on here that our fan base don't all just stroll across Derby to attend games - I'm in the North West myself.

The problem is that if you miss too many games due to your personal circumstances (work, family commitments, sheer distance etc), then a Season Ticket looks like less value once you've missed a few games. If you then say to yourself that you'll pay by the game then I think there is an inertia that can set in and to a point you have to justify attending to yourself, whereas as a Season Ticket holder I'm all too aware that in crappier seasons that sometimes I feel that I'm just pouring myself into my car to get on the road because it's already paid for. The DCFC habit !

I also don't like some of the alternative kickoff times because I often feel that stuff like Sunday lunchtimes tend to produce fairly flat atmospheres and Fridays nights and the M6 are a bit of a lottery at the best of times.

There's bugger all that we can do about it unfortunately but I'd imagine that we may get lots of disruption early doors but maybe if Sky conclude that we are not going to storm the league that they will focus elsewhere.

No and it is a real factor/problem for some folks. You can just tell by some of the usernames on here that our fan base don't all just stroll across Derby to attend games - I'm in the North West myself.

The problem is that if you miss too many games due to your personal circumstances (work, family commitments, sheer distance etc), then a Season Ticket looks like less value once you've missed a few games. If you then say to yourself that you'll pay by the game then I think there is an inertia that can set in and to a point you have to justify attending to yourself, whereas as a Season Ticket holder I'm all too aware that in crappier seasons that sometimes I feel that I'm just pouring myself into my car to get on the road because it's already paid for. The DCFC habit !

I also don't like some of the alternative kickoff times because I often feel that stuff like Sunday lunchtimes tend to produce fairly flat atmospheres and Fridays nights and the M6 are a bit of a lottery at the best of times.

There's bugger all that we can do about it unfortunately but I'd imagine that we may get lots of disruption early doors but maybe if Sky conclude that we are not going to storm the league that they will focus elsewhere.

The did, they just decided it didn't apply to them because forest reasons. Then they were mad it did apply to them.

I'd absolutely love to get this guy signed up but the budget is what the budget is and we have several areas that need strengthening including goalscoring and that is never cheap. If we can't get him for a sensible sum because Cardiff play hard ball and are quoting fantasy numbers for a guy in the last year of his contract, then reluctantly we'll have to move on. Whatever way you look at it, the case for the long overdue 'physical presence' has been comprehensively made.

I'd absolutely love to get this guy signed up but the budget is what the budget is and we have several areas that need strengthening including goalscoring and that is never cheap. If we can't get him for a sensible sum because Cardiff play hard ball and are quoting fantasy numbers for a guy in the last year of his contract, then reluctantly we'll have to move on. Whatever way you look at it, the case for the long overdue 'physical presence' has been comprehensively made.