TomTom92

I don’t think fans need to be Team Mel or Team EFL. I think the blame lies at both parties door. 
The losers in this are; the fans, local business, employees and if you wish to play it this way Wycombe. The fact of the matter is that Mel has got off with his millions in his back pocket and the EFL have won.   
  
Ultimately we’ve gambled on the proviso that if you spend enough money you’ll get up. In every other teams case this gamble has seemed to work. Just typical Derby that we’re the one team that this irresponsible approach hasn’t worked for. If it had Mel Morris would’ve been a hero in everyone’s eyes. For me it’s the fact he has plenty of money and has put us in to administration out of pettiness that we were starting to question his actions which leaves me feeling bitter towards him. 
 
I also don’t believe that the EFL are innocent or simply playing by the rules. They signed off everything and only took a second glance when Boro kicked up a stink. It’s irrelevant whether we cheated or not if they signed it off the blame and punishment should sit with them. 
  
It’s going to be 50/50 as to whether fans decide to be dignified or give it to the EFL every weekend. But ultimately both actions are irrelevant if we don’t get ownership soon. 
  
If we do get ownership does the squad restrictions get lifted? This is the bit I’m unsure about. If they don’t then that’s rather depressing looking  at next season.

I don’t think fans need to be Team Mel or Team EFL. I think the blame lies at both parties door. 
The losers in this are; the fans, local business, employees and if you wish to play it this way Wycombe. The fact of the matter is that Mel has got off with his millions in his back pocket and the EFL have won.   
  
Ultimately we’ve gambled on the proviso that if you spend enough money you’ll get up. In every other teams case this gamble has seemed to work. Just typical Derby that we’re the one team that this irresponsible approach hasn’t worked for. If it had Mel Morris would’ve been a hero in everyone’s eyes. For me it’s the fact he has plenty of money and has put us in to administration out of pettiness that we were starting to question his actions which leaves me feeling bitter towards him. 
 
I also don’t believe that the EFL are innocent or simply playing by the rules. They signed off everything and only took a second glance when Boro kicked up a stink. It’s irrelevant whether we cheated or not if they signed it off the blame and punishment should sit with them. 
  
It’s going to be 50/50 as to whether fans decide to be dignified or give it to the EFL every weekend. But ultimately both actions are irrelevant if we don’t get ownership soon. 
  
If we do get ownership does the squad restrictions get lifted? This is the bit I’m unsure about. If they don’t then that’s rather depressing looking  at next season.

Mel called out the EFL for agreeing to a crap TV deal - they didn't like that..... Mel questioned whether they were the best people to run the league - they didn't like that either..... Mel thought he was cleverer than the EFL by finding a number of legitimate ways through their poorly thought-through/written 'rules' - they didn't like that at all..... Mel put the club into admin thinking there was a valid case to argue against the 12 points - they hated that as it might have opened the floodgates for other clubs to follow..... Mel left the building - the EFL didn't care because by then the terms Derby County and Mel Morris were interchangeable in their eyes. The EFL did their very best to kill Derby County - they may still have succeeded.....we shall see.

We can, and no doubt many will, argue about the treatment of our Club by the EFL all day, but what should not be lost today is that if Morris hadn’t put us in to Administration a couple of months ago, whilst clearly still a very wealthy man, and committed himself instead to accepting 9 points punishment for our P&S indiscretion, we would still have a Club today that had a chance, a good chance, of being in the Championship next season.
Morris bought a brilliant Club and Team, and in 6 short years ran it into the ground, and ultimately ran away to let someone else clear up the mess. 

Seen a lot of people say it but we may as well turn around and say “9 or 1000 we don’t give a damn” then walk out the room with two fingers up. Makes no difference whatsoever. The EFL have won ‘dear EFL what a sad little life’.   
 
Can’t wait for us to finally get to the promised land whether it’s in 5 years or 30. Hopefully I’ll be around to tweet (or whatever the social media platform is at that point) them with the smuggest message in existence. 

Seen a lot of people say it but we may as well turn around and say “9 or 1000 we don’t give a damn” then walk out the room with two fingers up. Makes no difference whatsoever. The EFL have won ‘dear EFL what a sad little life’.   
 
Can’t wait for us to finally get to the promised land whether it’s in 5 years or 30. Hopefully I’ll be around to tweet (or whatever the social media platform is at that point) them with the smuggest message in existence. 

I’m all being petty and doing as much as we can now to pee everybody and the EFL off. Long may ideas like this continue.

I’m all being petty and doing as much as we can now to pee everybody and the EFL off. Long may ideas like this continue.

I’m all being petty and doing as much as we can now to pee everybody and the EFL off. Long may ideas like this continue.

I’m all being petty and doing as much as we can now to pee everybody and the EFL off. Long may ideas like this continue.

I’d personally make an off the record remark to the EFL that we’re going to pick and choose what matches to “try our best” in to mess up the integrity of the season. Our seasons ruined so may as well dick on other clubs chips.

I’d personally make an off the record remark to the EFL that we’re going to pick and choose what matches to “try our best” in to mess up the integrity of the season. Our seasons ruined so may as well dick on other clubs chips.

If Rooney was as switched on as people suggest, he would have brought in his own people when he was offered the job permanently.
We’re always bemoaning the lack of a goalscorer.
How did Luton find Adebayo? How did Blackpool find Yates and Lavery? How did Swansea find Piroe?
Personally I think coaching is the biggest issue but it has to be said that our scouting and recruitment is very uninspiring, restrictions or not.

Until we get taken over it’s irrelevant whether he’s good enough or not. May as well get behind him and the lads until they stop trying. Last 20 mins tonight we huffed and puffed but couldn’t score.

I think Nixon is channelling the spirt of Derek Acorah.

I can't recall any team which had long-term success playing the way we do. You ideally need to play in a progressive manner if you really want to succeed. But I can fully understand why we don't. If we had quicker defenders, perhaps we would play a higher line and press more. But Rooney is playing in a way which protects our goal first and foremost.
Whether it will get us out of trouble I don't know. We've only won 2 home games from six despite our competitive nature. That isn't great and certainly won't be enough to keep us up with the points deduction.
I vaguely remember Leicester going down in the Championship despite having one of the best defensive records.
If you can't score goals, I think you're going to be in trouble. Because it only takes one poor decision from an official, one mistake at the back, one 25-yard screamer or one huge slice of misfortune and the three points can escape you.
 
 
 

Just been re-reading this topic and I'm just astonished there are those still willing to either defend the bloke or offer up apologetics for him. All of the 'achievements' come to naught if there isn't a club at the end of it and that's exactly what could happen.  As a best case scenario he's loaded up the club with a mountain of debt that cannot be maintained, pretty much guaranteed our relegation to the third tier for only the third time in our history and has arguably irreparably damaged our reputation in the footballing community.

Mel was a custodian of the club and absolutely nothing more, his job was to ensure the survival, maintenance, and prosperity of the club and in that he's absolutely 100% failed. Instead of acting as a custodian, he increasingly acted like the club was his train set with lavish unsustainable spending and big name appointments. None of us knew the true financial state of the club only he and Mr Pearce did it seems, and an owners job is to know when to put the brakes on and when not to. The last thing an owner should do is gamble the future of an institution on the hope you'll get promotion- it's exactly that type of thinking that Risdale had with Leeds that all but bankrupted them in the end. 

I won't even mention the completely disgraceful behaviour by Mel towards the staff and fans keeping us all in the dark during this period and his decision to pull the plug. I somehow doubt he'll end up selling his house or is wandering the street with a tin cup in the near future. 

I’m not a Rooney fan. I don’t think tactically he’s been that great at all and I wouldn’t have shed a tear if he’d been given the boot in the summer. 
 
That said the character he’s showing in the face of adversity is unremarkable. Fully got my backing now. 
 
Maybe in the long run this might be a blessing for both us and him. Start a fresh in league 1 with hopefully a decent owner. Wayne gets a full season to continue to learn the managerial lark and further cement his hold in the dressing room. 
 
Now where can we find a decent owner? 

I’m not a Rooney fan. I don’t think tactically he’s been that great at all and I wouldn’t have shed a tear if he’d been given the boot in the summer. 
 
That said the character he’s showing in the face of adversity is unremarkable. Fully got my backing now. 
 
Maybe in the long run this might be a blessing for both us and him. Start a fresh in league 1 with hopefully a decent owner. Wayne gets a full season to continue to learn the managerial lark and further cement his hold in the dressing room. 
 
Now where can we find a decent owner? 

Asked what it would take for him to walk away, Rooney said:
"I've said before, I care. The football side of it I'm enjoying. I enjoy trying to improve players. If you look at the difference in some of the players to maybe a year ago, it's massive. Even some of the older players, Curtis [Davies] and Jags [Phil Jagielka], the performances they're putting in. And then seeing the likes of Max Bird developing. Louie Sibley, who's had tough moments. He's come into the team the last few weeks and we've seen a steady rise in his performances.
"I'm enjoying that side of it and I wouldn’t forgive myself if I walked out on them players because I'm asking them to sacrifice a lot, and give everything. So for me to leave them in the lurch and walk out, that's just not in my nature."
https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/Derby-county-administration-rooney-efl-5940196
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What a man ?

I wasn’t overly keen when he got the job, and after the season finished wanted him to move on. Delighted that I’ve been proven wrong, if we’re going down, we’re going down fighting - this is down to him. Fair play to the lad. 

I’m absolutely gutted… but at the same time absolutely fed up. 
 
being a football fan should be about going to watch your team play every Saturday but between the EFL and Mel that’s been ruined for me.
football should never be about politics but here we are. 
 
EFL… I hope you’re happy you’re getting what you wanted.
Mel Morris… I hope you’re happy, you’ve ruined the club you claimed to love and ruined many people’s lives who will lose their jobs whilst you bail out.
absolutely disillusioned with everything Derby County atm. The laughing stock of the football world. 
 
Mel Morris OUT. 

Why would we fail to agree a 9 point deduction and then take a 12 point one? Is there a business reason to this? 

We got found out for doing something that wasn't against the rules. Don't you understand the difference between breaking the rules and doing something not covered by the rules?

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