kevinhectoring

On 02/09/2022 at 19:03, Kokosnuss said:

Someone asked earlier who he'd replace if played further forward, I'm not sure I've seen a good, detailed answer that takes all things into consideration to that yet?

Hourihane or Bird. We need more mileage in midfield and Tommo can’t yet provide that 

1 hour ago, DanS1992 said:

Hourihane needs to do better for me. Been quiet again. Was expecting a lot more from him.

We don’t have enough legs in midfield 

On 31/08/2022 at 21:51, i-Ram said:

Yes, he missed one at the end, but McGoldrick wasn’t looking to pick him out with a pass. He took a poor shot, and from a good position flashed wide of the goal. Collins was in the right place but couldn’t adjust his feet

Wasn’t a bad miss. Was hit hard. He had a defender between himself and McGoldrick when it was struck and that and the pace meant he didn’t have time to judge the dip on the ball. So he got himself airborne and was yorkered. He had made a good run and was in the right place apart from altitude
 

You’re right (well your missus probably) his part in the first goal was classy 

Prem please

(and a well run club at all levels) 

But with teams like Ipswich, Wendies and Portsmouth around, getting out of L 1 is not a foregone conclusion 

He’s one of our best footballers and he has the best engine we’ve seen for a while. If Byrne was with us, Knight’s energy in midfield would have converted several of our draws into wins. But he’s not. Needs must 

is RB his best position? The answer probably depends on which division he’s in. 

24 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

The turnstiles themselves are awfully little. I'm amazed everyone can squeeze through them! Especially after our Just Eat season!

After our seasons with 32 it’s surprising anyone can afford a ticket 

The transition back to a stable championship squad will not be easy and the young loanees may play a large part in that if some become permanent. We have some interesting prospects there 

We were bound to be reliant on signing senior free agents, but we’ve managed to find a good balance between youth and experience imo 

3 hours ago, MACKWORTHRAM said:

When Davies and Chester are both fit I honestly can't see Stearman getting in the squad ?.

 

It’s a long season - it’s hard to keep track of how many competitions we are in - and it’s quite likely Curtis will need back up. As we have seen.
I think Stearman is more effective than many make out (possibly because with the ball at his feet he often looks like he’s wearing prosthetics).
All our senior players need game time so they can provide effective injury cover 

On 31/08/2022 at 09:28, RoyMac5 said:

He needs to aim his shots at the net not at the keeper! ??

Or is it the opposite ?

On 31/08/2022 at 23:39, Ghost of Clough said:

Knight will be RB for the season.

Mendez-Laing, Barkhuizen, McGoldrick, Sibley, Dobbin and this guy to rotate as the three behind Collins and A.N.Other

Thank god Knight is still with us.
 

The videos show Haigh playing high and finishing well. The issue i reckon is not whether we have enough attacking players but whether we can get them playing together effectively.  And how many minutes McGoldrick can play, he should be massive this season 

3 hours ago, Birdyabroad said:

It is transfer deadline today and I, like many on here, would like to see a couple of signings as I think that the squad is thin in places.

The reality is that we may only see us linked with other teams academy prospects, which we will (hopefully) take on loan.

There seems to be some debate as to whether this is a good or bad thing and I think that arguments on both sides make sense, I.e., loaning a young starlet from Liverpool/Chelsea who wants some first team football may make us stronger (I.e., Wilson and Tomori). On the other hand, if they do well, then we are only increasing their value to Chelsea as they are unlikely to sign for us and will go to a higher bidder (I.e., Wilson and Tomori).

However, what the latter argument does not take into account is how the world around us seems to be changing; we are moving from a nation of 'owners' to a nation of 'renters'. I have some examples:

We no longer own music/CD's/Vinyl like we used to. Going out and physically buying records has been replaced by a subscription model, such as Spotify/Apple Music, where we 'rent' millions of songs at our finger tips for a monthly fee. A similar thing is happening with films and DVD's, where instead of physically owning DVD's, we pay monthly subscriptions to SKY/Netflix, etc, and use these as our film library. Anyone who has wandered into a HMV recently will notice how they as a business have had to adapt to this cultural shift, they are reducing the amount of space where they stock DVD's and CD's and are replacing these with t-shirts, toys, books, novelty items and even Japanese drinks and chocolates.

I teach in a local FE College and train students how to use the Adobe suite (Photoshop, After Effects, etc). One upon a time you had to buy these programmes outright and they could cost anywhere between £800-£1,200 per programme, which was far too expensive for students or people starting out. Now Adobe have changed their ownership model and, instead, you can pay anything between £25 to £55 per months to use all of the programmes - Renting instead of owning.

This model of ownership is not just specific to media and computing. For example, many motorists are heading down the HP route nowadays, my wife recently paid a small deposit for her car and now pays monthly, in 4 years she will have a few options, one of which will be to hand the car back and start the process again with a brand new car. Again, we as a nation are increasingly less owning our cars and, in effect, 'renting' them.

Therefore, back on topic, I cannot help thinking that this 'rental' model might be the way that things are going, especially for clubs in Div 1. Don't get me wrong, I love to see a youngster, like Sibley and Cashin, come through our academy ranks and commit their future to the club. 

However, I am also willing to accept that, similar to other businesses, we may all have to adapt to the fact that we may be an attractive proposition for youngsters in Premier League/High-end Championship academies, given our facilities and stature in the game. Yes, this will mean that we may have some 'mercenary' players with no links to the club and we may only see them for one year, but it also means that we are not saddled with an average player on a long team contract (See many of our signings over the last 10 years) and, just maybe, there could be some long term potential if the loan works out well for both parties. 

Going back to someone such as Tomori, I would argue that Tennyson got it right when he said 'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all', and no, this does not mean that I was in love with Tomori, just that I was glad to see him in a Derby shirt for one season.

So whoever comes in on loan today, if any, let's not worry about if they are taking another players shirt or stopping our own academy products, if they are good enough then they'll be in the first team and if they do go back to their parent club and make them a tidy profit, at least we will have benefit from the good football they would have played here.

And all the more so, given the trend in the PL for players to sign up for just 2 years. So even if you own a player they could be gone in the blink of an eye. 
 

Exhilarating ending for sure but we were outplayed man for man today. 

Dobbin McGoldrick.  Both to start please 

Step up McGoldrick. Need some quality 

So many silly errors 

2 minutes ago, Yani P said:

Sibley then with a great chance from a pullback but put it over the bar.

Want to hit everything low with this keeper 

16 hours ago, Wolfie20 said:

I'm more than happy for Stearman to continue deputising for Curtis - he's not let us down.

Part of the anti-Stearman sentiment comes from the fact he looks very clumsy as we play out from the back. But he finds space well when we’re in possession and he usually makes good decisions albeit his distribution is not sparkling. 
 

But he and Curtis will find this season a long one. Wouldn’t be surprised when they’re both fit to see LR subbing one out for the other to keep mileage down. Also makes sense because they’re at the time of life where without game time they lose sharpness quickly. Saw that last season with Stears 

On 24/08/2022 at 12:02, RAM1966 said:

This is why purchasing the club without the stadium did not make sense

Makes good sense if you get a lease on decent terms. Could massively increase your return on capital 

6 hours ago, Dimmu said:

continuing the Finnish tradition of great goalkeepers. 

Needs must.
Anyway don’t think he’ll cope with sibley’s finish 

13 hours ago, Sparkle said:

Our midfield against WBA was very energetic - knight Smith Thompson - but it will be - Bird hourihane Smith probably 

 love Tommo’s energy but he’s not yet got the hang of the ‘play it out from the back’ thing  
maybe we’ll see Knight in midfield tho

8 hours ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

 

Very classy interview by LR. Good to hear him emphasise player development. Knight in midfield sounding more likely after today’s performances

He’ll have seen a group of forwards linking up yesterday for the first time (McGoldrick, Dobbin, Sibley) and as that works better we’ll hopefully score more goals. He’s clear that a lot hinges on McGoldrick’s fitness

1 minute ago, cosmic said:

Great performance!

Don’t get why at this stage in the season fans would say they didn’t want to win 

1 minute ago, AndyinLiverpool said:

All businesses are results businesses

Not water companies apparently 

2 hours ago, RoyMac5 said:

Practically, how would he currently even get his money back for us?

Agree, he’d struggle just now but once a return to the championship is assured I think he’ll do ok   I’m not at all saying a sale is imminent 

2 hours ago, angieram said:

You've said this before, Kevin - why do you think he'll be looking to sell quickly?

Not quickly necessarily. But before we return to the Championship.
 

Owning a club in L1 - especially Derby under an EFL business plan - is relatively low risk and I’d think there’s a part of him which will enjoy it despite his desire for a low profile. But his Saturday afternoons at PP are important to him and he’ll know many fans will turn on him if we don’t get promoted before long.

Owning Derby in the championship is a different proposition.  Parachute payments, he knows how stupendously wealthy several other owners are and he’s seen what rams ownership did to MM (a much wealthier man). Plus he knows that tens of thousands of people in derby expect a good owner to take us to the PL (especially given what our noisy neighbours are now enjoying). 

It was no secret that he was a reluctant buyer of the club (albeit he may have been an enthusiastic buyer of the stadium for £23m !). In fact the big (largely unnoticed) reveal in his video interview was that the decision to buy the club after CK crashed and burned was in part driven by a desire to protect the value of the stadium (already purchased). 
 

Best scenario for DC overall might be for us to narrowly miss promotion this year, then for us to run away with the title in 23/24. Then he has time for a leisurely sale of a championship club that (I think) would be free of EFL constraints. 

We’ll see ...