Srg Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 I do hope, that when he comes back, Thorne is on top form within a couple of games. If he's not very quickly the saviour many expect he's not going to get much time before he's judged as no good! Well according to many Mascarell is no good, so what do you expect? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YorkshireRam Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 I'm a big fan of Eustace but it's also horses for courses and today we had so much of the ball in our defensive third yet struggled to create forward momentum. That role isn't just there to defend, it's to provide some creativity to get the midfield and wide men moving. That's what makes Thorne stand out so much, he does both. But thhat isn't JE's strength but against some teams who aren't going to provide much of an attacking threat you need that. Personally I thought after half an hour he looked tired today, wasn't picking up McDonald when he dropped off the centre halves and was too easily by passed when millwall were running at us. That mix of attacking and defending is what makes Thorne special and is the reason we paid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ovis aries Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 We are creating chances but we lack a sniffer in the box. We are developing a tendency to over elaborate at times , when a more direct approach may be more effective. Not to worry, 4 points from Reading /Blackpool and we will be in great shape Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheltenhamRam Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 Anything but a win v pool and I expect the forum will melt down Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddie Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 Heard the last 15 mins as the missus's old man is a ram. Who is that bloke co-commentating? He makes Kenny Burns sound like the chairman of MENSA. Sounded quiet despite the crowd size too. Chris Tyler? (actually I don't know if he still is) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyB Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 I don't understand some of the points being made in this thread. Here's my opinion. Plan B, we have one. Plan A is 4123 with a defensive midfielder and 3 attackers, 2 of them wide. Plan B is 424 with no defensive midfielder and 2 central strikers. Patience, we have won many games with patience and late goals, Rotherham, Charlton and Bournemouth this season spring to mind. With better quality delivery yesterday we could have beaten Millwall. 3 games in a week, some of our players will struggle to play 270 minutes in a week. Eustace, Ward, Ibe has been unwell. We missed Dawkins and maybe should have used Calero wide when we switched to 424. Eustace, doing a fine job and should start until Thorne is available. Whitbread, doing a fine job, the second centre back alongside Keogh will be interesting when everyone is fit. Corners, could be better, I don't mind us mixing it with the odd short corner but Keogh, Whitbread and Forsyth are all capable of heading a well delivered corner into the net. We must get someone to take them and beat the first man, it's not that hard! Overall, I'm delighted with the way things are going. We've had to deal with Wembley disappointment, teams sniffing around our best players, one of our most important players getting a long term injury, teams setting up to stop us playing, other minor short term injuries, etc. we're in 4th, one point off the top and in the 4th round of the league cup. Best start to a season I can remember. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddie Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 No poorer than anyone else but because their face don't fit they are the first ones to get called out. And Dawkins - although with him currently being out injured, he is becoming a better and better player all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddie Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 I'm a big fan of Eustace but it's also horses for courses and today we had so much of the ball in our defensive third yet struggled to create forward momentum. That role isn't just there to defend, it's to provide some creativity to get the midfield and wide men moving. That's what makes Thorne stand out so much, he does both. But thhat isn't JE's strength but against some teams who aren't going to provide much of an attacking threat you need that. Personally I thought after half an hour he looked tired today, wasn't picking up McDonald when he dropped off the centre halves and was too easily by passed when millwall were running at us. But I'd definitely have him in the team for reading away, as a game like that will play to his strengths. Same with Whitbread. To say, as a poster did earlier, that people got on his back because his face doesn't fit is tripe. People were unhappy with him today because he continually played the ball side or back, often when forsyth was standing 10 yards up the pitch totally unmarked. That's what was annoying folk. He seemed really uncomfortable with ball at his feet yet the system we play demands the centre halves can use the ball effectively. The difference between what Keogh was wanting to do with the ball and Whitbread was stark. That's not to say he didn't do his defensive duties perfectly well. Again, Reading away where I imagine it'll be a lot more tackling and heading, and less creativity with the ball, might suit him better and I'd have him in the team no problem. Talking of Keogh, he really caught the eye for me today. Excellent performance. I think I saw Whitbread pass to Forsyth (who was playing as an out-and-out winger after Ibe went off) at least 10 times in the second half yesterday. Every single time he received the ball, if Forsyth was open, he played it to him. Millwall soon got wise to that and their right-sided midfielder pushed wider to try to close Forsyth down. So we would get the triangle between Whitbread, Forsyth and Eustace as they tried to pull Millwall across to our right, thus opening up the ball to Forsyth, either from Whitbread or the long ball from Keogh. Unfortunately, Forsyth's crossing yesterday left a lot to be desired. There were probably two decent crosses by Derby in the entire match - one from Ibe in the first half, and one from Russell in the second. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RamNut Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 Agree re forsyth.....i thought he was poor yesterday. Besides the naff crosses there was a lot of passing it straight back to whitbread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curtains Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 The whole team were poor. 1 shot on target . Wardys was only one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimRam Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 Overall, I'm delighted with the way things are going. We've had to deal with Wembley disappointment, teams sniffing around our best players, one of our most important players getting a long term injury, teams setting up to stop us playing, other minor short term injuries, etc. we're in 4th, one point off the top and in the 4th round of the league cup. Best start to a season I can remember. This last part is the best comment in the thread and just sums us up nicely going into the break. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curtains Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 This last part is the best comment in the thread and just sums us up nicely going into the break. We are not playing the top teams at the moment. Everybody is beating Bolton and Millwall etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ovis aries Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 We had 15 points from 11 games last season, QPR had 26 points from only 10 games. We are 5 points better off, and the top team at the moment is 5 point worse off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ovis aries Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 We are not playing the top teams at the moment. Everybody is beating Bolton and Millwall etc. We have played 6 teams in the top half of the table, only Norwich of the top teams have played more . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curtains Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 We had 15 points from 11 games last season, QPR had 26 points from only 10 games. We are 5 points better off, and the top team at the moment is 5 point worse off.Would be so much better if we played our best players at home to do the job. 3 draws 1 win last 4 home games is poor return from us. Should beat the likes of Ipswich and Millwall with the quality players we have at home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
needles Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 Bad day at the office and didn't lose. Look at the positives, 4 straight clean sheets, unbeaten in ten. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestKentRam Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 My general view on yesterday, without going into specifics on individual players: Pros: Another clean sheet. Millwall, although they had chances, never really had us under the cosh. We had a lot of possession, although... Cons: Could have had more shots. Felt like we were trying to play it into the net on occasion. Possession stats may be reflected in caution of some of the play, with a lot of sideways and back passes, even from relatively good forward positions. Of course the opposition can't score if we have the ball, but then neither can we if we are going backwards with it. Watching the bench, initially Eric Steele applauded cautious back passes. Later on, he was urging players to go forward and seemed to be as exasperated as the crowd. Especially when pressure mounted trying to score towards the end, there were too many wayward crosses that were over hit straight out. Both short and long attacking corners were poor. I'm sure I heard a few boos from the crowd at the final whistle, not just at the officials when they walked off, and don't think this helps the players if they took it to be aimed at them. It does seem unfair given our current standing. Overall: It did feel like a frustrating afternoon. A lot of this is due to increased expectations, with no home loss for 7 months and going into most matches feeling like a win is the only acceptable result. I'm sure I prefer this to struggling in the league, and it makes me worry what will it feel like if, not tempting fate here, we go up and go back to being a struggling side every week. Hopefully we can be more of a current Leicester than QPR in terms of how they are doing. Finally, the last match before an international break was the 1:1 home draw against Ipswich, and I wonder if this is just a coincidence with players not quite being up to it, possibly thinking about future matches or the break, or as SM has said in post match interviews, perhaps they are just tired given the frequency the games are coming at. So I am not at all despondent and try to positively reason it is better to be amongst the leading pack early on like this, to hopefully then pull away later, rather than have the pressure of being out in front too early and then folding, just like in the Tour de France - it's a long season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyB Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 We've played Rotherham, Fulham, Charlton, Ipswich, Reading, Cardiff, Bournemouth and Millwall at home. All wins except Ipswich, Cardiff and Millwall. We don't have good records against Ipswich and Cardiff and lost at home to Millwall last season. We've played Carlisle, Sheff W, Charlton, Forest, Blackburn and Bolton away. Ignoring Carlisle 8 points from 5 games of which only Bolton are poor. Pretty tough fixtures and pretty good results overall I'd say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddie Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 We are not playing the top teams at the moment. Everybody is beating Bolton and Millwall etc. Who are the top teams? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curtains Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 Who are the top teams?ive been surprised this season regarding what I would class as top teams as no one is running away with it. We should be top of the league if our home form had been better. I think the danger is the likes of Norwich and Forest and Watford and Boro and Reading etc haven't really woken up yet There is always teams that go on runs and come out the pack. We have to make sure we are one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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