Derby County vs Brentford

[Shuff264]

​You're looking at it all wrong.

Dawkins isn't there to play the killer pass, in the same way Iniesta isn't for Barcelona. Did you know Iniesta hasn't claimed a single assist or goal this season? 

Whoscored.com have statistics for this sort of thing.

Dawkins does create, he creates space and allows the front three the opportunity to create something in the final third. He was the link player. The amount of times he got the ball into the feet of Martin, Bent and Ince plus the fullbacks was great to see.

How many times did Hendrick (other than his shot) or Bryson get the ball into the front three's feet in or around the Brenftford box? Zilch.

​I have to agree about Dawkins, lovely feet on him. Never gives it away and draws defenders into him to create space.

Really dont know why he isnt getting a start in behind the striker, would be fantastic at holding up the ball there and making stuff happen. Shove Ince out to the wing, start with either Martin or Bent so we have some way of changing the game late on.

[Bridgford Ram]

​You're looking at it all wrong.

Dawkins isn't there to play the killer pass, in the same way Iniesta isn't for Barcelona. Did you know Iniesta hasn't claimed a single assist or goal this season? 

Whoscored.com have statistics for this sort of thing.

Dawkins does create, he creates space and allows the front three the opportunity to create something in the final third. He was the link player. The amount of times he got the ball into the feet of Martin, Bent and Ince plus the fullbacks was great to see.

How many times did Hendrick (other than his shot) or Bryson get the ball into the front three's feet in or around the Brenftford box? Zilch.

​We'll never agree on Dawkins we really won't.  Anyone (bar Forsyth) could constantly pass the ball 5 yards to a team mate without ever stretching the opposition, creating space or creating a chance.  He offers nothing to the team and I thought he looked lost today.

[RamNut]

Grant 5

keogh 5

warnock 4

albentosa 4

forsyth 2

bryson 4

hendrick 6

russell 4

ince 4

martin 5

bent 5

[Guest]

Embarrassingly poor. Didn't look like scoring till Bent popped up. What has gone so wrong?

[TopRam]

Thought warnock was our best player today 

[Anon]

What was McClaren thinking today? I felt before kick off that persisting with an unbalanced defence and going two up top was wrong, but the changes at half time were unbelievably poor. One of our main issues in the first half was a lack of width with Russell and Ince flat out refusing to adapt to a new system with two men up front. So what do we do after half time? Push Ince central, bring on Dawkins who is known for cutting inside and move our talisman out to the left. Are you ****ing kidding me Steve?! The following formation will never win a game and led to some utterly laughable situations where one of bewildered full backs looked for a pass down the line to see every single one of our players clustered in the center circle like an under 8s game.

                                           Bent

                        Martin          Ince

                                  Bryson         Dawkins

                                       Hendrick

Warnock               Forsyth             Albentosa               Keogh

                                         Grant

[Bris Vegas]

I can't remember a single time he set up an actual chance. He likes to slow down our attacking play, I'll give him that..

​How many chances did Ince, Martin or Bryson create? They all created nothing.

We had one shot in the entire second half from memory, and it went in.

But one thing Dawkins did was to feed our front players, something our fellow midfielders failed to do over and over again.

[DCFClk]

Can someone tell me what McClaren has actually done to improve the team since he came in?

[North_Stand_Ram]

Can someone tell me what McClaren has actually done to improve the team since he came in?

We were 14th when he came in. Pathetic...

[North_Stand_Ram]

​How many chances did Ince, Martin or Bryson create? They all created nothing.

We had one shot in the entire second half from memory, and it went in.

But one thing Dawkins did was to feed our front players, something our fellow midfielders failed to do over and over again.

Feeding players in isn't enough for a player in that role.. But that's just my opinion. Football fans expect different things from players! 

[bcnram]

What is McClaren doing to this team? I think his honeymoon period is over and he needs to up his game. That was an absolute shambles today, I was embarrassed to applaud our equalizer after that dross.

[CambsRam]

That was an unacceptable performance from manger to player . Worst for along time and proves we have gone backwards whilst our oppositions have moved fwd ... And sussed us out big time !!

Mac got taken to pieces on tactics , motivation and team selection 

players made far to many mistakes , hit wild passes , didn't work together and seemed slow and laboured .

Something is just not right at derby and it's not just the lack of luck , poor play ... The loan signings might be something to do with it .. Together with dressing room unrest about Mac .  Bent don't forget had personal issues at villa ! Ince couldn't get a regular place ..

who knows !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ambitious]

I'm basically just going to reiterate what everyone else has put really. 

Ratings: Grant - 6; Keogh - 6, Albentosa - 4, Forsyth - 2, Warnock - 5; Hendrick - 4, Bryson - 4; Ince - 5, Martin - 5, Russell - 4; Bent - 5. 

Dawkins - 6, Whitbread - 6 and Lingard - 5

Summary:

In truth, I think it was our worst performance of the season - largely due to the distribution. 

Keogh did well today but it's clear he isn't a right back, we need him in the heart of the defence for his distribution. However, with Christie and Shotton injured, I don't think he had much of a choice. 

Forsyth put in the worst performance of the season today, that I'm sure of. He was good in the air but that was it. He was all over the shop. I've never seen a player make so many bad passes. According to the stats, he played 19 long balls and only two hit their intended target. 

Albentosa looks like a poor signing. He's a bad footballer, which you can normally get away with as a defender, but he doesn't look at all comfortable defensively either. I thought on a couple of occasions today that he could have been at fault for a couple of goals.

Warnock was tidy on the ball and didn't lose it often but offered nothing going forward. He played one or two crosses that were just horrific on any level. 

Hendrick and Bryson can't play together, as people have touched on, but that's no secret. Hendrick forced himself on the game and came deep but made some horrendous decisions, lost the ball in dangerous areas which could have been costly. Bryson just didn't impose himself on the game at all. He was reasonably tidy but you could have been forgiven for not noticing him. 

All the attackers had fairly quiet games. Martin's midas touch wasn't there today and you could tell. Bent got the late equaliser and worked hard but didn't really have much good service to play with. Russell looked completely gone - shouldn't have started in the first place. Ince as always worked hard and tried to make things happen but it didn't really work for him. 

What needs to change: 

We need to get the footballers back in the defence; we need to stop playing the ball long. Albentosa and Forsyth don't work well together at all. Both players aren't good footballers, which ultimately leads to a lot of long passes up the field that never reach their marker. At least this will have opened people's eyes up to just how good the Keogh, Buxton partnership was. 

In midfield, we need someone who will sit and get the ball from the back four. Hanson wasn't great but after seeing the Hendrick, Bryson combination then I would opt to put him back in the side. Maybe even Klobenz - he's a holding midfielder, right? 

In attack, there is no major problem but we shouldn't be playing ill players when we're well stocked. Lingard, Ward or Dawkins would have been able to play the role asked of Russell today and perhaps would have done a lot better. 

I must say, though, the idea to put Martin on the left was perhaps the worst decision I can remember. 

[Dimmu]

 

Summary:

In truth, I think it was our worst performance of the season - largely due to the distribution. 

​I've heard that a lot lately

[Ambitious]

​I've heard that a lot lately

​I can't quite work out if it shaded Middlesbrough and Norwich away but it's up there. 

[Shuff264]

Was an awful performance, we look lost. No plan at all.

Defence couldnt get the ball to the midfield, but both of them were at fault. Poor passes and poor movement.

The forward players ran and Martin tried to keep hold of the ball but couldnt do anything with it

The back four has to change, keogh needs to be back in the centre and forsyth needs to get back on the left.

Luckily we've got blackpool next, might be a good chance to put in a strong performance and get a good result to boost confidence.

[Dimmu]

My analysis of the game:

Some of our players have great beards, others not so.

[Duracell]

Martin playing out wide and Forsyth at centre back is the first time I've been left baffled by a decision from the current manager. I can normally see what the thinking is, even if I don't agree with it at the time, but that one still has me completely stumped.

Why play Forsyth at CB when Whitbread is sat on the bench?

Injuries are the main reason for our poor run but today was the first time since the current management team came in that I felt they weren't in control. I'm not saying they've lost the players, but what we saw on the pitch today can not possibly be anything like what they were trying to do, and what it is they were trying to do was far from obvious to me at least.

 

[Ramarena]

Grant 7

Keogh 6

Albentosa 5

Forsyth 2

Warnock 4

Bryson 4

Hendrick 6

Ince 5

Martin 5

Bent 5

Russell 3

 

Dawkins 5

Lingard and Whitbread NA.

 

 

Worst performance since the 3-0 loss against Burnley during the cloughie reign. Embarrassing. Forsyth and Bryson... Jesus

 

 

​Really Fulham away was far worse, performance and result wise. 

[Duracell]

I can't remember a single time he set up an actual chance. He likes to slow down our attacking play, I'll give him that..

​We always look more likely to create with Dawkins on the pitch. It's excellent how he slows it down, because without him today every single player got the ball and tried to lump it forward to Bent and Martin marked by 6 players.

Ince is a great individual player for example, and he scores many more goals and creates more chances. But today Dawkins was what we needed. Ince is too much of an individual, and loses the ball at times when we need someone with the intelligence to just slow it down and keep that white round thing which we used to treat so preciously.

Dawkins allows other players to do what they're good at - he creates their space, and everyone around him plays better. From what I've seen so far, our whole team seems to suffer from Tom Ince's obvious obsession with goals and assists.

It's the "Ballon D'Or"-syndrome that Wenger and Mourinho have taken a pop at.