McClaren Gone

[ramesses]

When did Nigel give us a memorable cup night?

Crawley was, but for the wrong reasons.

​He's gone now. Time to move on.

[Tombo]

I voted yes.

"Newcastle gate" may have been an issue in the collapse in form or it may be a total red herring but simply put Mac didn't imo deal with it very well. The performance against Reading however, where we still only needed a point to get in the playoffs remember, was absolutely totally unacceptable. It was worse than shocking. Mac was the manager, he rightly had to answer as to why it happened. Maybe he simply couldn't convince the board he knew why it happened and we went from top three to bottom three in the form table during large parts of the last 25% of the season.

I don't think it's helpful to demonise Mel Morris by the way as none of us know the full facts.

UTR.

​This for me is huge factor too. We only needed one point to get into the playoffs and we collapsed 3-0 against a lower mid table team with nothing to play for. On that evidence, how was he ever going to turn it around next year? He can't motivate them to get a draw against Reading on the final day, on that day it just felt like his time was up. As the season has gone on he's seemed to have less and less of a grip on the players until Reading came around and he'd finally lost it and was out of ideas. It was a downward curve showing no signs of stabilising without a doubt.

[Van der MoodHoover]

​What are these bizarre tactics? I can only think of one game where his tactics were a bit odd and that was the second half against Brentford where Martin seemed to be playing on the wing.

The biggest criticism about Mac was him being stubborn in not changing 4-3-3, but that is hardly being 'bizarre'

​Russell up top on his own and playing longer balls out of the back 4 2 feet over his head looked a bit odd

[Tombo]

I mean, I can't count the amount of times we lost or drew this season and some of the more 'analytical' posters declared that it was the worst performance under McClaren. How many times was that being said?

"Charlton away was the worst... no in fact it was Leeds away... no in fact it was Boro away.... No it was Forest at Home...no it was Reading in the cup... No it was Fulham... No Brentford.... NO IN FACT Wolves...."

And so on...

[TheDeadlySaul]

​Russell up top on his own and playing longer balls out of the back 4 2 feet over his head looked a bit odd

​We had no other strikers as Bent and Martin were both injured. As I said my only criticism was not changing the system, when we lost our focal point in Martin we should have changed the formation to accommodate Russell.

I wish we used a 4-2-3-1 more often when we lost all the CDMs and Martin, it meant we could have had 2 midfielders protecting the back 4 and didn't have to rely on a lone striker to hold up the play in Martin.  

[eddie]

AND voting Tory!!

​I can see the logic was not lost on you, RamNut

[ramsbottom]

but inhonesty , it did look like SM  was edging his bets  as regards the Newcastle job ,   But what i cant comprehend is  how come it effected the players so much from March until end of season , yes we had injuries .  but imo  we still had a squad good enough to get in the play offs ..winning them without key members would have been another matter

​Schteve, got most of the players to sign new contracts last summer preaching the virtues of commitment to the cause, then get's itchy feet at the first sign of a bigger club taking an interest.  Regardless of you believe the rumours of him telling the squad he was going before the Fulham away game, how p1ssed off must players like Bryson, Hendrick, Martin & Keogh be if they see him refusing to make the same pledges???

[Mostyn6]

but inhonesty , it did look like SM  was edging his bets  as regards the Newcastle job ,   But what i cant comprehend is  how come it effected the players so much from March until end of season , yes we had injuries .  but imo  we still had a squad good enough to get in the play offs ..winning them without key members would have been another matter

​My opinion is that it didn't effect them. The players that actually played poorly, are the ones that rely on confidence and luck over ability to perform. Lets not forgot that aside of the Fulham and Brentford games, up until Reading, we were largely ruing our bad luck and a series of questionable refereeing performances. Now the season is over, those games are being purported as the worst performances ever, when really, they weren't.

The games were NOT won because of poor decisions and poor execution of the basics. My opinion is that once a player's mind isn't right when on the pitch, there's little or nothing a manager can do from the sideline.

My belief/hope was that those players would be replaced by ones with better concentration, decision making and mental strength. In the same way we couldn't and didn't blame Nigel Clough for the inadequacies in the players he inherited, Steve McClaren should've been allowed the chance to make the team his own and not be the fall guy for the ineptitude of players he should be allowed the time to replace.

[Gary Teale]

​We had no other strikers as Bent and Martin were both injured. As I said my only criticism was not changing the system, when we lost our focal point in Martin we should have changed the formation to accommodate Russell.

I wish we used a 4-2-3-1 more often when we lost all the CDMs and Martin, it meant we could have had 2 midfielders protecting the back 4 and didn't have to rely on a lone striker to hold up the play in Martin.  

​He did play that way in some games yet it didn't suit Hughes and Hendrick (or Bryson). People moan about systems all the time, we lost games as we kept throwing goals in at the back making mistake after mistake not if we played one of the midfielders a tiny bit deeper.

For me Steve Mc complained that we lost our defensive midfielders, well Thorne was out for the season at the start, then Eustace broke down wasn't going to play again so why didn't he sign someone to back up Mascarell. As Eustace showed when Eustace was in the side, we didn't need a world beater there, im sure they could have found a championship steady eddy. He chose not to sign anyone and filled the squad with wingers and attacking players. We had injuries at the back with Buxton and Whitbread so we went and signed a guy from spain who cant seem to play left side, couldn't settle, or just isn't very good depending on who you listen to. 

Our team would always score goals, it was the other end that was the problem and that wasn't rectified. 

[Albert]

​My opinion is that it didn't effect them. The players that actually played poorly, are the ones that rely on confidence and luck over ability to perform. Lets not forgot that aside of the Fulham and Brentford games, up until Reading, we were largely ruing our bad luck and a series of questionable refereeing performances. Now the season is over, those games are being purported as the worst performances ever, when really, they weren't.

The games were NOT won because of poor decisions and poor execution of the basics. My opinion is that once a player's mind isn't right when on the pitch, there's little or nothing a manager can do from the sideline.

My belief/hope was that those players would be replaced by ones with better concentration, decision making and mental strength. In the same way we couldn't and didn't blame Nigel Clough for the inadequacies in the players he inherited, Steve McClaren should've been allowed the chance to make the team his own and not be the fall guy for the ineptitude of players he should be allowed the time to replace.

​That's the entire role of the head coach, to be able to get the players minds in the right place and to as such, get the best out of them. That's most of the damn point of McClaren's position, that was largely what he started off by doing so much better than Clough. The scouting and signing side of things is done elsewhere in the club, with input from the Head Coach, as was shown by our transfer policy remaining largely untouched when we changed managers, with us even going back in for previous targets. Many reported that the tactical side of things was a group effort as well, along with training. 

If what you're saying is "McClaren can't motivate the players once their confidence is gone", then there would be little use to him anyhow. That's the thing though, he could motivate the side, but what occurred over his tenure was a repeated pattern of failing when the pressure was on, failing when achievements were there for the taking. The real question though is how well he dealt with the players' concerns of him leaving, but again, that remains to be seen. 

[TheDeadlySaul]

​He did play that way in some games yet it didn't suit Hughes and Hendrick (or Bryson). People moan about systems all the time, we lost games as we kept throwing goals in at the back making mistake after mistake not if we played one of the midfielders a tiny bit deeper.

For me Steve Mc complained that we lost our defensive midfielders, well Thorne was out for the season at the start, then Eustace broke down wasn't going to play again so why didn't he sign someone to back up Mascarell. As Eustace showed when Eustace was in the side, we didn't need a world beater there, im sure they could have found a championship steady eddy. He chose not to sign anyone and filled the squad with wingers and attacking players. We had injuries at the back with Buxton and Whitbread so we went and signed a guy from spain who cant seem to play left side, couldn't settle, or just isn't very good depending on who you listen to. 

Our team would always score goals, it was the other end that was the problem and that wasn't rectified. 

​We only ever tried 4-2-3-1 once against Wolves away and it worked quite well, we only lost due to silly mistakes by Grant and Forsyth and poor refereeing decisions.

When Thorne got injured Mac did get cover when he loaned in Mascarell, but I don't think anyone could have thought that Eustace and Mascarell would both get injured, Mascarell was injured in March so we couldn't get a replacement. Jake Buxton at first had a hamstring problem and was only expected to be injured for a little while, but in April Jake had back problems ruling him out for the rest of the season and then his backup Whitbread got injured as well.  

McClaren was very unlucky with injuries and I firmly believe that was the main issue in our drop in performances. We could score goals, but we couldn't defend.

[EastKentRam]

​My opinion is that it didn't effect them. The players that actually played poorly, are the ones that rely on confidence and luck over ability to perform. Lets not forgot that aside of the Fulham and Brentford games, up until Reading, we were largely ruing our bad luck and a series of questionable refereeing performances. Now the season is over, those games are being purported as the worst performances ever, when really, they weren't.

The games were NOT won because of poor decisions and poor execution of the basics. My opinion is that once a player's mind isn't right when on the pitch, there's little or nothing a manager can do from the sideline.

My belief/hope was that those players would be replaced by ones with better concentration, decision making and mental strength. In the same way we couldn't and didn't blame Nigel Clough for the inadequacies in the players he inherited, Steve McClaren should've been allowed the chance to make the team his own and not be the fall guy for the ineptitude of players he should be allowed the time to replace.

​Agree with a lot of this.

So many goals conceeded towards the end of the season were down to inconceivable defensive errors from players who had been solid for the previous 2 years. Maybe you can blame the manager to an extent for this, but a large portion of the blame goes down to the individual.

Pressure, mental strength and expectations play a huge role in all sport. When we started to falter, it just kept leading from one mistake to the next which can be hard to recover from. I think it says a lot the amount of times we made come backs during the bad run, the pressure was off at those points. 

People also forget how this Championship season was extremely rare in regards to the standard between the good teams and the bad teams. Since the 24 team system has been in place, no team has ever missed out on the play offs with 76+ points. In that respect, we were extremely unlucky.

[ramit]

hi guys, 1st time on the forum so hello, although I live just outside Reading, I come from Derby and have always been a Rams fan. for me Macs leaving is a bit of a knee jerk , he should have been given another year . We should also keep Eric and Paul.

 

for

​Hi Woodley Ram, welcome to the forum.  i agree with you, but what's done is done.  i would at least want to keep Steele around.

[Sweetness34]

I'm completley torn... probably the same as a lot of people. On one hand, we've had the most entertaining couple seasons (give or take a few months) and SM's contacts list and trust amongst premier league managers seemed to assist us no end with loans. On the other hand, March April and May were terrible and I can't accept that the SM's unwillingness to dismiss himself from the NUFC talk didn't have an impact on our form to some degree.

 

At least it's not boring!

[Ramos]

Some of us think Mac got an unfair deal, look at this!

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/watford-set-to-replace-manager-slavisa-jokanovic-despite-premier-league-promotion-and-have-made-an-approach-to-quique-flores-10276135.html 

 

Watford look set to replace manager Slavisa Jokanovic despite the Serbian leading the Hornet to promotion to the Premier League, and are reported to be in talks with former Atletico Madrid manager Quique Flores.

Jokanovic became Watford’s fourth manager of the season when he replaced Billy McKinlay in October, with the Northern Irishman taking charge of just two matches.  His appointment came off the back of Oscar Garcia’s resignation, with the Spaniard only taking the job in September having replaced Giuseppe Sannino.

Jokanovic’s arrival brought some stability to the club, and saw them mount a charge up the Championship table, culminating in a second-place finish and automatic promotion to the Premier League along with Bournemouth and play-off winners Norwich.

However, Jokanovic was only signed on a contract until the end of the season, and he is reported to be extremely disappointed by Watford’s offer to extend his stay at Vicarage Road.

With the 46-year old facing a surprise exit before the Premier League gets underway, the Daily Mail claim that Flores has emerged as the number one target for the Hornets, and an official approach is already said to have been made.

[St. Jimmy]

Yes from me. Purely based on footballing reasons; Last year we rode the crest of a wave with a high team spirit instilled by Clough. Yes McClaren came in and improved us but this team spirit collapsed dramatically this season as did the performances, not only in the last two months of the season but over the course of the season; Leeds and Brentford away and Forest and Wigan at home, spring to mind.

Injuries played a big part in the final two months but in January everyone was saying we had the strongest squad so in my view we should have been able to cope. A change of system was needed that fitted the personnel available and something had to be done to stop the influx of goals but McClaren showed no flexibility and that was part of his downfall.

The results weren’t even the worst part but the manner of the performances; they were lacklustre and lacked energy. Watching us play against teams like Huddersfield and Reading and thinking they are more up for it than our team who have something to play for and thinking why? It was just not the same team we have been accustomed to seeing for past 18 months. Part of it has to be down to the players and I do believe McClaren was let down badly by the team and some of the things the players did once they’d stepped over the white line are beyond the managers control. However, it is the manager/head coach’s job to prepare the players for each match and the mental and physical capitulation was nothing short of abysmal. For that reason a change was needed to bring new energy into the club and hopefully fix some of the players’ broken minds.

The reason for the capitulation remains to be seen but I don’t buy into the Newcastle speculation having such a detrimental effect. At the end of the day they’re professional footballers getting paid handsomely to do a job and it doesn’t matter to them who the manager is, in the end they will still get paid. After all in modern football there is always going to be speculation, about players, managers, board members, whatever, the players must be use to it and get on with it. It was only the fans getting into a tiz over it and making it out to be a bigger deal than it was. I’m not going to speculate about what went on the behind the scenes and start disliking board members or McClaren based on hearsay. They know what went on and make a decision in the best interest of Derby County and us fans can say they’ve got it wrong but we may never know the whole story of the goings on.

Time to get behind the new manager, whoever he is, and start actually SUPPORTING Derby County.  

Final word on Clement, I think he would be a good appointment. Similar ilk to McClaren (good coach, worked at the top clubs with highly regarded managers (and Steve Kean), will have good contacts in the game) minus the experience. Tactical and man management ability remains to be seen and will be judged after he’s had time to implement his ideas. I think he will continue in the same direction as McClaren and Clough. A big overhaul is not needed just a few tweaks here and there, similar to when McClaren took over. I expect another exciting season ahead.   

 

[MuespachRam]

and what about Klopp.?

[angieram]

The Radio Derby website states that 'we will hear from Sam Rush' on the Sportscene Talk-in this evening from 6 p.m. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say (or doesn't say!)

 

 

[Mostyn6]

people harping on about the team spirit created by Clough, I'm pretty sure one of his last home games was against Reading and it wasn't too dissimilar from the last game against Reading.

 

It's a mystery!

[3232]