Portsmouth v Derby County

[ram1964]

Dispite all the negative thoughts on tonight's performance ( rightly so) lets get behind the team and manager for the next game .Very disappointing start but hopefully lessons will be quickly learnt and players will start showing more confidence in their play

[Philmycock]

When did wingers go out of fashion? I like wingers, Let's do wingers!

[lukedcfc]

Meh poor performance and after that I expect more. Grant for the first goal was shocking, anyone would save that, it was Abysmal. And taking off our right back cost is the game.  I cant take any confidence going forward after that we were poor, thankfully it's early season. 

 

Grant - was poor and I have zero confidence in him, Carson deserves no1

Ssewankambo - did well and was unlucky to come off 

Pearce - didn't look very good and keogh is a lot better

Shackell - our best defender by far

Forsyth -  still can't pass but played ok overall

Dawkins. - didn't lose the ball but didn't create much either 

Hendrick - poor game overall

Weimann - average hopefully will improve

Russell - MOM on a poor performance, At least tried to make things happen

Baird - played ok but prefer him in defence, no urgency

Bent - did he play, if he did I can't remember him touching the ball

Ince - cant recall aything he did 

 Thorne - same as ince

Martin - did nothing

Hopingbfor a better perfomance against charlton, a championship side. No excuses this saturday we  have had enough preparation time now to be in the groove to win games and dictate the game

[RamO]

I feel like many of the good points from the last two seasons has evaporated. I.e. slick passing, attacking flair. Has been replaced with lots of long ball. Defence looks better with shackell though - and in combo with Keogh, Baird (RB), and Forsyth (LB), we possibly have a top defence. If we could build from the back and add the good points from last season we could be competitive. 

Early days - give PC a chance. It's only his second ever game in charge of ANY teamteam.

[Anon]

I still thought he was one of our better players today. I agree with Bris he should have been 5-10 yards deeper much of the time, but whether that's him or Clement I don't know.  

I hope you guys are right and Dawkins can do that. Like I stressed in an earlier post, we are crying out for an extra midfielder who can do the same thing Thorne does in getting close to our defenders, demanding the ball to feet, and building an attack from there.

Quite honestly I really struggled to assess the four forward players tonight because, until Thorne came on, they barely saw the football in decent areas.

[Bris Vegas]

If we're to persist with Dawkins, we need options close to him at all times, and the ball in needs to be shorter too. Otherwise he'll continue to look pretty but ineffective.

I liked him on the wing, always looking for the triangle with full back and forward, but unless he's the tip, or cheating role as Ramage refers to it, we'll never see what he can do.

One thing he's not is a traditional box to box midfielder or striker, but to get the best out of him we'd need to build the side around him, and that's not going to happen.

 

Playing three in the middle always gives you options, always.

I just don't get it. It really shouldn't take a genius to look at our squad and know that

- Forsyth is our best attacking fullback

- Thorne is the perfect DM at this level, Dawkins has all the attributes to play his best football in a midfield three.

- Hendrick can only play well in a midfield three, and alongside Dawks and Thorne he would add the physical prescence and arguably the goal threat as he would be able to push forward more.

- Ince is better as a wide right forward, not in the middle

- Martin is our best CF, and he plays his best football as the lone striker in a 4-3-3 linking up with the wingers and dropping deep to allow the midfielders to go beyond him.

It really doesn't take a genius to see arguably 80% of our side is better suited to a 4-3-3. The only players to suffer from a 4-3-3 are probably Bent and Weimann as they prefer central roles. Begs the quation why we bothered to sign them if they didn't already fit the best system suited to our players.

It really isn't rocket science. Round pegs in round holes. Just play the system which best suits our players!

[needles]

Right. That was dogs hit. We got lucky at Bolton, but tonight we got outclassed against a 4th division team.

What have we learnt?

Well, for surely the last time we've been shown that Darren Bent can do nothing, absolutely nothing except get on the end of moves and whack it in the net. He's a rich mans Adam Le Fondre. Play him up from top on his own and you're absolutely guaranteed to gain no change from balls to your centre forward.

Tempo is key. Play without energy and verve and we'll get nowhere. Two games of softly softly tippy happy and we've achieved **** all except a soft back stick header from a corner. Sexy football it ain't.

To slightly paraphrase the dude in the film, 4-3-*******-3. 

Ince can play wide, where he can get it to feet and try to work a bit of magic. He can't play inside.

Weimann isn't as good as Johnny Russell. Neither is he as good as Jamie Ward. But don't tell the doggies.

Shackell is a great signing and deserves better. Keogh will be his partner and Bucko is first change. Shotton and Pearce can put the cones out or something.

George Thorne is immensely talented. 

Lee Grant has played his last game for Derby County.

 

Edit....The manager has question marks against him after this. Two crap away games and he's got to learn quickly that his style is not only not working, it won't work. Take the brakes off, and lets do what we do well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ram1964]

**** happens and unfortunately Grant has had a really poor 6 months. I still like Grant as a 'keeper, but this is the reason we brought Carson in.

I can't help but feel a little sorry for Grant. The look on his face after the error shows that he knows he just sealed a place on the subs bench for the season.

It's never pretty seeing some one struggle and look out of sorts as Grant has in recent months ,but he has had a closed season to get his act together and with Carson coming in been under no illusion of what he needs to do .I will be very disappointed in PC if Carson doesn't make automatic first choice for the moment ,unfortunately keepers get judged on clinical moments of the game and can't hide from their mistakes or poor keeping ,I hope he gets it together but at the moment he just isn't showing any type of form to justify first team selection .Having said that a few players tonight should be shameful of their performance

[Rev]

Playing three in the middle always gives you options, always.

I just don't get it. It really shouldn't take a genius to look at our squad and know that

- Forsyth is our best attacking fullback

- Thorne is the perfect DM at this level, Dawkins has all the attributes to play his best football in a midfield three.

- Hendrick can only play well in a midfield three, and alongside Dawks and Thorne he would add the physical prescence and arguably the goal threat as he would be able to push forward more.

- Ince is better as a wide right forward, not in the middle

- Martin is our best CF, and he plays his best football as the lone striker in a 4-3-3 linking up with the wingers and dropping deep to allow the midfielders to go beyond him.

It really doesn't take a genius to see arguably 80% of our side is better suited to a 4-3-3. The only players to suffer from a 4-3-3 are probably Bent and Weimann as they prefer central roles. Begs the quation why we bothered to sign them if they didn't already fit the best system suited to our players.

It really isn't rocket science. Round pegs in round holes. Just play the system which best suits our players!

The only point I'd quibble with is Hendrick's physical presence, I'm sick to the back teeth of him being bettered by much smaller opponents, even the work experience boy who scored their winner barged him off the ball at one point!

At what point do you call a midfielder who's only effective 30 yds from the opposition goal a forward?

[TheDeadlySaul]

Think we should go back to the 4-3-3, it is perfect for the players we have. 

 

[Tombo]

I can hear the sound of tears crashing against keyboards echoing across Derby tonight. You're all such drama queens. Is it that time of the month or what?

[RadioactiveWaste]

knew this was going to happen as soon as i cracked a smirk at the red dogs result last night.

not seen it as i was driving to london for work, seems I did well out of that.

taking the positives, Thorne not out for the season? we brought the Shack we paid for? PC is 2 games in, he will get better at this and it's the 1st round of the league cup.

 

[Old Spalding Ram]

Playing three in the middle always gives you options, always.

I just don't get it. It really shouldn't take a genius to look at our squad and know that

- Forsyth is our best attacking fullback

- Thorne is the perfect DM at this level, Dawkins has all the attributes to play his best football in a midfield three.

- Hendrick can only play well in a midfield three, and alongside Dawks and Thorne he would add the physical prescence and arguably the goal threat as he would be able to push forward more.

- Ince is better as a wide right forward, not in the middle

- Martin is our best CF, and he plays his best football as the lone striker in a 4-3-3 linking up with the wingers and dropping deep to allow the midfielders to go beyond him.

It really doesn't take a genius to see arguably 80% of our side is better suited to a 4-3-3. The only players to suffer from a 4-3-3 are probably Bent and Weimann as they prefer central roles. Begs the quation why we bothered to sign them if they didn't already fit the best system suited to our players.

It really isn't rocket science. Round pegs in round holes. Just play the system which best suits our players!

Post of the day ................a pearl in a sea of drivel.  Have a like.

[TimRam]

How we went in at half time 0-0 I will never know...Portsmouth should have been out of sight by then. Calamity Grant strikes again. Bent none existant. Russell tried hard and nearly weaved his way through their defence at one point unlucky not to get a penalty (I should have said unlucky not to get a shot as I do not recall that many from us).Slightly improved in 2nd half but even with our subs (first team regulars) on the pitch, Portsmouth looked like a Premiership side compared to us at times. Hope we can sort it for the next game!

[All in Red]

"Slow clap" Nice one lads..not nice being duped by the lower leagues is it??..

[RadioactiveWaste]

positives:

After the Northampton game (was it) PC let them know what he won't tolerate and things improved - I would hope for something similar v Charlton.

[mozza]

One consolation , we have a new 'Matchday Thread' starter , iRam was GASH !!

Who's up for it ?

[cloughandtaylor]

Think we will win this one, mainly because I think Clement will decide to go a bit more offensive.

Nope!

[eddie]

I can hear the sound of tears crashing against keyboards echoing across Derby tonight. You're all such drama queens. Is it that time of the month or what?

Tears, eyeballs, the lot...

[will1]

Out, out, out - TBF he's had long enough , time for a new direction.