How can improved consistency be instilled into a talented squad?

[Carl Sagan]

Excellent thread. I'm not sure what more there is to say,but I'll give it a go. It's a little worrying that our finest period in the last three seasons was really three years ago, from when McClaren came in through to the playoff final defeat. We were rarely as fluent/dominant the following season, or the one after, even though on both occasions we made it to the top of the league.

Perhaps one thing we've lacked is genuine competition for places. In that first McClaren season we continually rotated the four wide players with who was on form starting, knowing they'd get 60-70 minutes, but always giving the other wingers a chance to stake a claim for the next game and show they might be even better. In midfield we had the trio of Hughes, Hendrick and Bryson fighting it out for two places, leading to the controversial decision (I felt the right one) to start Hughes and Hendrick in the final, because they had played so brilliantly the preceding game against Brighton. Even though Bryson had scored a ridiculous number of goals from midfield through the season. But it really seemed as though you had to play out of your skin to keep the shirt. For instance, Shotton had been brought in and started well but Bucko upped his game and won his place back and played football no one had suspected him capable of.

My impression is that since then the coaches have had more undroppable favourites and less serious competition. That's hard to justify and may simply be a mistaken view, but I've felt that however well they trained or played there was never a real chance for Weimann, Camara, Blackman or Bent to make the team. Martin felt undroppable despite new competition. Ditto Ince, Johnson, Shackell, and definitely Russell and Bryson under Wassall. Bucko's not had a look-in. Butterfield dropped down the pecking order seemingly without doing much wrong.

I would say the squad has been too large while the pool of players with a chance of making it onto the pitch too small. What we need is a smaller overall squad but one where every player believes that if they perform well they will get a chance and if they can keep performing well they will keep the shirt. If we can trim the squad (and with it the wage bill) it also allows is to afford the quality rather than quantity that might help take us to the next level.

[Seth's left foot]

6 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

Excellent thread. I'm not sure what more there is to say,but I'll give it a go. It's a little worrying that our finest period in the last three seasons was really three years ago, from when McClaren came in through to the playoff final defeat. We were rarely as fluent/dominant the following season, or the one after, even though on both occasions we made it to the top of the league.

Perhaps one thing we've lacked is genuine competition for places. In that first McClaren season we continually rotated the four wide players with who was on form starting, knowing they'd get 60-70 minutes, but always giving the other wingers a chance to stake a claim for the next game and show they might be even better. In midfield we had the trio of Hughes, Hendrick and Bryson fighting it out for two places, leading to the controversial decision (I felt the right one) to start Hughes and Hendrick in the final, because they had played so brilliantly the preceding game against Brighton. Even though Bryson had scored a ridiculous number of goals from midfield through the season. But it really seemed as though you had to play out of your skin to keep the shirt. For instance, Shotton had been brought in and started well but Bucko upped his game and won his place back and played football no one had suspected him capable of.

My impression is that since then the coaches have had more undroppable favourites and less serious competition. That's hard to justify and may simply be a mistaken view, but I've felt that however well they trained or played there was never a real chance for Weimann, Camara, Blackman or Bent to make the team. Martin felt undroppable despite new competition. Ditto Ince, Johnson, Shackell, and definitely Russell and Bryson under Wassall. Bucko's not had a look-in. Butterfield dropped down the pecking order seemingly without doing much wrong.

I would say the squad has been too large while the pool of players with a chance of making it onto the pitch too small. What we need is a smaller overall squad but one where every player believes that if they perform well they will get a chance and if they can keep performing well they will keep the shirt. If we can trim the squad (and with it the wage bill) it also allows is to afford the quality rather than quantity that might help take us to the next level.

Excellent post.

[Ramos]

16 hours ago, Rampage said:

Nigel has been talking about creating a positive atmosphere at the club to allow players to develop. Interesting that Nigel appears to be taking U18, U21 and First Team Squad players all together to Portugal for a week. is this the first sign of an all inclusive approach? It sounds like a step in the right direction at such an early stage.

I think this was something Mel said would be happening even as far back as last October. I seem to remember him saying a mix would go a broad to help create the mentality of playing the same football seamlessly from the first team to the u21. 

I certainly feel this is something Nigel is fully on board with from the way he seems to want to have an impact on the club as a whole. 

In term of getting consistency, it's hard to say how it can be achieved in a league like the championship. You could argue there are very few teams that have really found consistency from the start to the very end. I think the Leicester team and the record breaking reading come into that category as being two teams that really took the league by the scruff of the neck. 

Every team has a blip it would appear, certainly boro and Hull did and both got promotion. 

For Derby it's about reducing the amount of blips we seem to have over a season and find a way to keep winning even when we aren't quite at the races. 

I certainly think man management and motivation for certain players has come into question in the past season. Ince for example on his day can be a match winner, but it's like one 8 out of ten performance for four 4 out of ten performancea. So I guess it's about us trying to figure out the motivation of some of our players to get them to play to the level they can play at. Is it an arm round their shoulder or the hair dryer? 

I thought it was interesting to see what Oakley had to say about Pearson - first day he came up to Oakley and said are you staying, im going to need your experience to help us get promoted. It's little conversations like that, make players feel wanted and picking out what part they have to play could give players more confidence. 

We all know this squad can easily get promotion on paper, weaker squads have done it, including ourselves in 2007. So hopefully Pearson is the right manager to get the consistency we need. People in the game seem to think that he doesnt accept players who don't try or put enough effort in. At some points last season the desire of the players was questionable. 

So if Pearson can tap into the players and find their motivations to play to a constantly high level hopefully we should find consistency. I also imagine making sure the squad is in tip top shape fitness wise will play a big part if he was to get us to play with the same intensity as his Leicester teams. 

[StringerBell]

I would like to take this opportunity to criticise individual players.

Blackmans been a bit gash so far.

[Highgate]

To get consistently high level performance is really difficult...consistent good results even harder (I presume that's the sort of consistency we are looking for).  The role played in football of random chance is significant and often overlooked.  Every team can play well and lose a match, any team can have really bad luck in a game or suffer at the hand of bad calls from refs and linesmen.  Also throughout a season a team has no control of the form and extent of injuries of the teams they play every week. 

The fact that luck is so important in football, makes consistency really difficult to achieve, unless your team really is vastly superior to the opposition .  One of the most inaccurate phrases often repeated in the game when referring to something like a bad referees decision is 'These things balance themselves out of the course of a season'. Even allowing for no bias from refs, there is simply no reason why this would be true.  And it's the same with all the other aspects of the game that involve luck.  Probability has no memory.

Sure, there are still ways of trying to maintain levels of performance to a high level as best you can.  But in a competitive league like that championship, even if you always prepare correctly, the effects of random chance will make every team look inconsistent from time to time.

[CornwallRam]

57 minutes ago, Ramos said:

I think this was something Mel said would be happening even as far back as last October. I seem to remember him saying a mix would go a broad to help create the mentality of playing the same football seamlessly from the first team to the u21. 

I certainly feel this is something Nigel is fully on board with from the way he seems to want to have an impact on the club as a whole. 

And therein lies the key to what will happen. I've researched a lot about Nigel Pearson. His footballing style, his tactical judgement, his team building and his transfer dealing are all top notch. I'm completely reassured about his credentials on all but two points - 

1, There is a question mark over the way he handles public pressure. There exists the possibility that he could do something in the heat of the moment which could make his position untenable. Hopefully he's learnt a lot and will be more measured with us. That said, I hope he doesn't become a bland, media friendly mannequin, just that he can avoid lamping someone or snarling out something unforgivable.

2, He has fallen out with every owner that he's worked for. IMO, this is our biggest potential issue. If he clashes with Mel we could have enormous problems. However, I'm actually pretty hopeful on this front. I have a suspicion that his vision for the club is very close to Mel's. Mel went into Clement's dressing room because he felt that the players weren't putting in the effort - I suspect that Mel won't find that particular intervention necessary during Pearson's regime. Mel does want continuity throughout the club and I'm led to believe that tours involving the senior and junior sides are his idea - but that fits perfectly with the way Pearson has managed in the past. I'm hoping (and with a degree of self-delusion that is only possible from a football fan in the summer) expecting that Mel and Nigel will actually get on brilliantly because they each have very similar visions for the future of Derby County. 

IMO it is the binary between Morris and Pearson that will decide our consistency, and eventually, our success.

[Ram@Lincoln]

18 minutes ago, CornwallRam said:

1, There is a question mark over the way he handles public pressure.

I think the way he handled it at Leicester was fantastic. Yes, a little immature with his answers, but he did what was needed. Leicester's players were under huge pressure to perform, so he moved all that pressure onto himself, which led to them playing without pressure or fear and finishing the season in excellent form. It was a masterstroke I think.

[Rampage]

4 hours ago, jono said:

 Engineers call it a build up of tolerances.

Fans call it a build up of intolerances! 

[Rampage]

3 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

Excellent thread. I'm not sure what more there is to say,but I'll give it a go. It's a little worrying that our finest period in the last three seasons was really three years ago, from when McClaren came in through to the playoff final defeat. We were rarely as fluent/dominant the following season, or the one after, even though on both occasions we made it to the top of the league.

Perhaps one thing we've lacked is genuine competition for places. In that first McClaren season we continually rotated the four wide players with who was on form starting, knowing they'd get 60-70 minutes, but always giving the other wingers a chance to stake a claim for the next game and show they might be even better. In midfield we had the trio of Hughes, Hendrick and Bryson fighting it out for two places, leading to the controversial decision (I felt the right one) to start Hughes and Hendrick in the final, because they had played so brilliantly the preceding game against Brighton. Even though Bryson had scored a ridiculous number of goals from midfield through the season. But it really seemed as though you had to play out of your skin to keep the shirt. For instance, Shotton had been brought in and started well but Bucko upped his game and won his place back and played football no one had suspected him capable of.

My impression is that since then the coaches have had more undroppable favourites and less serious competition. That's hard to justify and may simply be a mistaken view, but I've felt that however well they trained or played there was never a real chance for Weimann, Camara, Blackman or Bent to make the team. Martin felt undroppable despite new competition. Ditto Ince, Johnson, Shackell, and definitely Russell and Bryson under Wassall. Bucko's not had a look-in. Butterfield dropped down the pecking order seemingly without doing much wrong.

I would say the squad has been too large while the pool of players with a chance of making it onto the pitch too small. What we need is a smaller overall squad but one where every player believes that if they perform well they will get a chance and if they can keep performing well they will keep the shirt. If we can trim the squad (and with it the wage bill) it also allows is to afford the quality rather than quantity that might help take us to the next level.

Bettert han any newspaper or web article that I have read on this subject. Forward to Pearson, I think, Carl

[CornwallRam]

1 hour ago, Rampage said:

Bettert han any newspaper or web article that I have read on this subject. Forward to Pearson, I think, Carl

That's because it was a solo effort.

[sage]

22 hours ago, Rampage said:

Derby County have a talented squad, a jigsaw of capable players. There is a missing factor which contributed to us missing out on promotion over the last three years. Assuming a limited budget caused by Fair Play rules, how can Nigel Pearson now achieve what the last three managers could not achieve? Can it be done in one season? This is not an opportunity to criticise individual players but an opportunity to describe what can be done to achieve our common aim. Any useful suggestions?

1, Decide on a style of play. 

2, Only have players that suit that style of play

3. Have 2 suitable players for each position.

4. Don't sign lazy players, ones with bad attitudes or mood hoovers.

5. Don't panic when we have one bad game.

6. Err that's about it. 

 

 

[Carl Sagan]

2 hours ago, Rampage said:

Bettert han any newspaper or web article that I have read on this subject. Forward to Pearson, I think, Carl

Behave!

Though it goes without saying that Mel should employ me in some sort of advisory capacity on a contract saying no one at the club can earn more.

[Rampage]

6 hours ago, jono said:

some excellent things

[Rampage]

9 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

Behave!

Though it goes without saying that Mel should employ me in some sort of advisory capacity on a contract saying no one at the club can earn more.

I am very happy to be your assistant, obviously on the same money, but I will negotiate my own image rights, thank you. 

[Rampage]

6 hours ago, StringerBell said:

I would like to take this opportunity to criticise individual players.

Blackmans been a bit gash so far.

Get thee hence, SB 

How's that attractive sister of yours, Tinker?.

[Rampage]

1 hour ago, CornwallRam said:

That's because it was a solo effort.

Do you chew the bacca, CR? 

[CornwallRam]

25 minutes ago, Rampage said:

Do you chew the bacca, CR? 

No mate, I gave up at the millennium, falconry is more in my line.

[Rampage]

1 hour ago, CornwallRam said:

No mate, I gave up at the millennium, falconry is more in my line.

You are a tricky customer CR, but I like you.

Yoda man, CR, Yoda man.

[plymouthram]

Consistency ties in with not having many changes. Example being playing a similar style and similar team throughout the season. To succeed you need a good squad with no injuries and the final ingredient, luck. Burnley won the league because they could put out an injury free team virtually all season. I believe Boro, Brighton, Hull and Derby had better squads than Burnley but never had the injury free or luck that they had. It is a team event and you are not going to get every player playing at the top of the game in every match, so having a good squad will help. I do think we have a good squad and that is one reason why Nigel Pearson chose us over Villa. Another ingredient that we have is Championship football experience and that is going to be adjustment that Newcastle and Villa will have to find quickly to justify their instalment as bookies favourites.

So we have some good ingredients for success, A manager with proven record, good squad, Championship experience and with no or less injuries with a large slice of luck that CONSISTENCY will come.

                                                                                   COYR

[Rampage]

Some excellent reading on this thread. The answers to Derby's inconsistency are pretty much explained in these posts, in my considered opinion.