Benfica vs Derby County

[Dan_Ram]

Alright chaps,

I was at the game today. In case you are interested, here's my take on it (copy & pasted from FB).

ImWe played a 5-3-2 with wing backs in the first half which we could see the players weren't used to. Sorry to say Max Lowe looked out of his depth today, Nige switched Fozzy out wide to try to stop them getting down our left after about 20 mins - didn't help that their right back was the best player on the pitch. Bent & Blackman did the sum of f**k all which can be half understood when we hardly had the ball but there was no desire to drop in to midfield to get the ball, track back or even make any meaningful forward runs. Johnson had a decent game getting stuck in but his ball retention and passing were below average. Only pluses from the first half were Hughsey looking a cut above as per, Timi Elsnik having a few decent touches and we started to come in to it a bit more right at the end of the half. 

2nd half started much better with the kind of pressing and tempo you'd expect from a Pearson side. Bryso looked sharp and JR and Tom Ince had some decent interchanges, Santos looked very bright as well. Pretty much all of the goals came from poor defending though and people not tracking runners or just not picking up men in/around the box.

Summary?- Defensively we looked very poor and sorely missing Keogh/Shackell/Christie. We battled well in midfield and because of that I don't actually think we'd miss Hendrick too much were he to go. We had a chronic lack of pace up front though. It's all well and good Bent/Blackman chasing lost causes but we need someone who can carry the ball with pace like Ince used to and Ibe did when on loan. Their defence tonight was never really made to work and I can't remember the keeper making a save. Expect Nige to bring in a defender & forward if we want to compete at the sharp end this year. 
Oh and the beer in the stadium was non-alcoholic which was disappointing..

 

[DCFCArmy]

Leicester fans have said he starts off slowly, finds the weaknesses and then rectify's them, so I'm not even going to panic if we're mid-table at Xmas, even in the bottom half, he's sorted out other clubs in his time and will do here if given the time. 

[Joe.]

11 minutes ago, SaintRam said:

Don't you have to say it 3 times?

 

Depends if you follow up with a vague criticism or not

[Joe.]

Just now, DCFCArmy said:

Leicester fans have said he starts off slowly, finds the weaknesses and then rectify's them, so I'm not even going to panic if we're mid-table at Xmas, even in the bottom half, he's sorted out other clubs in his time and will do here if given the time. 

Not a hope he will be given time if we are mid table/bottom half at Christmas

[SaintRam]

2 minutes ago, Joe. said:

Not a hope he will be given time if we are mid table/bottom half at Christmas

Not by the fans, but I have some faith in the club to have learnt how ridiculous our fanbase is. 

[Joe.]

1 minute ago, SaintRam said:

Not by the fans, but I have some faith in the club to have learnt how ridiculous our fanbase is. 

I'd like to think that too, but not a chance

[Carl Sagan]

Thanks to @Dan_Ramfor the excellent report from the game. Carrying the threat to the opposition at pace could be Camara's job. Shame he was out injured for this.

[B4ev6is]

Well i been saying all summer need 2 or 3 new players and guess what i am right. 

[Ambitious]

It's impossible to take anything away from the game as we played completely new formations, with two different sides and many players out of position. 

It was purely fitness, and it's no surprise we were torn apart by a much stronger, fitter side. 

I don't think it's any surprise that Pearson is looking to implementing different formations, though. I, however, don't see us starting the first game with anything other than 4-3-3, well not unless we do something in the meantime that makes us completely tick. 

 

[Alph]

What 2 or 3 players would make Derby better than a European heavyweight like Benfica

Reading some of this ***** has hurt my head.

Mel Morris spent over twenty million pounds on this team a year ago. Did you see £20m worth of improvement? 

Who should we buy? Shall we spend another £20m? Let's just buy everyone. Anyone. Someone. We desperately need a player or five. 

We used to need a 20 goal striker. Now we need a 40 goal striker. Let's get rid of 24yr old Irish International Jeff Hendrick and bring in someone better. I bet Kroos fancies a year in Derby. 

What world do some people live in. Put football manager down. 

[Comrade 86]

Pearson out. Nuff said. 

[DCFCArmy]

The last thing we need to do is add another 2-4 players onto an already bloated squad. its more about trimming the squad, not going out and trying to throw another 25 million quid at it. 

Leave NP alone and give him time ffs, he'll get it right imo.

[TETRA]

I've been saying it since the towards the end of last season. The whole squad needs a shake up, way too many players who aren't right for Derby County on long contracts & won't be going anywhere. I'm not panicking after what seems to have be  a good beating by a very classy Benficia side by all reports. But I really feel apart from four or five players Pearson will need plenty of time to get it right. Will Mel give him that time though I wonder, past experiences say he won't. All that money we spent last summer could prove to ruin this coming season for us. 

I see our opponents for the first league game of the season smashed Crawley Town 4-0 yesterday with Glenn Murrayf opening his goal account, I hope that's not an omen of things to come.

if we don't get 3 positive results at home to Brighton, Villa, & then Newcastle in the very early part of next season, then it could be a very long season for us Ram fans that's for sure.

[Gritty]

We played a mixture of the youth team, reserves and a sprinkling of first team.

In two entirely different formations in each half.

Neither formation was one any of the players had played at Derby before

It was the very first game of pre-season

3 quarters of our best defence were not playing

We were playing Benfica who have just won the Portuguese league for the 3rd consecutive time with a Portuguese record of 88 points out of the possible maximum of 102 (34 matches).

We lost.  

This isn't surprising.

Pearson will still have learnt about some of his players strengths and weaknesses

We move on

[Dcfc10]

Doesn't matter who u put out on the pitch pearson said they should of done better. There footballer's who should hold the ball better when they have it. 

[toddy]

Get some perspective here, its a pre season friendly  - we played the Champions of Portugal with a mixer of first team, reserves and youth team players.

Come on get a grip.

[archied]

And so it begins ,,,, last night was the beginning of Pearson putting players on the pitch to do a job and seeing what they can and can't do ,,,, nothing more nothing less ,,, what they have as individuals and what he needs to work with them on , we have the right man in charge to sort out what has been a side that although close has been short of what it takes to do the job ( get promotion) personally I'm glad that we started against a side way way better than us as Pearson we get for more from that than thumping dog **** rovers 8- 0 ,, we have a proper manager and a proper owner in place who will back him , I'm just really looking forward to watching us build something worthwhile and that includes the bumps in the road along the way ,,, first stage ,see what we really have and what they need to improve ,,, see if they have th attitude and ability to improve ,, replace if they don't ,,,,, not a 5 minute job , we have not fallen short over the last few years for no reason

[G STAR RAM]

6 hours ago, B4ev6is said:

Well i been saying all summer need 2 or 3 new players and guess what i am right. 

Give it a rest!

We have played 1 pre season friendly, in which we played a few youngsters and a few different formations.

I spent 3 or 4 months reading that Mel was clueless for not appointing Pearson and he was what we needed because he is a brilliant experienced manager.

Well if he is brilliant and experienced then surely he was brought in to improve us? So why not let him get on with managing what we have got?

If we wanted to appoint someone to make loads of signings we could have kept Redknapp.

[angieram]

In a strange way I enjoyed watching us last night as it means the new season isn't far away.

Good to see some of the under 21s in the same team as the regulars and one or two may be close to putting some pressure on more established first team players.

I didn't see anything last night to suggest that the players we were picking at the end of last season weren't the best we had available though!

Pearson will have learned a lot about some players' habits last night - those who battle when the going is tough, those whose heads drop and aren't up for a fight.

Talking of attitude, it was obvious that Forsyth was captain first half but who captained second half? Didn't see any leadership out there.

Lastly , I hope Pearson  tries the different formations again but with a more established defence. We need options for the long slog ahead. COYR! 

[Coneheadjohn]

Was I right in thinking Weimann played 86 minutes?

I'd had a couple of lagers and thought i might have imagined it.