Benfica vs Derby County

[LazloW]

One great big *sigh* at some of the comments on here.  When I were a lad, I always prided myself - perhaps delusionally - that Derby had some of the most knowledgeable and sensible fans around. Maybe that was because there was a lack of social media but the fact that anybody is even trying to analyse the first pre-season of the year and drawing conclusions about the formation, the ability of players, the need for new players, etc etc - nevermind moaning about the result is quite simply mental.

I know it's a minority but the smallest groups make the most noise. I've said it before. It's football. It's supposed to be fun and entertaining. If you aren't enjoying it, don't go, don't listen, don't watch on TV. Nobody holds a gun to your head. I know footy is a game of opinion and we all have one. I'm not saying that we can't have a good old moan when we pay badly and it matters, but this microscopic analysis of every single aspect of DCFC's existence and actively looking for the negative drives me insane. Context is everything.  Does anybody really beleive that you can draw any sensible conclusions from last night's game? Really? 

I think some people unfortunately get their fun and entertainment out of being negative and irrational  - and revelling in that negativity and irrationality. 

 

[I am Ram]

Pre season game results, don't mean sh;)t. They are for fitness and formation work.

[davenportram]

how did bucko do? Bet his holding cost a goal or two.

[Curtains]

Benfica fans looked really happy with it all and so did the Benfica players. 

 

The Algarve Cup looked heavy. 

[Curtains]

7 minutes ago, davenportram said:

how did bucko do? Bet his holding cost a goal or two.

Couldn't blame him the whole Derby team was outclassed. 

PS Conceded 3 second half when he wasn't on the pitch. 

[Sexydadbod]

7 minutes ago, davenportram said:

how did bucko do? Bet his holding cost a goal or two.

In all honesty, he was absolute crap. He looked slow and lethargic. Rawson had to cover for his mistakes a few times and in a competitive game Buxton would have got sent off because he fouled a player whilst been the last man. We all love Bucko but I'd be surprised if he is here by the end of next week. His time is up unfortunately. I know you shouldn't look into pre season games like this but Bucko was terrible, although that may be excused on playing the back 3.

[Sexydadbod]

My previous comment seems to have got lost but Benfica are a good template to follow when we eventually lose Hughes in the future. Benfica have sold their 2 best players, Gaitan and Renato Sanches this summer  but it doesn't look to have hurt their stride as they have replaced them with players who fitted their system.

[DRBee]

As long as pre-season makes Pearson realise we can't afford to sell Hughes, it will have achieved something.

[Gritty]

18 minutes ago, McLovin said:

In all honesty, he was absolute crap. He looked slow and lethargic. Rawson had to cover for his mistakes a few times and in a competitive game Buxton would have got sent off because he fouled a player whilst been the last man. We all love Bucko but I'd be surprised if he is here by the end of next week. His time is up unfortunately. I know you shouldn't look into pre season games like this but Bucko was terrible, although that may be excused on playing the back 3.

He may well choose to move on but this is a bit OTT.  You don't judge someone on one game.  Particularly not the first game of the season.  We all have good and bad days. If someone judged my performance in my job on one bad day and used that to assume I would be bad forever after (despite being good previously) I'd think they were being rather unfair

[Van der MoodHoover]

Some of our lads didn't look as though they were treating it as a friendly! 

As @angieram( I think) said, there are potentially lots of individual snippets of useful information Nigel pearson could have picked up last night . Time will of course tell.

Who knows what messages were given to the players about what the manager wanted them to do. Nigel himself might divulge I suppose. 

Isn't one of the first things to do is to agree the squad numbers? Anyone know when that has to be done by and how many we are allowed? 

[Gritty]

I didn't see the game. Can anyone tell me how Rawson did? 

[TETRA]

3 hours ago, feisty said:

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

Sorry you can hardly say we played with a sprinkling of the first team last night.

Have you actually seen the starting eleven we fielded in both half's ?.

We can't keep making excuses for overpaid players not performing to the standard they should be at.

[EnigmaRam]

9 minutes ago, TETRA said:

Sorry you can hardly say we played with a sprinkling of the first team last night.

Have you actually seen the starting eleven we fielded in both half's ?.

We can't keep making excuses for overpaid players not performing to the standard they should be at.

I'd go with a sprinkling as we had around 4 first team starters in each half. Plus 3/4 of our first choice defence not even on the pitch, which highlights that our backups in Pearce and bucko really aren't good enough and both should be shipped out

[Inverurie Ram]

55 minutes ago, McLovin said:

In all honesty, he was absolute crap. He looked slow and lethargic. Rawson had to cover for his mistakes a few times and in a competitive game Buxton would have got sent off because he fouled a player whilst been the last man. We all love Bucko but I'd be surprised if he is here by the end of next week. His time is up unfortunately. I know you shouldn't look into pre season games like this but Bucko was terrible, although that may be excused on playing the back 3.

In all honesty, some might say your post is absolute mouse trap. Bucko didn't get sent off, it wasn't a competitive game and he might have not done the same stumbling tackle in a competitive game, and if we all love Bucko as you have typed above then as your name suggests maybe you could type with an awful lot more love, his time is not up unfortunately, and as you've typed, you shouldn't look into pre season games like this. Bucko was not terrible, did you watch Pearce in the second half or did you still have your Bucko hating goggles still on, although that may be excused by the hatred bile some of our so called fans post on forums.

Here's hoping Muckhatin has left this forum by the end of the day, never mind next week.

Are you a Derby County Supporter?.......unfortunately Derby has far too many "McLovin" typing things (thousands of em) connected to the football club that some of us really love.

There's only one Super Jake Buxton.........

 

[Derbados]

Did anyone else see Alex Pearce arguing with a team mate last night as the cameras zoomed in? he was saying  "dont tell me to f**k off" repeatedly, i dont know which player he was arguing with but it stemmed from a dodgy pass whereby Pearce ended up holding onto the ball to long and just hoofed it out of play. 

 

[Anon]

28 minutes ago, feisty said:

I didn't see the game. Can anyone tell me how Rawson did? 

Started as the middle of three centre backs. Seemed to be given the task of marshaling the defense and was very vocal. Had lots to do, as we rarely made it out of our own half. We only conceded one, an unstoppable pile driver from outside the box, but we looked a little susceptible from set pieces and played 6 yard area pinball a couple of times from corners. We sat fairly deep, but Benfica broke our offside trap a couple of times. I'd have to see those instances again to work out who was at fault. It's very early days and these friendlies don't mean a huge amount, but he looked more capable than both Pearce and Buxton.

[ramsbottom]

Haven't seen any highlights but I can't believe there's folk on here pissing & moaning due to the fact we didn't win.  Benfica are a top side & are regularly playing in the Champions League.  Whereas we are a Championship side, with a new boss, new formations and half a dozen important players missing from the squad.  Yesterday was about trying new things and getting fitness levels up.  Also, Big Nige has already stated in an interview that these types of games are vital for learning about your squad i.e it highlights those players who'll still put a shift in even when they know they're on a hiding to nothing.  That's the type of attitude he's after.

[eddie]

1. Steal underpants
2. ???
3. Profit

 

[Van der MoodHoover]

46 minutes ago, Derbados said:

Did anyone else see Alex Pearce arguing with a team mate last night as the cameras zoomed in? he was saying  "dont tell me to f**k off" repeatedly, i dont know which player he was arguing with but it stemmed from a dodgy pass whereby Pearce ended up holding onto the ball to long and just hoofed it out of play. 

 

Saw him mouthing the "f" but missed what had led up to it. The stream I was watching had some annoying intermittent ads. 

[Ninos]

11 minutes ago, ramsbottom said:

Haven't seen any highlights but I can't believe there's folk on here pissing & moaning due to the fact we didn't win.  Benfica are a top side & are regularly playing in the Champions League.  Whereas we are a Championship side, with a new boss, new formations and half a dozen important players missing from the squad.  Yesterday was about trying new things and getting fitness levels up.  Also, Big Nige has already stated in an interview that these types of games are vital for learning about your squad i.e it highlights those players who'll still put a shift in even when they know they're on a hiding to nothing.  That's the type of attitude he's after.

We get all that but you had to watch it. Pearson did and said he was surprised at how poor some of his players were. I'm glad this happened because now he will feel good about axing some and changing things and stamping his vision. With the likes of weimann martin bent Blackman Buxton Pearce Butterfield, and even an inconsistent Johnson Ince and Russell, we aren't going to make the top half of the table with them, at least playing like that. Never any end product never any quality. 

Also if you play the game you understand and you get to play a champion team like that you want to play well regardless. They were excited to be playing the champions of Portugal even if it was a split squad and a friendly. That's why Martin pushed and dived and it's why the players were arguing with each other. They wanted it. The fact that we couldn't compete at all when THEY (benfica) weren't even taking it seriously was very worrying, that it was such a cake walk. We were a total non factor in that game. Lincoln Red Imps would have done better. Its dampened the mood and Pearson and Powell will have to repair it.

The only exception was Will Hughes, and possibly Scott Carson. And Pearson saw that. Having Keogh shacks and Christie back will help too. At least we will be able to defend then.