Decision making

[Angry Ram]

Okay I ain't into booing the team, I am all for giving Pearson a chance, I can take the team losing, I can even take the odd poor performance.. We are Derby remember.

 

BUT, what pushes all my buttons is players who continually make poor decisions when on the ball.. The same mistakes over an over again.. Shackell, Russell, Christie, Bent, Keogh.. Are they really that thick? How did they become professional footballers? Thick as...

Do they not review tapes of the game? We have a team of analysts, what are they doing? Sit with Shackell and ask the **** why he keeps playing the long ball into a channel when nobody is there?

Really frustrating.

[Ramarena]

29 minutes ago, Angry Ram said:

Okay I ain't into booing the team, I am all for giving Pearson a chance, I can take the team losing, I can even take the odd poor performance.. We are Derby remember.

 

BUT, what pushes all my buttons is players who continually make poor decisions when on the ball.. The same mistakes over an over again.. Shackell, Russell, Christie, Bent, Keogh.. Are they really that thick? How did they become professional footballers? Thick as...

Do they not review tapes of the game? We have a team of analysts, what are they doing? Sit with Shackell and ask the **** why he keeps playing the long ball into a channel when nobody is there?

Really frustrating.

Or, why are players who are better with the ball at their feet than Shackell chickening out of taking some responsibility when they have time and space.

Prime example was Bryson when he gave the ball to Shackell with a striker on top of him and Shackell lost the ball and had to give away a free kick.

There was a lot of cowardly play yesterday

[G-Ram]

Why are we playing so deep that midfielders come and take a 5 yard pass from the defenders?

why will nobody just have a crack from distance? sometimes it creates something on the rebound or you win a corner

why are we scared of losing the ball and  play sideways passes allowing the opposition to get in position

why is our only forward thinking play the predicatable try to get it to the wing and put a cross in?

Why do we have it in thd opppsitions final third, look dangerous then decide to slow down play and pass it all the way back to carson

we always look like the other team has an extra man when were attacking and theyre defending

can we please pass and move with a bit of tempo, everytime we go forward the player with the ball usually has one option available and thats usually to go backwards. Can we please push up instead of playing too deep and maybe close down from the front. 

[Cool As Custard]

2 minutes ago, Ramarena said:

Or, why are players who are better with the ball at their feet than Shackell chickening out of taking some responsibility when they have time and space.

Prime example was Bryson when he gave the ball to Shackell with a defender on top of him and Shackell lost the ball and had to give away a free kick.

There was a lot of cowardly play yesterday

Agreed - we aren't brave enough in possession when things are against us. We weren't too bad and seemed to try some new things at 0-0. The goal completely took the stuffing out of us and all the old bad habits returned. This is where many of our players lack of strong character shows through - even under previous managers playing 4-3-3 we have struggled to get results when things go against us and we haven't been on top in games. This is what Pearson is trying to change - it's not the formation but rather the ability to continue to play and grind out results when things aren't going our way.

Anya and Vydra both showed enough signs on debut to believe they are part of the solution but I'm still not sure about Wilson. I think he needs to be in a confident side playing well in order to see the best of him and we already have too many players like that and not what we need right now. Russell is a complete waste right now - it's like playing with 10 men constantly. This combined with being too lightweight in midfield means we are constantly being outgunned and struggle to establish consistent periods of pressure in games. 

The fix for me would be to drop Russell, move Hughes out wide and bring Johnson or Hanson back into the centre of midfield. Hughes out wide would link up better with Christie when attacking and be able to drop inside to make up a middle 3 when under pressure. He is intelligent enough to do this well and would contribute far more than Russell. Johnson or Hanson could sit more and allow Bryson more opportunity to bomb into the box and link up with Vydra as he did yesterday for his penalty shout. This would also be the perfect role for Thorne to play when he comes back hopefully before Xmas. Anya and Olsson also showed a few glimpses of a good partnership developing in the first half and think we should allow this more chance to develop.

The only other issue is who plays up front with Vydra? Martin would not have been the answer - his lack of mobility would never work in this system. For me - and I will probably get shot down in flames for this - I would give Blackman an extended run to rebuild the partnership he had with Vydra last season and use Wilson more from the bench. Blackman has a bit more physicality than Wilson but also has the option of dropping out wide right allowing Hughes to move inside to a 4-5-1 when we are under pressure.

This is all only papering over the cracks though. The issue remains the fundamental mental weakness of many of our players and more drastic surgery is required in January to put in place a team of winners who we can be proud of again ready to mount a serious promotion charge again in 2017-18. Nigel will get this right we just need to all get behind him, forget about promotion this season and give him the time he needs.