Drama Queens

[Warren Hobhead]

3 hours ago, HantsRam said:

By way of apology to some very erudite posters like @Warren Hobhead and @Ewe Ram among others,  some of us are living off scanty details of matches when we post.

We ought to caveat our posts as such but I imagine quite a lot of opinion dressed up as fact gets through. 

So anyway,  we on for these playoffs or what?

It looks a big ask. To gain 8 points on 6th with 15 games left? Would need a crazy run of victories which we've shown we are capable of. And for others above to hit a bad patch which is always possible in this division. 

 

It isn't in our own hands, it's not even in the same room is it? Big, big ask. And owes much to our disaster of a start this season. 

 

I am excited to see how it pans out, also, really interested to see what Mac and the club do over the summer. Will we see Martin back? Will Thorne heal well? What happens to the squad in general, do we ship lots out and scale things back? What about Ince, will there be bids for him considering he's been standout player this season? Maybe we will see someone leave for big money which surprises us, ala Jeff last summer? 

[Van der MoodHoover]

Just now, Warren Hobhead said:

It looks a big ask. To gain 8 points on 6th with 15 games left? Would need a crazy run of victories which we've shown we are capable of. And for others above to hit a bad patch which is always possible in this division. 

 

It isn't in our own hands, it's not even in the same room is it? Big, big ask. And owes much to our disaster of a start this season. 

 

I am excited to see how it pans out, also, really interested to see what Mac and the club do over the summer. Will we see Martin back? Will Thorne heal well? What happens to the squad in general, do we ship lots out and scale things back? What about Ince, will there be bids for him considering he's been standout player this season? Maybe we will see someone leave for big money which surprises us, ala Jeff last summer? 

I would add to that list some serious work on squad fitness. We look to be well behind the curve. Blowing hard earlier in the season and now picking up loads of niggly injuries which contribute to the level of chopping and changing in the first team.

[RamNut]

15 hours ago, Alpha said:

First off I'm not going to pretend everything is acceptable. I did my fair share of name calling after the Bristol game. It's not acceptable to turn up to a game half asleep and wait for everyone else to invite you to play. 

Equally against Cardiff it's not acceptable to play for 30 minutes. And we did play. Complete control, good pace, lots of variation, used both flanks, long, short and down their throat. But then we get a 2-0 lead and start playing head tennis? Start lifting the ball into the air for our giants to head on? Every bouncing ball is treated like a grenade? No, I don't think that's ok.

And I don't mind the retreat, get in shape, safety in numbers counter attacking style of defending. But ffs if the ball is there to be won then go win it. Surely we don't have to wait until it's on our goal line to put in a proper tackle? 

But some of the routine meltdown comments are just pure repetitive ********. Some of them..

"This team has bottled it for 3 years" - right, is this the same team we've had for 3 years? Is it the same management team? The same owner? The same recruitment team? No. No its not. And technically we've been bottling it since 1975 along with about 60+ other English league clubs every season. 

"We've got no plan B." - Name some teams that do something different to us because we havent played 433 for all of the last few games. Name some successful teams that chop and change systems every other week? How did having different formations for different opponents work for Clement and Pearson? If Plan A was going through Chris Martin then what are we doing now? 

"We'll never win anything with Keogh" - 1 player holds back an entire squad? The points separating us from Newcastle are mostly down to Keogh? Shackell and Pearce would be better? Would the ball ever move if those two played CB? How many goals do you actually fully blame Keogh for? When you're fault finding do you trace it back to earlier errors or just the last one before the goal? Because in football you defend from the front and attack from the back. 

"McClaren is just not good enough" - Well he has a pretty decent record at Derby. 27 defeats and 63 wins in 118 games. Above a 50% win ratio. His first time here he joined when we'd never won more than we lost since 2006/07. This time? Well you'd have not demanded top 6 from him would you? So he's not been too bad for us has he? 

"Will Hughes is overrated." - from the people that said "get rid, I'll drive him to Burnley myself" about the useless Jeff Hendrick. What do you want from your 21 year old midfielders now? He's a support player. The go to guy. The guy who assists the assist and tenacious tackling and work rate goes unnoticed until he's missing. Then you reach for the tissues. 

"The team is just not good enough" - So why the dramatics? What is "good enough"? Have you watched Derby play a lot of "good enough" football since Phil Collins released his first number 1? Get some context about where we are in the football world. "My God we're lower than Barnsley and Preston". So? Wigan spent 9 years in the PL. Fulham spent what? 12? Wake up. Derby are not a "sleeping giant." Football is not based on how many people you can get to boo in a ground. This is the level we are. I'm not saying you should be happy with it but you should be bringing your expectations in line with it. 

"The players don't look arsed" - I'm assuming you care about the level of service you offer in your job. Now imagine if you had worked for 20+ years to get where you are? Then imagine you have thousands of people watching you, analysing you every week. Newspapers, TV shows covering your performance. Then imagine that at the end of your 3 contract you could be facing a massive wage decrease/increase depending on how well you've done. Imagine you're just one league away from playing at the highest domestic level of football. So us lads who never made it off the park are criticising the commitment of those who are playing at the very highest level? Sound. Why aren't we footballers? Just luck? 

"Should have played 3254321 formation" - Would that have stopped Pearce pushing someone over? Sometimes, not all the time, a game is lost by players making poor decisions or the opponent being better (they are professionals too btw). How many formations have we seen in the last 5 years? I think we've seen them all. 

I'm not preaching or saying don't be angry. I'm furious. I was furious when we decided we are so good at defending in shape that we don't need to tackle. I was angry that when 1-0 down a player has the balls to play football but at 1-0 up they just want to head/kick it forward even if our team is weak in the air. Let's start lifting it in the air where we're hopeless in 6 positions. I don't understand why Mac has started tinkering so much. BJ was getting loads of praise as a DM. The midfield was BJ, Butters and Hughes. That was the team. When they're fit then... maybe? No? Ooookaay

I'm not telling you to rate Keogh or slate Vydra. If you think they're ***** or great then that's cool. But c'mon, the OTT statements. 

I agree we aren't good enough for the target we have but there is more likely several different reasons. A mix of players not fitting the system, the system not being followed, the tactics being a bit off, players not good enough etc etc. 

But the whole rip it up and start again meltdown is a bit much. Chill your beans. It's very fitting with the mock outrage world we live in. You can't not like something... it's the worst thing ever and I demand compensation and an apology. 

Chill.

This isn't meant to be a rant telling people how to support Derby. Just trying to get some posters to try reasoning things out a bit. There's a lot of clubs that win naff all every year. Only 3 teams will get promoted in May. The rest will be just like Derby. Let's not all clubs commit suicide or Millwall will have to step up to the 2nd tier again. 

Calm down dear.

its only our usual annual fcup.

[Animal is a Ram]

Considering Thorne made 32 starts and 2 sub appearances last season, would suggest we can get him back fit again. Such a shame he got that leg break, rotten luck after a cracking season.

Begs the question, why is it taking so long for him to get back afterwards? Somebody somewhere ballsed the treatment up surely.

[Animal is a Ram]

Just had to.

[Curtains]

13 hours ago, RamNut said:

Calm down dear.

its only our usual annual fcup.

Might be ok next season though. 

[Dethorn]

Liked for three words "Chill your Beans"

Love it

[Alph]

Can you imagine some of the people who post on here with their kids?

"Where did you come in the Karate tournament son?"

"I got beat in the semi final"

"You total waste of space. I give up on you. I deserve better after all these years raising you."

"Dad, I think I can win the next one"

"No! You'll never win anything. It's madness to try. Your younger brother would have won that with one leg"

"But Dad, he can't do Karate!"

"Exactly!! He's undefeated!"

[Zag zig]

On 15/02/2017 at 07:46, Alpha said:

First off I'm not going to pretend everything is acceptable. I did my fair share of name calling after the Bristol game. It's not acceptable to turn up to a game half asleep and wait for everyone else to invite you to play. 

Equally against Cardiff it's not acceptable to play for 30 minutes. And we did play. Complete control, good pace, lots of variation, used both flanks, long, short and down their throat. But then we get a 2-0 lead and start playing head tennis? Start lifting the ball into the air for our giants to head on? Every bouncing ball is treated like a grenade? No, I don't think that's ok.

And I don't mind the retreat, get in shape, safety in numbers counter attacking style of defending. But ffs if the ball is there to be won then go win it. Surely we don't have to wait until it's on our goal line to put in a proper tackle? 

But some of the routine meltdown comments are just pure repetitive ********. Some of them..

"This team has bottled it for 3 years" - right, is this the same team we've had for 3 years? Is it the same management team? The same owner? The same recruitment team? No. No its not. And technically we've been bottling it since 1975 along with about 60+ other English league clubs every season. 

"We've got no plan B." - Name some teams that do something different to us because we havent played 433 for all of the last few games. Name some successful teams that chop and change systems every other week? How did having different formations for different opponents work for Clement and Pearson? If Plan A was going through Chris Martin then what are we doing now? 

"We'll never win anything with Keogh" - 1 player holds back an entire squad? The points separating us from Newcastle are mostly down to Keogh? Shackell and Pearce would be better? Would the ball ever move if those two played CB? How many goals do you actually fully blame Keogh for? When you're fault finding do you trace it back to earlier errors or just the last one before the goal? Because in football you defend from the front and attack from the back. 

"McClaren is just not good enough" - Well he has a pretty decent record at Derby. 27 defeats and 63 wins in 118 games. Above a 50% win ratio. His first time here he joined when we'd never won more than we lost since 2006/07. This time? Well you'd have not demanded top 6 from him would you? So he's not been too bad for us has he? 

"Will Hughes is overrated." - from the people that said "get rid, I'll drive him to Burnley myself" about the useless Jeff Hendrick. What do you want from your 21 year old midfielders now? He's a support player. The go to guy. The guy who assists the assist and tenacious tackling and work rate goes unnoticed until he's missing. Then you reach for the tissues. 

"The team is just not good enough" - So why the dramatics? What is "good enough"? Have you watched Derby play a lot of "good enough" football since Phil Collins released his first number 1? Get some context about where we are in the football world. "My God we're lower than Barnsley and Preston". So? Wigan spent 9 years in the PL. Fulham spent what? 12? Wake up. Derby are not a "sleeping giant." Football is not based on how many people you can get to boo in a ground. This is the level we are. I'm not saying you should be happy with it but you should be bringing your expectations in line with it. 

"The players don't look arsed" - I'm assuming you care about the level of service you offer in your job. Now imagine if you had worked for 20+ years to get where you are? Then imagine you have thousands of people watching you, analysing you every week. Newspapers, TV shows covering your performance. Then imagine that at the end of your 3 contract you could be facing a massive wage decrease/increase depending on how well you've done. Imagine you're just one league away from playing at the highest domestic level of football. So us lads who never made it off the park are criticising the commitment of those who are playing at the very highest level? Sound. Why aren't we footballers? Just luck? 

"Should have played 3254321 formation" - Would that have stopped Pearce pushing someone over? Sometimes, not all the time, a game is lost by players making poor decisions or the opponent being better (they are professionals too btw). How many formations have we seen in the last 5 years? I think we've seen them all. 

I'm not preaching or saying don't be angry. I'm furious. I was furious when we decided we are so good at defending in shape that we don't need to tackle. I was angry that when 1-0 down a player has the balls to play football but at 1-0 up they just want to head/kick it forward even if our team is weak in the air. Let's start lifting it in the air where we're hopeless in 6 positions. I don't understand why Mac has started tinkering so much. BJ was getting loads of praise as a DM. The midfield was BJ, Butters and Hughes. That was the team. When they're fit then... maybe? No? Ooookaay

I'm not telling you to rate Keogh or slate Vydra. If you think they're ***** or great then that's cool. But c'mon, the OTT statements. 

I agree we aren't good enough for the target we have but there is more likely several different reasons. A mix of players not fitting the system, the system not being followed, the tactics being a bit off, players not good enough etc etc. 

But the whole rip it up and start again meltdown is a bit much. Chill your beans. It's very fitting with the mock outrage world we live in. You can't not like something... it's the worst thing ever and I demand compensation and an apology. 

Chill.

This isn't meant to be a rant telling people how to support Derby. Just trying to get some posters to try reasoning things out a bit. There's a lot of clubs that win naff all every year. Only 3 teams will get promoted in May. The rest will be just like Derby. Let's not all clubs commit suicide or Millwall will have to step up to the 2nd tier again. 

Trouble with your well thought out posts Alpha, you leave barely nothing for anyone else to add..

Shankly was wrong when he said football is more than a game, it's not, some folks just need to chill and stop going over the top on any bad result or game.

My opinion is our club is not massively broke, it can be fixed, just might not be this season it fires on all cylinders.

[VulcanRam]

On 15/02/2017 at 07:46, Alpha said:

First off I'm not going to pretend everything is acceptable. I did my fair share of name calling after the Bristol game. It's not acceptable to turn up to a game half asleep and wait for everyone else to invite you to play. 

Equally against Cardiff it's not acceptable to play for 30 minutes. And we did play. Complete control, good pace, lots of variation, used both flanks, long, short and down their throat. But then we get a 2-0 lead and start playing head tennis? Start lifting the ball into the air for our giants to head on? Every bouncing ball is treated like a grenade? No, I don't think that's ok.

And I don't mind the retreat, get in shape, safety in numbers counter attacking style of defending. But ffs if the ball is there to be won then go win it. Surely we don't have to wait until it's on our goal line to put in a proper tackle? 

But some of the routine meltdown comments are just pure repetitive ********. Some of them..

"This team has bottled it for 3 years" - right, is this the same team we've had for 3 years? Is it the same management team? The same owner? The same recruitment team? No. No its not. And technically we've been bottling it since 1975 along with about 60+ other English league clubs every season. 

"We've got no plan B." - Name some teams that do something different to us because we havent played 433 for all of the last few games. Name some successful teams that chop and change systems every other week? How did having different formations for different opponents work for Clement and Pearson? If Plan A was going through Chris Martin then what are we doing now? 

"We'll never win anything with Keogh" - 1 player holds back an entire squad? The points separating us from Newcastle are mostly down to Keogh? Shackell and Pearce would be better? Would the ball ever move if those two played CB? How many goals do you actually fully blame Keogh for? When you're fault finding do you trace it back to earlier errors or just the last one before the goal? Because in football you defend from the front and attack from the back. 

"McClaren is just not good enough" - Well he has a pretty decent record at Derby. 27 defeats and 63 wins in 118 games. Above a 50% win ratio. His first time here he joined when we'd never won more than we lost since 2006/07. This time? Well you'd have not demanded top 6 from him would you? So he's not been too bad for us has he? 

"Will Hughes is overrated." - from the people that said "get rid, I'll drive him to Burnley myself" about the useless Jeff Hendrick. What do you want from your 21 year old midfielders now? He's a support player. The go to guy. The guy who assists the assist and tenacious tackling and work rate goes unnoticed until he's missing. Then you reach for the tissues. 

"The team is just not good enough" - So why the dramatics? What is "good enough"? Have you watched Derby play a lot of "good enough" football since Phil Collins released his first number 1? Get some context about where we are in the football world. "My God we're lower than Barnsley and Preston". So? Wigan spent 9 years in the PL. Fulham spent what? 12? Wake up. Derby are not a "sleeping giant." Football is not based on how many people you can get to boo in a ground. This is the level we are. I'm not saying you should be happy with it but you should be bringing your expectations in line with it. 

"The players don't look arsed" - I'm assuming you care about the level of service you offer in your job. Now imagine if you had worked for 20+ years to get where you are? Then imagine you have thousands of people watching you, analysing you every week. Newspapers, TV shows covering your performance. Then imagine that at the end of your 3 contract you could be facing a massive wage decrease/increase depending on how well you've done. Imagine you're just one league away from playing at the highest domestic level of football. So us lads who never made it off the park are criticising the commitment of those who are playing at the very highest level? Sound. Why aren't we footballers? Just luck? 

"Should have played 3254321 formation" - Would that have stopped Pearce pushing someone over? Sometimes, not all the time, a game is lost by players making poor decisions or the opponent being better (they are professionals too btw). How many formations have we seen in the last 5 years? I think we've seen them all. 

I'm not preaching or saying don't be angry. I'm furious. I was furious when we decided we are so good at defending in shape that we don't need to tackle. I was angry that when 1-0 down a player has the balls to play football but at 1-0 up they just want to head/kick it forward even if our team is weak in the air. Let's start lifting it in the air where we're hopeless in 6 positions. I don't understand why Mac has started tinkering so much. BJ was getting loads of praise as a DM. The midfield was BJ, Butters and Hughes. That was the team. When they're fit then... maybe? No? Ooookaay

I'm not telling you to rate Keogh or slate Vydra. If you think they're ***** or great then that's cool. But c'mon, the OTT statements. 

I agree we aren't good enough for the target we have but there is more likely several different reasons. A mix of players not fitting the system, the system not being followed, the tactics being a bit off, players not good enough etc etc. 

But the whole rip it up and start again meltdown is a bit much. Chill your beans. It's very fitting with the mock outrage world we live in. You can't not like something... it's the worst thing ever and I demand compensation and an apology. 

Chill.

This isn't meant to be a rant telling people how to support Derby. Just trying to get some posters to try reasoning things out a bit. There's a lot of clubs that win naff all every year. Only 3 teams will get promoted in May. The rest will be just like Derby. Let's not all clubs commit suicide or Millwall will have to step up to the 2nd tier again. 

Just to add another perspective @Alpha a couple of months I did exactly what you have suggested, I chilled. I thought, as others have said, there's far more important things going on, I took some perspective and I chilled. I took a shrug of the shoulders, stopped being overly concerned (not to be fair that I was exactly over hyped to start with) and I chilled.

Unfortunately the effect of all this chilling has been that I've simply lost interest. I didn't even bother going on Tuesday even though I've got a season ticket and live 3 miles from the ground. I just couldn't be bothered. Trying to lose some of the passion and energy has had completely the opposite of the desired effect. Not that was I a drama queen, but whatever the antonym is - that's me right now. Which has left me in an odd situation.

So I'm not sure chilling was the right thing to do and would probably warn against. More fire, I say! More drama required!

 

[G STAR RAM]

1 hour ago, Alpha said:

Can you imagine some of the people who post on here with their kids?

"Where did you come in the Karate tournament son?"

"I got beat in the semi final"

"You total waste of space. I give up on you. I deserve better after all these years raising you."

"Dad, I think I can win the next one"

"No! You'll never win anything. It's madness to try. Your younger brother would have won that with one leg"

"But Dad, he can't do Karate!"

"Exactly!! He's undefeated!"

How come the parent did not already know the result, were they not there to watch the tournament? Or did they have to leave early to avoid the traffic?

[1967Ram]

1 hour ago, VulcanRam said:

Just to add another perspective @Alpha a couple of months I did exactly what you have suggested, I chilled. I thought, as others have said, there's far more important things going on, I took some perspective and I chilled. I took a shrug of the shoulders, stopped being overly concerned (not to be fair that I was exactly over hyped to start with) and I chilled.

Unfortunately the effect of all this chilling has been that I've simply lost interest. I didn't even bother going on Tuesday even though I've got a season ticket and live 3 miles from the ground. I just couldn't be bothered. Trying to lose some of the passion and energy has had completely the opposite of the desired effect. Not that was I a drama queen, but whatever the antonym is - that's me right now. Which has left me in an odd situation.

So I'm not sure chilling was the right thing to do and would probably warn against. More fire, I say! More drama required!

 

Sorry to hear that VulcanRam. Maybe you need to try to have the fire in your belly on match days and chill out the rest of the time? There's no way I can be chilled out at the match, unless we're winning easily and in control of the game ( so at the moment probably wouldn't be chilled until we're 5 up!). All the best.

[Alph]

52 minutes ago, VulcanRam said:

Just to add another perspective @Alpha a couple of months I did exactly what you have suggested, I chilled. I thought, as others have said, there's far more important things going on, I took some perspective and I chilled. I took a shrug of the shoulders, stopped being overly concerned (not to be fair that I was exactly over hyped to start with) and I chilled.

Unfortunately the effect of all this chilling has been that I've simply lost interest. I didn't even bother going on Tuesday even though I've got a season ticket and live 3 miles from the ground. I just couldn't be bothered. Trying to lose some of the passion and energy has had completely the opposite of the desired effect. Not that was I a drama queen, but whatever the antonym is - that's me right now. Which has left me in an odd situation.

So I'm not sure chilling was the right thing to do and would probably warn against. More fire, I say! More drama required!

 

That's a shame mate but I think a lot of people go through periods where they get a bit fed up and it's not always linked to the team level. 

It comes back mate. You just realise how unimportant it all is. 

When you're wrapped up it can feel like everything needs to happen asap. When you step back and look at the last 10 years of "asap" and realise there's always a next season I think it becomes a bit boring. But it's necessary 

[WhiteHorseRam]

Its true that the supporters need to relax and continue to offer enthusiastic support.

The people who need to get demonstrably upset are the players.

And then channel the anger into winning games.

[robglosta]

On 15/02/2017 at 07:46, Alpha said:

First off I'm not going to pretend everything is acceptable. I did my fair share of name calling after the Bristol game. It's not acceptable to turn up to a game half asleep and wait for everyone else to invite you to play. 

Equally against Cardiff it's not acceptable to play for 30 minutes. And we did play. Complete control, good pace, lots of variation, used both flanks, long, short and down their throat. But then we get a 2-0 lead and start playing head tennis? Start lifting the ball into the air for our giants to head on? Every bouncing ball is treated like a grenade? No, I don't think that's ok.

And I don't mind the retreat, get in shape, safety in numbers counter attacking style of defending. But ffs if the ball is there to be won then go win it. Surely we don't have to wait until it's on our goal line to put in a proper tackle? 

But some of the routine meltdown comments are just pure repetitive ********. Some of them..

"This team has bottled it for 3 years" - right, is this the same team we've had for 3 years? Is it the same management team? The same owner? The same recruitment team? No. No its not. And technically we've been bottling it since 1975 along with about 60+ other English league clubs every season. 

"We've got no plan B." - Name some teams that do something different to us because we havent played 433 for all of the last few games. Name some successful teams that chop and change systems every other week? How did having different formations for different opponents work for Clement and Pearson? If Plan A was going through Chris Martin then what are we doing now? 

"We'll never win anything with Keogh" - 1 player holds back an entire squad? The points separating us from Newcastle are mostly down to Keogh? Shackell and Pearce would be better? Would the ball ever move if those two played CB? How many goals do you actually fully blame Keogh for? When you're fault finding do you trace it back to earlier errors or just the last one before the goal? Because in football you defend from the front and attack from the back. 

"McClaren is just not good enough" - Well he has a pretty decent record at Derby. 27 defeats and 63 wins in 118 games. Above a 50% win ratio. His first time here he joined when we'd never won more than we lost since 2006/07. This time? Well you'd have not demanded top 6 from him would you? So he's not been too bad for us has he? 

"Will Hughes is overrated." - from the people that said "get rid, I'll drive him to Burnley myself" about the useless Jeff Hendrick. What do you want from your 21 year old midfielders now? He's a support player. The go to guy. The guy who assists the assist and tenacious tackling and work rate goes unnoticed until he's missing. Then you reach for the tissues. 

"The team is just not good enough" - So why the dramatics? What is "good enough"? Have you watched Derby play a lot of "good enough" football since Phil Collins released his first number 1? Get some context about where we are in the football world. "My God we're lower than Barnsley and Preston". So? Wigan spent 9 years in the PL. Fulham spent what? 12? Wake up. Derby are not a "sleeping giant." Football is not based on how many people you can get to boo in a ground. This is the level we are. I'm not saying you should be happy with it but you should be bringing your expectations in line with it. 

"The players don't look arsed" - I'm assuming you care about the level of service you offer in your job. Now imagine if you had worked for 20+ years to get where you are? Then imagine you have thousands of people watching you, analysing you every week. Newspapers, TV shows covering your performance. Then imagine that at the end of your 3 contract you could be facing a massive wage decrease/increase depending on how well you've done. Imagine you're just one league away from playing at the highest domestic level of football. So us lads who never made it off the park are criticising the commitment of those who are playing at the very highest level? Sound. Why aren't we footballers? Just luck? 

"Should have played 3254321 formation" - Would that have stopped Pearce pushing someone over? Sometimes, not all the time, a game is lost by players making poor decisions or the opponent being better (they are professionals too btw). How many formations have we seen in the last 5 years? I think we've seen them all. 

I'm not preaching or saying don't be angry. I'm furious. I was furious when we decided we are so good at defending in shape that we don't need to tackle. I was angry that when 1-0 down a player has the balls to play football but at 1-0 up they just want to head/kick it forward even if our team is weak in the air. Let's start lifting it in the air where we're hopeless in 6 positions. I don't understand why Mac has started tinkering so much. BJ was getting loads of praise as a DM. The midfield was BJ, Butters and Hughes. That was the team. When they're fit then... maybe? No? Ooookaay

I'm not telling you to rate Keogh or slate Vydra. If you think they're ***** or great then that's cool. But c'mon, the OTT statements. 

I agree we aren't good enough for the target we have but there is more likely several different reasons. A mix of players not fitting the system, the system not being followed, the tactics being a bit off, players not good enough etc etc. 

But the whole rip it up and start again meltdown is a bit much. Chill your beans. It's very fitting with the mock outrage world we live in. You can't not like something... it's the worst thing ever and I demand compensation and an apology. 

Chill.

This isn't meant to be a rant telling people how to support Derby. Just trying to get some posters to try reasoning things out a bit. There's a lot of clubs that win naff all every year. Only 3 teams will get promoted in May. The rest will be just like Derby. Let's not all clubs commit suicide or Millwall will have to step up to the 2nd tier again. 

Should start a blog, kid. 

[SKRam]

I made a reference to being below Preston and Barnsley. Clarifying my point, it was to emphasise how we've been sucked in to the chasing pack rather than being chased by said pack. I mean no disrespect to either of those proud clubs. We've faltered and it's a major concern. Feel free to crown me your Queen of Drama. I'm hurting and expect a close game with Burton.

I think alpha made a point of getting a perspective. Well having recovered from a touch of cancer I want to appreciate every moment of every day. Life is precious and my perspective remains that this club and what we have spent should have us top six especially after such a good run. Huddersfield have spent around 4m total and they play some if not the best football in this division for me. Good luck to them I'd rather they get auto than any other club up there. 

Ive asked mates here in Manchester re Hughes and get lots of vacant looks. 'Who's he? 'He's a very good prospect who plays some lovely football but still has more potential to fulfil. In my humble    

[nottingram]

My only real issue, as I accept that bad results happen, was there being a major push on how we learn from last Saturday and how they make sure stuff like that doesn't happen again.

I'm slightly worried that Tuesday shows that they're incapable of learning harsh lessons. Just didn't seem a very intelligent performance to my untrained eye. Naive.

[mrdave85]

10 minutes ago, nottingram said:

My only real issue, as I accept that bad results happen, was there being a major push on how we learn from last Saturday and how they make sure stuff like that doesn't happen again.

I'm slightly worried that Tuesday shows that they're incapable of learning harsh lessons. Just didn't seem a very intelligent performance to my untrained eye. Naive.

IMO we did well to turn Bristol around, granted we should never have been 3-0 down in the first place, the team showed great character to rescue the draw. 

Cardiff may have come too soon after game, we went 2-0 up quickly and took our eye off the ball. Warnock, as much as I dislike him, knows his stuff when it comes to Championship, and he commented he could sense the frailty in the side. I agree with him, they pulled one back and maybe thoughts of Bristol entered their minds, we capitulated, and unfortunately a last minute penalty lost us the game. 

Hopefully this break and some hard work on the training ground will show an improved performance against Burton.

[RodleyRam]

On 02/15/2017 at 07:46, Alpha said:

First off I'm not going to pretend everything is acceptable. I did my fair share of name calling after the Bristol game. It's not acceptable to turn up to a game half asleep and wait for everyone else to invite you to play. 

Equally against Cardiff it's not acceptable to play for 30 minutes. And we did play. Complete control, good pace, lots of variation, used both flanks, long, short and down their throat. But then we get a 2-0 lead and start playing head tennis? Start lifting the ball into the air for our giants to head on? Every bouncing ball is treated like a grenade? No, I don't think that's ok.

And I don't mind the retreat, get in shape, safety in numbers counter attacking style of defending. But ffs if the ball is there to be won then go win it. Surely we don't have to wait until it's on our goal line to put in a proper tackle? 

But some of the routine meltdown comments are just pure repetitive ********. Some of them..

"This team has bottled it for 3 years" - right, is this the same team we've had for 3 years? Is it the same management team? The same owner? The same recruitment team? No. No its not. And technically we've been bottling it since 1975 along with about 60+ other English league clubs every season. 

"We've got no plan B." - Name some teams that do something different to us because we havent played 433 for all of the last few games. Name some successful teams that chop and change systems every other week? How did having different formations for different opponents work for Clement and Pearson? If Plan A was going through Chris Martin then what are we doing now? 

"We'll never win anything with Keogh" - 1 player holds back an entire squad? The points separating us from Newcastle are mostly down to Keogh? Shackell and Pearce would be better? Would the ball ever move if those two played CB? How many goals do you actually fully blame Keogh for? When you're fault finding do you trace it back to earlier errors or just the last one before the goal? Because in football you defend from the front and attack from the back. 

"McClaren is just not good enough" - Well he has a pretty decent record at Derby. 27 defeats and 63 wins in 118 games. Above a 50% win ratio. His first time here he joined when we'd never won more than we lost since 2006/07. This time? Well you'd have not demanded top 6 from him would you? So he's not been too bad for us has he? 

"Will Hughes is overrated." - from the people that said "get rid, I'll drive him to Burnley myself" about the useless Jeff Hendrick. What do you want from your 21 year old midfielders now? He's a support player. The go to guy. The guy who assists the assist and tenacious tackling and work rate goes unnoticed until he's missing. Then you reach for the tissues. 

"The team is just not good enough" - So why the dramatics? What is "good enough"? Have you watched Derby play a lot of "good enough" football since Phil Collins released his first number 1? Get some context about where we are in the football world. "My God we're lower than Barnsley and Preston". So? Wigan spent 9 years in the PL. Fulham spent what? 12? Wake up. Derby are not a "sleeping giant." Football is not based on how many people you can get to boo in a ground. This is the level we are. I'm not saying you should be happy with it but you should be bringing your expectations in line with it. 

"The players don't look arsed" - I'm assuming you care about the level of service you offer in your job. Now imagine if you had worked for 20+ years to get where you are? Then imagine you have thousands of people watching you, analysing you every week. Newspapers, TV shows covering your performance. Then imagine that at the end of your 3 contract you could be facing a massive wage decrease/increase depending on how well you've done. Imagine you're just one league away from playing at the highest domestic level of football. So us lads who never made it off the park are criticising the commitment of those who are playing at the very highest level? Sound. Why aren't we footballers? Just luck? 

"Should have played 3254321 formation" - Would that have stopped Pearce pushing someone over? Sometimes, not all the time, a game is lost by players making poor decisions or the opponent being better (they are professionals too btw). How many formations have we seen in the last 5 years? I think we've seen them all. 

I'm not preaching or saying don't be angry. I'm furious. I was furious when we decided we are so good at defending in shape that we don't need to tackle. I was angry that when 1-0 down a player has the balls to play football but at 1-0 up they just want to head/kick it forward even if our team is weak in the air. Let's start lifting it in the air where we're hopeless in 6 positions. I don't understand why Mac has started tinkering so much. BJ was getting loads of praise as a DM. The midfield was BJ, Butters and Hughes. That was the team. When they're fit then... maybe? No? Ooookaay

I'm not telling you to rate Keogh or slate Vydra. If you think they're ***** or great then that's cool. But c'mon, the OTT statements. 

I agree we aren't good enough for the target we have but there is more likely several different reasons. A mix of players not fitting the system, the system not being followed, the tactics being a bit off, players not good enough etc etc. 

But the whole rip it up and start again meltdown is a bit much. Chill your beans. It's very fitting with the mock outrage world we live in. You can't not like something... it's the worst thing ever and I demand compensation and an apology. 

Chill.

This isn't meant to be a rant telling people how to support Derby. Just trying to get some posters to try reasoning things out a bit. There's a lot of clubs that win naff all every year. Only 3 teams will get promoted in May. The rest will be just like Derby. Let's not all clubs commit suicide or Millwall will have to step up to the 2nd tier again. 

You only post for the likes. Such a whore

[DerbyMark]

1 hour ago, RodleyRam said:

You only post for the likes. Such a whore

I could go to town on Alpha's post..

Ain't going to..lol

The only thing I really want to pick up on is "we've been bottling  since 1975"

Really?

How many promotions since then and you certainly don't want me to go into individual games back then where we needed to win and DID... imagine that!

This lot ain't got it in 'em...as much as I love 'em.

And always will.