WHAT WE NEED

[RoyMac5]

3 hours ago, Anag Ram said:

What we need is a squad with a different attitude.

Who, amongst the current squad embodies the 'win or die' attitude?

....

Pearson was perhaps brought in to do that job and because he failed we might not go for a disciplinarian, which is a shame because someone needs to put a rocket up their arses.

 

The first bit according to the Sky commo is Johnson & Shack.

The second bit oh no not again. There is more than one way to get players to play.

[RoyMac5]

13 minutes ago, angieram said:

This exactly.  I find it perplexing that people assume that what McClaren says in public is anything like what he is thinking. He still has nine games to go with this current crop of players and if he tells us that quite a few of them won't feature in his long term plans they will be even worse than they are now.

Well that will be even more proof that some of them are not 'up for the fight' won't it. They have nothing else to play for except to be in the team next season now (oh and hopefully the Forest game!)

[RoyMac5]

3 hours ago, EssendonRam said:

Did you see or hear the post-match press conference?

If not, you might find it interesting.

Mac is, by nature and temperament, a teacher and an encourager, not a belter like Pearson.

What he didn't say was far more significant than what he did. It is obvious that McClaren now sees there's no more to be coaxed or encouraged out of certain players.

 

Far too perceptive for some on here that. But good to hear as I missed the post-match presser.

[kingsy1884]

I think we need so so much more than a new striker. 

We need to reduce the playing staff first then get a few more quality players in at least for cover. 

Out

Blackman, Camara, Baird, Bent, Butterfield, Weimann, Pearce 

In 

Flint, Jota, Diagouraga, Judge, Wisdom, Norwood

[Pearl Ram]

For me, it's a squad of players with a modicum of self respect, pride in their performance and desire to progress.

I've got no problem losing a match if the opposition earn it, I do have a problem when we gift wrap the result. There's nobody ordering others to pull their finger out, they all just seemed to be resigned to the fact what they were doing was enough.

It wouldn't surprise me if Nugent is wondering what he's done joining this club. 

I'd like to read McClaren saying he's told the squad they are playing for their futures at the club but knowing our players they'd just be thinking 'I'm on a long contract and I'm going nowhere'. We seemed to have amassed a squad full of blokes happy to settle for the easy life and mediocrity. 

I'd to think our players are sickened this morning but I doubt it, they'll just be wondering which car to take out their garage to go out tonight.

This phase in our history will pass of course but I fear it won't be for quite a few seasons, we need a new mentality at the club and that doesn't happen overnight. 

Over to you Mr Morris, all this is happening on your watch after all. 

[RoyMac5]

1 minute ago, EastHertsRam said:

 

It wouldn't surprise me if Nugent is wondering what he's done joining this club. 

 

 

I'm hoping that Nugent is an indication of the way Mac wants to go and that he sees what some of the squad are lacking.

[Woodley Ram]

1 hour ago, Papahet said:

What we need?

Better players, Better recruitment, better coaching, better decision making, better planning, better tactics, better team selections, oh and bigger ********

 

No, the right players , the current ones are good players, they  (some) just dont fit the system. The rest will come with that

[CornwallRam]

12 hours ago, cosmic said:

What we need is patience and support. We're in a bad patch, for sure, but this isn't "Pearson" desperate. 

No it's far worse. Pearson recognised the issues and was working towards a solution. It was always going to involve a settling in period. McClaren is just clueless and we are drifting, rudderless towards years of obscurity. The quicker he's gone the quicker the decline can be addressed. 

[cannable]

What we need is dank memes. 

[cannable]

11 minutes ago, CornwallRam said:

No it's far worse. Pearson recognised the issues and was working towards a solution. It was always going to involve a settling in period. McClaren is just clueless and we are drifting, rudderless towards years of obscurity. The quicker he's gone the quicker the decline can be addressed. 

Nigel Pearson playing Craig Bryson as a holding midfielder hahahahahahahahaha

[Gritstone Ram]

What I think we need is a good scouting system. Surely recruiting the right players with potential is the key to generate money and build a successful team. 

[CornwallRam]

18 minutes ago, cannable said:

Nigel Pearson playing Craig Bryson as a holding midfielder hahahahahahahahaha

Nigel Pearson trying to assess the squad properly to effect real and meaningful change. 

[cannable]

Just now, CornwallRam said:

Nigel Pearson trying to assess the squad properly to effect real and meaningful change. 

By playing a player in a position he was clearly never ever going to be able to adapt to and persisting with it! 

Mate, I could have assessed it for him in an hour! 

[Sexydadbod]

38 minutes ago, cannable said:

Nigel Pearson playing Craig Bryson as a holding midfielder hahahahahahahahaha

McClaren did the same, just saying....

[Tombo]

14 hours ago, plymouthram said:

 but I feel we need a fresh young striker, someone that is strong, pacey, no fear and that will cost money unless we can pull out a gem from the lower leagues(aka Vardy)

That in my opinion is what is missing. 

Vydra

Blackman

Weimann

Plenty of players to satisfy this cliche. It doesn't work like that. 

[cannable]

25 minutes ago, McLovin said:

McClaren did the same, just saying....

McClaren had him not venturing forward as much, Pearson had him as a bonafide lone pivot 

[nfb]

What we need...... how about this, keep SMC over the summer, add a couple of decent players let SMC do what he does which is play great football in the 1st half of the season and establish an our ave 2 point per game, be at the top or close as SMC does at Xmas

Then, sack him in Jan, and get someone else in to consolidate and make sure we dont totally fall apart in the 2nd half of the season !

Bingo promotion

Simples

[EssendonRam]

5 hours ago, angieram said:

This exactly.  I find it perplexing that people assume that what McClaren says in public is anything like what he is thinking. He still has nine games to go with this current crop of players and if he tells us that quite a few of them won't feature in his longwterm plans they will be even worse than they are now.

As it is the whole team is wracked with the uncertainty of it all. l would like the fans to just relax a bit - it might help the situation because the atmosphere here and at matches from some is toxic.

And, let's face the facts about it, both factors you rightly highlight have been evident for years as characteristic of this squad and our club.

The susceptibility of some key players' performances to fluctuations in their confidence levels are remarkable to say the least for professional footballers. I'll refer once more to the 'excuse' many Derby fans granted the players when McClaren was contemplating the offer from Newcastle; that so many Derby fans regarded that an 'acceptable' alibi (for want of a better term) for a squad of professional footballers' collective performances to drop so precipitously still beggars belief.

That many of those same fans, while justifying that slump on the basis of deepening their sense of McClaren's "betrayal", have still too often been toxic (as angieram describes it; with absolute accuracy in my view) towards players and coaching staff at the side's most vulnerable times.

To several players' credit, they've called out the effects on morale quite openly to little or no effect.

[JaguarRam]

What we need? Realistic expectations and not to be so negative if we go on a bad run..

[EssendonRam]

5 hours ago, Millenniumram said:

What we need is a bloody long list, and it something that needs putting into action quickly. Sack Mac now, stick Powell in charge until the end of the season and careful examine all potential managerial candidates and get the right one in. Bring in more coaches, and new DOF and a wider scouting network and settle on a system and practice it all pre season.

We need a proper man manager passion, drive and mental strength to this team- the coaching team can do the coaching, leave the manager to manage! Mac ain't a man manager, he's a brilliant coach, but his tactics are outdated and I don't think he's got it in him to install a winning mentality into the squad, which is what we need more than anything right now.

Would also restructure the academy, don't think wassall is the right man and for the money we've invested in the facilities I don't think the coaching is good enough down there. We need a fair amount of new young driven footballers, build the team around Hughes, Ince, Thorne, vydra etc and bring in more players with something to prove, that fit a specific system. All this is possible before next season but we must start acting now!

You leave me both shaking my head in dismay on one issue and also nodding in furious agreement on the other.

Re McClaren, you do at least credit his renowned excellence as a coach.

Too many right now are so blinded by disappointment that we've again failed and bitterness (still) at their skewed perspective on 2015 that they refuse even to acknowledge that his ability to coach would be a loss to Derby if we were to sack him again.

You can at least acknowledge that and very strongly so...to your credit.

But I won't lie: I have said for years that English football fans (and some clubs) have failed to learn the lessons of the most successful NFL and AFL clubs since the late 1980s and early 1990s; that dismissing managers almost as the instinctive first resort (literally for Boards  to (a) be seen to be doing SOMETHING...ANYTHING, and (b) often for the 'sugar hit' which can result from the change and potentially even save a club from relegation.

But the managerial merry-go-round remains primitive practice and frankly counter-productive to maintaining a longer-term course.

Both in the NFL (probably since Tom Landry stayed far too long at the Cowboys), the more successful clubs (except Dallas) have tended to invest more in the strengths of the head coaches and identify underlings or others within the club structure whose strengths were the he'd coach's weaknesses and empower those people to work within the coaching team. The logic is obvious; retain the head coach's strengths and compensate for his weaknesses. 

To be fair, it's probably easier to see progress in your side's medium- or long-term strategy in competitions governed by 'equalisation' measures such as drafts and salary caps; as such, it is probably easier for average fans to identify their club's longer-term strategy and to placate them on bad runs of form by pointing to the future...

But,as with every sport, it's too easy to dismiss as poor tactics or "no Plan B" or whatever what is simply the collective failure of a group of players - for whatever reason - to execute as required.

That, to me, is the underlying subtext of "x's tactics are outdated" or "x is a one-trick pony with no Plan B" - where 'x' is Steve McClaren or Paul Clement or Nigel Pearson (or Nigel Clough) or even Darren Wassell (I doubt I am successfully obscuring my dislike for Wassell, am I?).

The real giveaway for mine is your statement that Mac lacks the passion or drive or man-management skills.

You simply cannot be serious. His record is too clear; on both occasions, he has conjured substantial winning runs from nowhere. Almost by definition, working through a first form slump is easier than working your way through subsequent troughs in form.

Does that, of itself, excuse the dramatic losses of form, confidence and efficacy in both 2015 and this season? Of course not.

But, surely, the obvious complexity of the squad's collective psyche and the difficult nature of the Championship should give cause for pause to consider whether our club's longer-term interests are best served by playing to the hungry mob in the cheap seats every time progress gets slowed?

Doesn't it behove of the club to deeply and carefully review the real causes of the team's underperformance and the best means of learning from the experience? Surely?

That said, we do absolutely concur in regards to the performance of the Academy (and I honestly do not believe my skepticism of its performance - as measured by the number of ready-made Academy graduates relative to (say) that of Southampton - is a result of my general disregard for Wassell. Even accounting for how long the Southampton model has been running in comparison with ours, the disparity seems Hyde to me.