Rowett signings settling?

[archied]

interesting question ,

for me hudds and Davies have been quality from early on 

Ledley decent ?

is Tom Lawrence starting to look a player?

is cam jam starting to settle and show he can do a good job ?

yes some are older players but has he got those older players on just the right length of contracts to be very good business and be the backbone next season to fresh younger blood ?

 

[ImARam2]

After the match yesterday, as I waited 90 minutes for a train at Witton Stn. I was speaking to a Villa fan who though Lawrence was one of Derby's best players and liked the way he ran at the defending players.

It's all about opinions!!

[King Kevin]

You could argue all of the above ,Rowetts task if he should accept it is to get them playing decent football and stop being so negative.

[Doodle]

9 minutes ago, ImARam2 said:

After the match yesterday, as I waited 90 minutes for a train at Witton Stn. I was speaking to a Villa fan who though Lawrence was one of Derby's best players and liked the way he ran at the defending players.

It's all about opinions!!

90 mins?? I was moaning when I had to wait till 5-40 due to 5-20 being cancelled.Really nice bunch of fans on the whole. Couldn’t work out, why we stood off them for so long 

[ImARam2]

I left Villa Park at 5.00 pm and walked to Witton Stn and joined the queue which stretched along the road, up the station ramp and on to the platform.

Following cancelled trains and one that went past half-full, without stopping, I eventually got on the 6.20 pm train to Birmingham New Street, so it was actually 80 minutes since leaving the ground.

I would have thought the rail company would have realised that Villa was hosting their biggest attendence of the season and have provided more trains or at least better communications that there would be long delays.

But there you go, who cares about football fans?

[Van der MoodHoover]

51 minutes ago, ImARam2 said:

After the match yesterday, as I waited 90 minutes for a train at Witton Stn. I was speaking to a Villa fan who though Lawrence was one of Derby's best players and liked the way he ran at the defending players.

It's all about opinions!!

That bit alone put him in a small minority. 

Even Gary remarked how lacking in energy we were,  which I have very rarely heard him do.

[Mr Tibbs]

Lawrence has looked decent since Preston. Huddlestone has dropped off his mid season form levels IMO. Davies has been solid all year. Ledley not so good recently since returning from injury. CJ terrible up until the second half on Tuesday night, was good on Saturday. If he can carry it on next Saturday and through the play offs then maybe we can forget his horrific performances in February and March.

[ImARam2]

As I said, it's all about opinions!!

[LeedsCityRam]

43 minutes ago, archied said:

interesting question ,

for me hudds and Davies have been quality from early on 

Ledley decent ?

is Tom Lawrence starting to look a player?

is cam jam starting to settle and show he can do a good job ?

yes some are older players but has he got those older players on just the right length of contracts to be very good business and be the backbone next season to fresh younger blood ?

 

Davies has been an excellent signing, no question. Lawrence is a real talent & is waiting to ignite - not seen the best of him but the talent is undoubtedly there.

Of the others, Jerome, Huddlestone & Ledley are useful players & have contributed to some positive results but I'm sceptical about their value to the team as a whole & going forward. Our midfield has become very deep because of the lack of mobility/age in there & this has contributed to our inability to control matches. Whilst this works well away from home (no denying our away record has on the whole been very good), it doesn't help us when we're at home & expected to make the running against teams - no surprise we've not been good at home against teams at the lower end of the table.

Although Jerome has had a good last few days, he's not really what we need if we have a midfield so bereft of goals. He's never going to hit 25 in a season - hence the reliance on Vydra. Although I'd normally think a goal scoring midfielder who runs beyond the striker (Bryson-esque) would get some joy in this formation, I'm not sure Jerome has the touch to bring others into play on a regular basis.

Don't disagree with your last point that some experience to help young blood (coming in the summer) would be of a real benefit but there's a lot of work to shape our squad in the summer so that youth & energy dominates. Summer of 2019 will be interesting with so many contracts expiring hence why the transition to young & hungry players needs to happen asap.

[Millenniumram]

Don’t think it’s anything to do with time, it’s the system. Like you say Davies has been excellent from day one, as has Huddlestone once he shook off that injury he was playing through early season. Ledley has always done the job he’s been asked to do, as has wisdom (when he’s been alright to play), and so did winnall.

It’s only really Lawrence that’s turned it around, and that’s everything to do with his new role. He needs freedom to play to express himself, in the 4231 his old role was too rigid for him, and meant he never really got into any position to cause any damage. Imo he’s never been a winger really, he was always an attacking mid in Uniteds youth teams if I remember correctly so it’s no surprise to see him doing better in this new role, you could always see the natural ability.

That leaves the January signings of course which are harder to judge, Palmer looked decent from day one but we’ve never found a role for him much to my dismay (play him in midfield pleaseeeeeee!) Jerome is the interesting one there, must say he looked pretty much a dud to me for quite a while but has come into his own surprisingly this week, again I think that’s the formation, not him settling.

So really I don’t think it’s anything to do with players settling, it’s just finding their roles. Tbf to Rowett the players he’s brought in have generally done very well, think any criticisms aimed at him transfer wise have to be more based on who didn’t come in/who left, though of course money talks.

[ImARam2]

Jerome looking 'knackered' by the 70th minute and I would have took him off and put Nugent on, as well as leaving Weimann on.

Also, Palmer had no impact whatsoever and playing at left wing-back was totally wrong.

Davies was just immense yesterday and made some tremendous tackles.

[RadioactiveWaste]

Apart from Jerome's sudden new lease of life, I thought the signings were mostly OK. A bit old on the whole, but none of the deals were particularly bad - picking up Ledley as a free agent, Huddz and Davies on lowish release clauses, Lawrence perhaps hasn't been all that, but I think he gets judged against Ince a lot.

It's finding a way of getting the players available to perform as a team - the 4-2-3-1 worked reasonably, but came off the rails and think belief and confidence in the plan evaporated, and that was as telling as any shortcoming in the system. SO we've gone to wing backs, and new bit of belief and the poop or bust nature of the games has brought something out.

I think (assuming we don't go up) next season we'll be more accomplished at being a rowettball side and better for it - robust, clinical and hard working with a bit more fluidity in attack. We'll never be a Mac1 team again with these players and this manager, but that doesn't mean we won't be a thoroughly good team which we've never really been this season. We've been patchy, occasionally good with long stretches of ugly awful football. Much as I detested Nigel Pearson's  stint as Derby manager (which made Russell want to quit football it was that bad), his leicester side that went up was a good team.