Villa v Derby

[cstand]

13 minutes ago, David said:

Ok. But it is a fact, Forest and Birmingham lost and Bristol City only picked up a point. 

If you think I’m being deluded by not giving up on the top 6 until it’s mathematically impossible that’s fine, but I won’t. 

We have a run of home games now coming up, win on Tuesday we’re level on points with Bristol City again in 6th.

If you want to give up, say the season is over then great, each to their own.

True time for the fans to get behind the team against Wigan we need to give the players support as they are obviously short on confidence please do not moan and groan at the first missed placed pass.!!

 

[ramboy63]

If any thing today i do feel sorry for Max Bird it could take a lot for him to get over this and i thought he did ok to be fair

 

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

3 minutes ago, hintonsboots said:

Nugent came out of the hat WTF ?

We've only got 10 on the pitch... who left Martin's ball in Jody ?

[Richard246]

                                                 Carson

                        Keogh             Ambrose          Tomori

  Bogle           Mount          Johnson       Wilson           Malone

                                  Marriott          Lawrence

 

We need to attack against Wigan and this is our best-attacking Formation Mount and Lawrence anywhere near fit they must play.

[Sith Happens]

We have a huge 4 games coming up. Everything could look much rosier after that.

Agree that if we get a poor return from them then Frank might be in trouble and season will be effectively over, but its far from yet.

 

[Mr Tibbs]

7 minutes ago, Derbyram1983 said:

I personally think we’re in a bad way. No salable  assets or very little. A small squad next season with very little quality. Nothing to do with frank but previous managers have really messed this club up. We’re in a similar situation to when clough took over about ten years ago. Only way we can get out of this is if a lot of the younger players come in and do well. 

Apart from the 15 million pounds worth of players he brought in who's values have also dropped?

[Gritstone Ram]

16 minutes ago, HantsRam said:

Any guess as to why not? I have no clue. In the summer it was Frank's cachet that was attracting players. Now they don't play for him? Bizarre......?

I think it’s due to his boring tactics not working. The players knowing the style they are playing isn’t working and is just getting the fans on their backs. 

Also that the team is switched around with players in and out with no real pattern or stability in the side. 

Bringing in our academy players and dropping them into a team that desperately needs to find some form. OK introduce the young players but stick them in gradually and when we are playing with confidence.

I have said before too, I don’t think FL is good enough to work a miracle at this club.

[jono]

Yes @Paul71..... we’ve got to try and see this with some perspective.

Squad full of injuries, out of form so the Boss tried something a bit unconventional . It didn’t work but hindsight is worthless. Other results don’t go too badly for us. So what. ( apart from a glum couple of days ) 

This has to be put down to experience and we go on to the next game determined to put up a fight. You lose some battles but running off crying, saying it’s not fair or pointing fingers at your mates never won a war. 

[Comrade 86]

Keep the faith lads. Even a dyed in the wool happy-clapper like myself is pretty fed up with the way we're going right now but all's not lost. The players do seem to have retreated into their shells again which I'd hoped we might avoid this season but we know there are good performances in the side if we can stick anything like our best 11 out. Think calls for Frank to go are a bit daft as churning managers is what got us where we are in the first place. Need to rally round the lads now but I do accept that they owe the fans a performance after recent displays. Hopefully the next 4 games being at home can give us a platform. COYR

[Derbyram1983]

4 minutes ago, Mr Tibbs said:

Apart from the 15 million pounds worth of players he brought in who's values have also dropped?

I think Waghorn and Marriott are good players. That’s over £10m. Other than that Evans, josefzoon and malone look poo 

[Rev]

Shaky ground for Frank.

Clement and Mac2 got sacked for less.

The desire to see someone given a chance is in his favour, but it needs to be several steps up from the last 4 games if he's to convince the owner he's the long term answer.

[Turnstile]

11 minutes ago, Derbyram1983 said:

I personally think we’re in a bad way. No salable  assets or very little. A small squad next season with very little quality. Nothing to do with frank but previous managers have really messed this club up. We’re in a similar situation to when clough took over about ten years ago. Only way we can get out of this is if a lot of the younger players come in and do well. 

Sam Rush has shafted us completely.We have a team we can afford and it's not good enough for the top six.

[LeedsCityRam]

25 minutes ago, WilkoRam said:

In terms of criticism I will say this. I have no idea how Evans gets near the team - he brings nothing. He’s not a tough guy in the middle to get the ball back, he’s not composed or a good passer, he doesn’t have pace to get forward and work on the break. I just don’t get it. I thought Johnson did alright when he came on against Forest, tried to be positive with passing, won the ball back high up the pitch and switched play. To get dropped for Evans is baffling. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that our best performances came with a middle three of Johnson, Mount and Wilson.

I agree. I've seen nothing from Evans so far that merits him starting. Lampard knows him from Man City youth teams & I wonder if that's clouding his judgement.

Whilst Evans is reasonably mobile & tall, he lacks the core skills to be an effective DCM. He's far from a dominant presence in the centre but the worst part of his game is his passing. Checked the stats on this & his pass completion % is on a par with Bradley Johnson. Whilst he looks to be more ambitious than Johnson & (lack of) movement ahead of him might be skewing this %, I'd rather he concentrated on keeping it simple.

He was particularly bad in both away games at Leeds & Preston. You simply can not win a midfield battle if you're giving the ball away every 2 mins.

[Ilsonram12]

Always a brave decision bringing frank in as this lot need an experienced head but we’ve been there done that and got naff all so am still rooting for the manager

what concerns me is the performances as they have been awful, no desire or shots on target again, poor selection, how did we expect to get anything with that midfield three? Bird inexperienced, Holmes is a winger and Evans hasn’t impressed 

its a big rebuild in the summer, but have we the patience?

This is Derby

[Gritstone Ram]

From what I can see is that all of a sudden we have started playing Clement tactics. It isn’t working but it isn’t changing. Is this because FL can’t admit that his plan A isn’t working or can’t he change things??

My suspicions are both.

[Jimbo Ram]

4 minutes ago, reveldevil said:

Shaky ground for Frank.

Clement and Mac2 got sacked for less.

The desire to see someone given a chance is in his favour, but it needs to be several steps up from the last 4 games if he's to convince the owner he's the long term answer.

If we lose on Tuesday with a similar level of performance we have seen over the last couple of months I would really fear for Frank.....

[Comrade 86]

Just now, reveldevil said:

Shaky ground for Frank.

Clement and Mac2 got sacked for less.

The desire to see someone given a chance is in his favour, but it needs to be several steps up from the last 4 games if he's to convince the owner he's the long term answer.

Understand why folks are anxious and fed up but we've seen time and time again that given time to get the right personnel and ingrain a style of play, teams can improve dramatically in the second or third season. Brighton, Fulham and Norwich seem good examples of clubs who showed patience and one reaped the benefits, the other seems likely to do so. Clubs like Wolves were able to buy and loan top class players through the Mendes connection and one would hope Frank will be wiser next year. He's made some costly errors but it'd be miraculous had he not.

Summer clear out and a few of the youngsters pushing for starts, next season could be very different. It'll need to be as Frank won't be afforded too much time if things don't appear to have improved a lot after 10 or 15 games next season.

[Gritstone Ram]

Just now, Jimbo Ram said:

If we lose on Tuesday with a similar level of performance we have seen over the last couple of months I would really fear for Frank.....

Or Mel will pay a visit to the changing rooms.

[Jimbo Ram]

2 minutes ago, LeedsCityRam said:

I agree. I've seen nothing from Evans so far that merits him starting. Lampard knows him from Man City youth teams & I wonder if that's clouding his judgement.

Whilst Evans is reasonably mobile & tall, he lacks the core skills to be an effective DCM. He's far from a dominant presence in the centre but the worst part of his game is his passing. Checked the stats on this & his pass completion % is on a par with Bradley Johnson. Whilst he looks to be more ambitious than Johnson & (lack of) movement ahead of him might be skewing this %, I'd rather he concentrated on keeping it simple.

He was particularly bad in both away games at Leeds & Preston. You simply can not win a midfield battle if you're giving the ball away every 2 mins.

I sigh and shake my head every time I see the name Evans on the team sheet. Certainly not the answer to our midfield woes unfortunately.....

[Ilsonram12]

50 minutes ago, Derbados said:

Agreed, Coles always appears terrified of confrontation 

When FL said what he said, I was hoping coles would probe him on who he was referring to, but no there was no mention until Dawes and ramage said it, don’t think it’s the fans he was pointing to but the local media