v Huddersfield Town (A) Match Thread

[kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong]

15 minutes ago, Seaside Ram said:

Such a nice change to see a Rams team look so solid ! One minor point .. How poor was Mason Bennett ? 

He was only on for about thirty seconds it seemed....no worse than Waggers I'd say and he didn't have the whole game to settle in.

 

 

[Ellafella]

2 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

What a kick off to the season after the disappointment of playoff defeat, the much shortened break due to Wembley, the wasted time due to the change of manager and a rather dis-jointed pre-season.

Also our big summer signing not ready yet, potential talisman Marriott not fully fit and Holmes also injured. 

Some great play in the first half. Passing round the back quickly and into the midfield, opening up the pitch and finding space easily in attacking positions. So much better than the performance away at Reading last season and a much better 1st half performance than many games we saw last time round.

The 2nd half was perhaps even more impressive. Not seem game management like that from us for a long time. We looked like a top team who knew what was needed to get the job done. Clarke already looks immense.

Early days of course but highly promising. Cocu's already got more out of Lawrence than the previous 2 managers got.

If Chelsea look poor vs Man Utd and Liverpool over the next week, their fans might be looking at Cocu and be scratching their heads. 3 Dutch league wins may be better than 6th to 6th in the Championship??

 

There is something very compelling in Cocu's still, calm but steely-fixed green eyes. Derby moved the ball in the first half like a pin-ball machine with great first-time purpose and exactness. Early days but there's a clear style already emerging where the ball pinged around the four points of the pitch with consummate ease. Really enjoyable to watch. 

[Inverurie Ram]

Crikey just checked the amount of folk on this forum right now, thousands, well hundreds, I think there's a bit of a queue to post on here.  Clarke quality. Lawrence delivering and winning ball and smiling, keep it up Tom. Rams players in our end. Talk of Rooney.

I think the light shining on Bogle from God is because he's so special. When he zips and skips down that wing and he can pass.

And Richard Keogh.

Well done lads. Up The Rams. Love, Life & Unity.

[SaffyRam]

13 minutes ago, Van Cone De Head said:

Said they deserved something,he felt hard done by.

I have no idea what game he was watching.

Didn’t seem very impressed by our Tom’s two wonder goals either ?

[ariotofmyown]

1 minute ago, Inverurie Ram said:

Crikey just checked the amount of folk on this forum right now, thousands, well hundreds, I think there's a bit of a queue to post on here.  

2-0! What a strike Lawrence!

[Underground Ram]

That the play off cobwebs blown totally away. Y9u can just feel this is going to be a great season. Most solid we’ve looked in a long time. 

[Sparkle]

42 minutes ago, Kennington Ram said:

Well, I had a nightmare - partner's family dropped round for dinner as a surprise after some good news. Which was lovely for her but meant I missed the whole game. Horrendous. 

Looking forward to watching the highlights (ffs) but seems like a quality performance considering we aren't quite at "full power" yet. Low key excitement. Supposed to be one of our hard away games too. Remember that away form was our downfall last season...

I remember the father in law when one of his daughters visited from Australia for the first time in 8 years his first words were sush I am watching the boat race 

[BramcoteRam84]

Well I talked about slow start to the season, going to take time before new manager gets his ideas across and new signings bed in - what absolute baalocks based on that display.

Wow just wow. First half flair with that team line up!! Evans and Hudds in midfield??!! Thought we were gonna get murdered. He makes that 11 play like that he’s a genius!

Second half - terrific defensively, never looked like conceding.

Lawrence immense, good performances for Clarke Keogh Malone Hudds Evans FloJo Dowell and Roos (and I’m a critic).

Most impressive of all, Cocu and the coaching staff, we had a plan for everything. It was deliberate precise and aggressive both in attack and defence. It’s taken that match for me to highlight that under Frank - we never really had a plan and relied on individuals. The contrast is startling.

Huddersfield won’t trouble the top 6, this is only the first game, but the scary thing is we’ve still got to make some signings and this team will only get better.

Exciting times!!

[Inverurie Ram]

How can anyone knock Mason Bennett?, instantly got stuck in, put pressure on their players, pressed, won a good free kick, and did more in his minutes than the Zoom did in his 70 plus.

[AdamRam]

2 minutes ago, Inverurie Ram said:

How can anyone knock Mason Bennett?, instantly got stuck in, put pressure on their players, pressed, won a good free kick, and did more in his minutes than the Zoom did in his 70 plus.

 I thought Bennett did a great defensive job, they didn’t trouble us after he came on, which at that point I thought we were getting a bit overrun. 

[Orphanram]

Like everyone else thought Lawrence was  immense and as much as anything else I hope this is the beginning of him maturing his all round game to compliment the obvious natural talent he has (which often the difference between players who make it at the top level). Clarke was fantastic, as was Keogh. Dowell was exciting first half but a couple of situations 2nd half when we were digging in made me think he needs to get a bit more of that fighting championship mentality in him ( Mount had that in abundance - not necessarily being an enforcer but that desire to have a foot in to win the ball and win a fair share of 50/50’s). A few have said they thought Evans played well but for me Evans, Malone and Josefzoon were the weakest links in the overall performance tonight. In regards to Evans he put in everything he had but he lacked composure and we can do better than him. Josefzoon is just not at the races for me and Malone has some qualities but isn’t good enough for how we want to play imo. Great start to the season and in context to last season’s  first game a much better performance for a number of reasons.

 

[TuffLuff]

5 minutes ago, Inverurie Ram said:

How can anyone knock Mason Bennett?, instantly got stuck in, put pressure on their players, pressed, won a good free kick, and did more in his minutes than the Zoom did in his 70 plus.

I’m not sure how you can knock anyone tonight. Seen a few saying about Jozefzoon and Waghorn but I thought they were both excellent off the ball, Zoon moving freely and creating space for others to work in and Waghorn made Elphick look second rate on his debut. Both were simple and effective, but it shouldn’t go unnoticed 

[Brammie Steve]

Huddersfield corners 10

Rams corners nil.

Shots on goal Huddersfield 2(?)

Rams 6.

We somehow absorbed anything remotely like an attack and most importantly.

We got 3 points away in our opening match!

PS Rams away support looked massive.

[Mafiabob]

22 minutes ago, kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong said:

He was only on for about thirty seconds it seemed....no worse than Waggers I'd say and he didn't have the whole game to settle in.

 

 

Thought Waghorn led the line amazingly well tonight..... 

[Ambitious]

When the team was first announced, I could understand why we had gone for certain players but I thought it looked underwhelming on paper. It wasn't a team that screamed quality, but this early in the season every player is at different levels of fitness and that needs to take focus. 

My thoughts: 

Roos - 7 - He wasn't massively tested, although I think he did well on corners considering their was a definite focus on pinning him to his line. He had one moment where he lost his concentration and ended up kicking it out of a corner. He did his job reasonably well. 

Bogle - 6 - He showed good technique at times, but thought he looked 70% fitness. He was caught out a few times and made some lazy passes. He will grow as he gets up to full fitness.

Clarke - 8 - A very accomplished debut, certainly showed his quality early on and I'd imagine that he will be a big part of our season. I don't think you could ask for much more on his debut. 

Keogh - 8 - He seems to get better with age. He didn't miss a step today, apart from one poor pass that led to a counter attack, but I think the system suited him in his first game back as official captain. 

Malone - 6 - He was slightly better than Bogle, but thought he grew into the game. I thought he was being caught out too easily in the first half, but when they put the pressure on he stepped up. He lacked a bit quality at times on the ball, but did ok. 

Huddlestone - 7 - He was very good in the first half, but they made a concerted effort to keep him out of the game in the second. He showed a lot of quality at times. He has limitations, but Cocu seems to know how to play to his strengths. 

Evans - 6 - A steady performance. He's been good in pre-season and played well today. He didn't do anything that wasn't expected, but he was very good off the ball. He was definitely blowing in the second half. 

Dowell - 6 - He was decent enough, although the foul for the penalty wasn't his brightest moment. He clearly has a decent amount of ability. He did work hard. I would say he needs to have a run of games to find his rhythem. 

Lawrence - 9 - If that wasn't his best game in his Derby shirt then it ran it very close. It wasn't just the two goals, the quality on the ball, but he worked his b*****s off to ensure we came back with all three points. The determination in the last 20 minutes was really something that I think resonated with a lot of players in the Derby team. Excellent by all accounts. 

Jozefzoon - 4 - I like him, but he was far too passive today. He made countless bad decisions and despite his obvious quality, it just doesn't look like it's ever going to happen for him here. He was the definite the weak link. 

Waghorn - 6 - He worked tirelessly upfront, but lacked quality at times. He should've scored at least one. It's uncharacteristic of him, because he's a very good player who will get better. 

All in all, it was a very important win but we really need to hope we can get upto fitness quickly. The second half showed that our poorly planned pre-season didn't help, so despite our significant quality advantage that they had the edge in fitness. I think we will see the best of our team come September. Swansea will be a tough test, but we have more than enough to beat them - especially at home. 

[LittleEatonRam]

Positives:

1. Tom Lawrence comfortably MOTM, and not just for the goals. His all round contribution was great. Cocu mentioned in the interview that he was looking to get more goals out of him and I agree he has that potential.

2. Keogh and Clarke also excellent. Repelled everything that they threw at us.

3. Huge balls from Cocu throwing on Knight at the end when we were under the kosh. Thought the Sky interviewer should have asked him about that as I'd love to have heard his response.

4. The win, of course. Not an easy place to go on a Monday night and get that result against a team who probably fancy themselves to go back up. Although I don't know why they would.

5. We still have some key players to come back from injury/fitness concerns, so we'll improve no doubt.

6. Cocu has had far less time with his players than most managers will get this season and already appears to be wokring out how best to utilise them.

 

Negatives:

1. Midfield was defensively lightweight. Despite was some other posters have commented, I don't see what Evans offered tonight. In the 2nd half they cut through our midfield at will, although I'm not suggesting that was Evans' fault alone. Bielik and Shinnie  will hopefully redress the balance.

2. Of all the players Brentford have sold in the last couple of years, Jozefzoon is probably the one they were not that fussed about losing. Unfortunately he was the one that we bought.

3. A lot more work is required for us to become as comfortable playing out from the back as Cocu would like us to be. Leeds are good at this (sorry but it's true). We are not. Yet.

4. We probably need a new keeper. Nothing to do with Wembley (all keepers make those mistakes sometimes), but Roos does not fill me with confidence.

[kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong]

5 minutes ago, Mafiabob said:

Thought Waghorn led the line amazingly well tonight..... 

Ok,we all are different things but I didn't see a single challenge come off in his favour and he just looked a bit lost with everything going through lawrence.He looked clumsy I thought.

Not a big issue today obviously and everyone has an off day plus other games will no doubt suit him better.

[IslandExile]

1 hour ago, RamNut said:

Missed the whole thing as i couldn't get Now TV to work, but saw the goals. Two great finishes from Tom turning up centrally where he is at his best.

great start.???

There's an app for that (NowTV) and you can cast it to your TV (Chromecast but maybe FireTV too).

[Mafiabob]

I can’t believe folk really have negatives after that.

What struck me out of everything, especially that 2nd half, was the calmness of it all. We was never scrambling at any time. Roos has one save that 2nd half.

The spine was brilliant..... Keogh/Clarke brilliant.... Evans ran his socks off and won the space..... and Waghorn, for anyone slagging him off tonight either has an agenda or just couldn’t see what he did out there..... thought he was bob on..... and won free kicks like a certain number 9 did to take pressure off. Wake up.

Lawerence was mustard

[Mafiabob]

3 minutes ago, kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong said:

Ok,we all are different things but I didn't see a single challenge come off in his favour and he just looked a bit lost with everything going through lawrence.He looked clumsy I thought.

Not a big issue today obviously and everyone has an off day plus other games will no doubt suit him better.

Hahahahaha what absolute baalock s and you know it.

Give credit where it is due. He was good tonight