v WBA (H) Match Thread

[Alph]

50 minutes ago, superzak said:

we are a championship side

Yes. Yes we are. And so are the teams we are playing. 

And Everton play Premier League teams. Because they're a Premier League team. They have however not won the Premier League. Are Everton poor?

Man City play Champions League teams.... see how it works? You play teams on your level. Guess what Man City haven't won. Poor team. Give up Pep, you fraud

You talk like someone who has either never tried and never failed or you have been a huge success in whatever you put your mind to. 

Next time your kids or Grandkids lose at sports day just remember to tell them they were poor. That school level is a really low level of athletics and that is where they will be forever

[Ruud Aralliss]

30 minutes ago, superzak said:

Then why are we still in the championship...simple we are not good enough..cocu is just another stealing a living

Because we only have a multi- millionaire owner not a consortium of Billionaires which is standard for a team to have the players to stay and compete in the premiership.

As posted earlier Cocu is a few games in with complete strangers ffs.

[Derby blood]

1 hour ago, superzak said:

we are poor ,no better than under the last 5 managers...so what ,we are a championship side, we will be in this league for another 12 years...who wants to be thrashed week in week out by the likes of liverpool and man city

We play at this level because we are in the championship, we are not poor at this level, last few seasons getting to the play offs, a final in one, and losing in the play offs to Fulham who went up, and the season is 5 games old, and I believe having watched most games this season that we are not far off having another good season, get Marriott fitter, Holmes to come in, and Rooney to come in, so loads of positives, and I am sure we will make the prem in the next 12 years, I think in the next 2 we will be back. But it's all about Opinions, I for one , am looking forward  , to seeing how this season unfolds.

[atherstoneram]

54 minutes ago, Ruda Harliss said:

Are you a ref?

Only on here ?

[atherstoneram]

22 minutes ago, Jimbo Ram said:

Perhaps Cocu isn't convinced he will be able to do it at a much higher level ?

If he doesn't try him he won't find out

[Derby blood]

43 minutes ago, superzak said:

Then why are we still in the championship...simple we are not good enough..cocu is just another stealing a living

Are you drunk mate, how the hell can you judge Cocu on 5 games, you my friend need to get some perspective on the game, judge the club on the whole, exciting youngsters coming through, signing younger players with something to prove Marriott, Bielik, Holmes and Evans, trying to play the game in the right way, today's starting eleven had a average age of 24, this season will get better, after watching the game for 40 years you can see we are not far off a good team, a few tweaks here and there and we will be in a positive place come May time. In Cocu we 

[angieram]

There's quite a lot of negativity today. Strangely, I thought we were a bit better. It helped that WBA had come to give it a go, helped create a fairly exciting match and the backing from our fans was much louder today.

I was pleased to see the inclusion of two more youngsters as they brought effort and legs to the team. Although initially disappointed to see Huddlestone in there again I thought he had a better game, as did Dowell in patches but I wish he'd be there for the full 90 minutes - hopefully that will come. My pick of the three midfielders would be Knight - he's going to be a star for us.

Waghorn was much more involved in the game on the right. I know about his penalties but he won the first one by driving in to the area (Lawrence please take note! ) and I thought he interacted well with Lowe. 

Watching Marriott today you can see the thankless task that any centre forward has in our system but I thought he worked really hard and am pleased he lasted 70 minutes. I  said when Bennett replaced him, watch the one golden chance fall to his replacement and it did. Jack would have buried that for the win. 

We are creating so few chances now we do need to be taking them. 

I've left Lowe until last because he deserves most praise. Such an improvement since last season. Playing on the wrong side he still has the composure on the ball and now mostly in the tackle well beyond his years. So sad that the penalty was given against him (wrongly as it happened ) but I trust him to learn from that.

When Bogle and Holmes are back we should be more of a threat - looking forward to it. 

[RamLad1884]

58 minutes ago, superzak said:

Then why are we still in the championship...simple we are not good enough..cocu is just another stealing a living

Cheers for the valuable insight, makes me question why you'd keep buying a season ticket? Or even paying for a normal matchday ticket? 

Or is this a case of saw the game on tele and decided to make my mind up on the manager? 

[Ruud Aralliss]

1 hour ago, superzak said:

Then why are we still in the championship...simple we are not good enough..cocu is just another stealing a living

Tried not to react to this post but can’t.

Stealing a living???  C’mon get a grip

[nottingram]

Lots of promising signs today, but for a refereeing howler we would’ve beaten a very good side (I know we benefitted from one as well but ultimately if the referee makes the right decisions for each penalty we win the game). I actually thought that he blew his whistle to give the dive then had second thoughts because of the reaction he’d get, but he made that rod for his own back by a pretty poor game before that.

Adding Bogle and Holmes into that side and I think we will be fine. Can’t really be understated what Bogle adds to the team. Lowe has done great but it just isn’t dynamic enough there at the minute. 

Knight was great, doesn’t look fazed at all and nearly got a goal. Buchanan was a little more tentative but that’s understandable. Lots of positives.

[DavesaRam]

8 minutes ago, nottingram said:

Lots of promising signs today, but for a refereeing howler we would’ve beaten a very good side (I know we benefitted from one as well but ultimately if the referee makes the right decisions for each penalty we win the game). I actually thought that he blew his whistle to give the dive then had second thoughts because of the reaction he’d get, but he made that rod for his own back by a pretty poor game before that.

Adding Bogle and Holmes into that side and I think we will be fine. Can’t really be understated what Bogle adds to the team. Lowe has done great but it just isn’t dynamic enough there at the minute. 

Knight was great, doesn’t look fazed at all and nearly got a goal. Buchanan was a little more tentative but that’s understandable. Lots of positives.

The ref wasn't as biased towards our opponents today, even though I am sure it is written into EFL law somewhere. But he failed to cut out either the incessant protest by Baggy players, or the cynical upending of key players every time Derby were breaking free, which has been a feature of the lst 3 matches. Is that a new EFL law as well? And having seen the 3rd penalty award on Quest, surely the EFL have got to act against the West Brom player who decided to fall over backwards without any contact whatsoever?

At least he was nowhere near as bad as Tuesday's attempt at being a referee, which is a good job - I had lost my vpoice after 30 minutes on Tuesday, and only got it back yesterday!

Oh well - onto the Council Dump on Tuesday. COME ON YOU RAMS!

[Gone]

Dowell poor, Lawrence poor, can’t have two passengers in the side. Playing the last 10/15 mins with Bennett up front on his own meant we were playing for a draw at best. I like Cocu already, but that was the worst tactical decision I’ve seen at Derby for 20 years. Bennett up front and on his own, Jesus Christ ?????

[BramcoteRam84]

Well when the equaliser was scored, I was fuming. Performance was rubbish we conceded after Cocu’s negative substitutions and had no strikers on the pitch to respond - these were my overriding thoughts.

After a cool down and a beer, it was an encouraging performance in many ways. Two good teams, very even game with both teams having spells where they were on top. We played with control, very good at keeping the ball, defensively solid just unfortunately not quite firing in the final third. That said we created better chances than they did, and we were a precise final ball away from several other good chances. It’s just not quite firing in the final third but this is normal early season. We have good players and we will improve.

Positives - what a performance from Max considering he’s out of position, Bielik looks majestic, Keogh flawless. Buchanan solid and saved us from losing with that block late on (but gut feel is he won’t make it at Derby long term, more of a centre back and too small to play that role). Knight on the other hand - made mistakes today but looks a player! Huddlestone had a good game (especially first half), Lawrence and Marriott did ok, Waggy had a great game back out wide.

Negatives, think the midfield balance isn’t quite right, not getting enough players forward in attacks, and I’ve defended him so far but that’s two poor games from Dowell now. We’re asking him to play a box to box midfield role and I’m not sure it suits him. He struggled today.

Derby were always going to start slowly, we have enough quality to threaten the top 6 but wouldn’t say we’re certainties, there are stronger teams on paper. Yet if we don’t get top 6 is that failure with this squad? I don’t think you can say it would be failure. 

Lets get this right, Cocu has been an assistant manager in a World Cup final and took PSV to three titles on an inferior budget to rivals from a position where PSV hadn’t won anything for 10 years. He did it by building a team, an identity and developing youth. He’s signed a 4 year contract, he seems committed to the long-term project of making Derby sustainable in the premier league. We should be over the moon (Coc-u-hoop in fact) to have him. The guy is class. 

Promotion may not happen this season but the owner and manager have a plan and a strategy that I’m convinced will deliver long-term success - it just might take some time and frustration until we get there.

[BobbyD]

Good performance today and an enjoyable match

A better and more positive formation, that the players seemed to be far more comfortable with - good to see Cocu adapting after the last few very cautious games.

The youngsters were a revelation. All played very well. Buchanan was excellent and saved us at the death when blocking Livermores goalbound shot - without that we would have lost. Lowe played really well and never even touched their fella for their  peno and Knight was a revelation in midfield - what a prospect. 

We had plenty of chances to win it . All against one of the favourites to go up. They created very few chances - credit to us for that

The Marriott / waggy partnership looked good , Huddlestone much better and bielik very steady. 

Jury still out on Dowell. I really hope he isn't one of these entitled prima donnas who has a vastly inflated view of his own ability - his set pieces today were largely dreadful and I really didn't like his rowing with our strikers late on when it was  him who had been clearly at fault.

Just good to see that we appear to be on the right track for the first time since returning from Huddersfield. I for one was beginning to get more than a bit twitchy after the last few games. 

A lovely older lady supporter who sits in front of us and goes home and away maybe hit the nail on the head when she said pre match that Cocu was still having his pre season at Rams. Sounds logical. Something tells me we are missing out on Shinnie and Sibley but hopefully there is an upside on this in due course. 

[Derbyram1]

1 hour ago, angieram said:

aghorn was much more involved in the game on the right. I know about his penalties but he won the first one by driving in to the area (Lawrence please take note! ) and I thought he interacted well with Lowe. 

I’m confused!? Wasn’t it Lawrence driving in the box that set up a sitter for Bennett who in turn fired wide? Why should he take note when he did exactly what Waghorn did?

[Jimbo Ram]

2 hours ago, atherstoneram said:

If he doesn't try him he won't find out

Agree. We need a tough tackler and ball winner in midfield. Let's hope he is that player.......

[jono]

Just looked at the Pens, my take is: 

1) yep a pen

2) WBA very unlucky, hit top of his shoulder - Justice done with a great save

3) Lousy blooming Bamford ! And dreadful refereeing decision. 

[Wazztie16]

Not read the whole thread so it may have been pointed out, but there's not many people who would moan when their team gets a point early in the season with a new manager against a team that finished in the play offs the season before. 

Some people need to give their heads a wobble. 

[Nuwtfly]

This season has started pretty much exactly as I expected.

Slow improvement in performances. Players roles becoming clearer and more defined. Youth getting their chance steadily and staking a claim for the match XI.

We are a project that is right in its infancy. I really think that second half of this season, or even next season, we are going to be a force in this division: Norwich-style.

Glad to see so many people seeing the same things. Back Cocu. Back Mel. Back the club. Back the future!

[JfR]

I was quite happy with the performance today, if not the final result. The way I see it is we fielded a side that included 2 teenagers making their full league debuts, a centre-back partnership that we've not used before, a thus far rarely used left-back covering at right-back, and a not-entirely-fit centre-forward making his first start this season, and the only thing that stopped us from getting a win against a very strong West Brom side was one of their players deciding to do his best Patrick Bamford impression in the closing stages of the match. If that didn't happen and we saw out the rest of the game, we would have been sat 9th on the table this evening, and I absolutely would have taken that at this stage of the season.

We're still not there as a finished article yet, but I still think that was probably our best all-round performance so far this season and much improved on that display against Bristol City in the week.