Preseason 2020/21

[Rammy03]

12 minutes ago, Jram said:

i suspect I’ve said it before on here but I’m not even bothered about going up (protective of my fragile self-esteem) and am happy to aim for mid table as long as we are sustainable and producing players 

No, just no. A club like Derby should be aiming for promotion

[kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong]

1 hour ago, IslandExile said:

I am really optimistic that Marriott will come good this season.

I've said before I think he's the best natural finisher that we've had since the likes of Davison and Saunders. I also think there's more to his game than people give him credit for - he's set others up with some clever passing.

Listening to his interview, the niggly injury has clearly affected him mentally aswell as physically. Hopefully, that's now behind him.

I'd like to see a fast interplaying forward/attacking midfield of Marriott, Sibley, Lawrence, Rooney and ideally bring someone else in, to complement those, with pace and skill. COYR ?

I could see that with another manager but cocu likes a target man,it’s how he set up his Dutch teams and how he seems to like to set us up to...and Jack,for all his natural finishing,isn’t that type of player whilst waggers can fulfill that role.

i

 

 

 

[Archied]

8 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

Here's the post-match interview with Jack Marriott:

I thought both Marriott's attempts in the highlights reel were good efforts. He's absolutely my choice/hope to start this season as main striker and get games and goals under his belt. For me, his hold-up and link play is massively under appreciated and his finishing can be deadly. Very much a Bobby Davison style player. I also thought he looked chubby, but that's what pre-season is for!

Oh and a great attempt by Fozzy at the back post, and good to see all the team trying to move the ball quickly.

Isn’t that Kevin Webster?

[Srg]

7 hours ago, Rammy03 said:

No, just no. A club like Derby should be aiming for promotion

A club like Derby? Get over it. We are what we are. We’ve been in the Championship as long as any team currently. We don’t have a divine right to be any good. 

With that said, we should always aim high because what’s the point in football if you don’t - but so should every team. Much more able to forgive mistakes and shortcomings though if we are seeing our own youngsters coming through

[BramcoteRam84]

We need to be prudent and selective about where we strengthen. We’re not going to have much cash, can we really afford to have 3 senior professionals vying for 1 central forward position? Especially when the need for a wide player is more pressing.

Therefore unless Cocu decides he’s playing 2 strikers (which I doubt) I can’t see us bringing anyone else in there, unless it’s a loan or Chrissy comes back to accept his reduced contract. If waggy were to leave this could change, but we’ve spent a fair bit of money on both Waggy and Marriott, they need to battle it out and Hector-Ingram be given the chance to challenge them (if we are sticking with the youth theme) if we get injuries and JHI isn’t cutting it then we’d have to make do with someone like Lawrence covering there.

As for Marriott, I think he can play down the middle in a Cocu system. He’s a very intelligent footballer, great control and vision as well as finishing ability. Unfortunately the question mark is fitness but if he can get over those issues this season, I think we have a real asset 

[Shuff264]

Marriott has been looking good, right positions just lacking the finish but that should come with games

I'm not sure we've always played to his strengths, we try to use him like Martin, but if we can and if we can feed him the right balls there's no reason he can't score plenty next season

[Dcfcsr92]

8 hours ago, Rammy03 said:

No, just no. A club like Derby should be aiming for promotion

I agree higher then mid table  I'd say aim play offs this season, next season has got to be target promotion got to be realistic cocu not really been able to bring anybody in yet hopefully next he will have abit more of a budget. 

[DCFC1388]

2 hours ago, BramcoteRam84 said:

We need to be prudent and selective about where we strengthen. We’re not going to have much cash, can we really afford to have 3 senior professionals vying for 1 central forward position? Especially when the need for a wide player is more pressing.

Therefore unless Cocu decides he’s playing 2 strikers (which I doubt) I can’t see us bringing anyone else in there, unless it’s a loan or Chrissy comes back to accept his reduced contract. If waggy were to leave this could change, but we’ve spent a fair bit of money on both Waggy and Marriott, they need to battle it out and Hector-Ingram be given the chance to challenge them (if we are sticking with the youth theme) if we get injuries and JHI isn’t cutting it then we’d have to make do with someone like Lawrence covering there.

As for Marriott, I think he can play down the middle in a Cocu system. He’s a very intelligent footballer, great control and vision as well as finishing ability. Unfortunately the question mark is fitness but if he can get over those issues this season, I think we have a real asset 

Whilst I agree with what you're saying, hasnt Cocu mentioned a striker before and that was when Martin was still here? Maybe JHI is Martins replacement & we still want a new forward. Personally think we need a tall strong athletic type as a different option to Marriott & Waghorn. We were linked with Locadia last summer, maybe someone like Zohore from WBA on loan as id imagine he would cost a fair bit

[RamLad1884]

Assuming we go into this season playing the 4-2-3-1 that we've got used to we're only really one decent player away. 

LAM: Lawrence/Knight 

Cam: Sibley/Holmes (Rooney) 

RAM: Whittaker/'zoon (Bennett) 

ST: Marriott/Waghorn (JHI)

 

Right side is looking somewhat on the weak side but either a loan winger or a ST with Waghorn on the right is all that is needed. Anything more would block off the development of our youngsters like Ibrahim etc. 

[Jram]

2 hours ago, Srg said:

A club like Derby? Get over it. We are what we are. We’ve been in the Championship as long as any team currently. We don’t have a divine right to be any good. 

With that said, we should always aim high because what’s the point in football if you don’t - but so should every team. Much more able to forgive mistakes and shortcomings though if we are seeing our own youngsters coming through

Couldn’t agree more. Obviously aim for promotion but don’t bankrupt the club morally and financially so we can scrape up and start celebrating 0-0 draws at Brighton and play far fewer games 

[Sheikh n Bake]

 

[Rammy03]

5 hours ago, Srg said:

A club like Derby? Get over it. We are what we are. We’ve been in the Championship as long as any team currently. We don’t have a divine right to be any good. 

With that said, we should always aim high because what’s the point in football if you don’t - but so should every team. Much more able to forgive mistakes and shortcomings though if we are seeing our own youngsters coming through

It's true we don't have a divine right to be in the premier League but we shouldn't let the expectations drop or one of these days we'll end up in League one

[Sparkle]

4 hours ago, Shuff264 said:

Marriott has been looking good, right positions just lacking the finish but that should come with games

I'm not sure we've always played to his strengths, we try to use him like Martin, but if we can and if we can feed him the right balls there's no reason he can't score plenty next season

I thought Marriott looked overweight - plenty more work for him to do 

[BramcoteRam84]

3 hours ago, DCFC1388 said:

Whilst I agree with what you're saying, hasnt Cocu mentioned a striker before and that was when Martin was still here? Maybe JHI is Martins replacement & we still want a new forward. Personally think we need a tall strong athletic type as a different option to Marriott & Waghorn. We were linked with Locadia last summer, maybe someone like Zohore from WBA on loan as id imagine he would cost a fair bit

He did say that to be fair. Maybe he has someone in mind who is good potential that we can add some value to.

[oldtimeram]

7 hours ago, Archied said:

Isn’t that Kevin Webster?

No it's Rawsie

[Rampage]

On 20/07/2020 at 14:22, Spanish said:

Probably more difficult for the winner even less time to assemble a prem quality side.  The winner

always complain about this in normal times

A target man is s player that we have been linked to but signs for another club. A striker is a player who actually scores goals, not necessarily for us.

[Roboram]

21 hours ago, Rammy03 said:

No, just no. A club like Derby should be aiming for promotion

Whilst I would like to agree with you I’m afraid I must beg to differ

Speak to any fan of any club & the rose tinted glasses come out because we all think our club is bigger & better than the reality is. 

Looking at the championship line up for the coming season at least half the teams have more recent premier league experience than ourselves. 
 

What with parachute monies, ffp restrictions, squad strengths & possible points deduction/embargo I don’t think we should be expecting anything like a promotion push this season 

However, I do take your point that it should always be our aim nevertheless 

[IslandExile]

14 minutes ago, Roboram said:

Whilst I would like to agree with you I’m afraid I must beg to differ

Speak to any fan of any club & the rose tinted glasses come out because we all think our club is bigger & better than the reality is. 

Looking at the championship line up for the coming season at least half the teams have more recent premier league experience than ourselves. 
 

What with parachute monies, ffp restrictions, squad strengths & possible points deduction/embargo I don’t think we should be expecting anything like a promotion push this season 

However, I do take your point that it should always be our aim nevertheless 

Look at the attendances (pre-lockdown).

Look at the history of the club.

Football existed before the Premier League.

Heck Portsmouth, Charlton and Sunderland are bigger clubs than most of those in the Championship.

Apologies @Roboram I replied to you but it wasn't aimed at you. I'm just arguing that Derby County *is* a big club, based in a footballing city, and should always be aiming to be in the top division. That's whether or not the badly structured - money ruined - football hierarchy is geared against them or not.

[Crazy]

1 hour ago, Roboram said:

Whilst I would like to agree with you I’m afraid I must beg to differ

Speak to any fan of any club & the rose tinted glasses come out because we all think our club is bigger & better than the reality is. 

Looking at the championship line up for the coming season at least half the teams have more recent premier league experience than ourselves. 
 

What with parachute monies, ffp restrictions, squad strengths & possible points deduction/embargo I don’t think we should be expecting anything like a promotion push this season 

However, I do take your point that it should always be our aim nevertheless 

I'm pretty sure any club that had been top 10 for 7 consecutive seasons should be looking at a promotion push. Each of those years there have been clubs with more recent premier league experience, parachute payments, and we've had off field distractions (often the manager merry-go-round). If we could challenge for promotion in those years, why shouldn't we think a promotion challenge this year is realistic? 

[Jram]

I wouldn’t turn down promotion for a second obviously, I’m not that deluded 

I am, however, happy for the club to essentially stop spending money (obviously some spend on fees and wages is inevitable) and invest in the young lads because I think it’s more important to be sustainable and well-run than challenge for promotion 

The idea that we’re scraping past FFP every year so that we can pay the likes of Anya, Blackman, Butterfield astronomical wages is ridiculous 

Curb the spending and, if it means our results are inconsistent, then so be it. Obviously the club is starting to go this way so this is me advocating that change, not whingeing. 

The championship is a class league anyway.