Big Players for Big Games

send me an e-mail griff on my bootleg account: youareanindividual@hotmail.com n I'll let you know if I'm about or in case I accidentally fall off the train and end up in the Hurt Arms instead of Matlock.

Easy mistake to make.

Incidentally Dru why are Telford on this thread, not that I have a problem with it they used to have a great Ice Hockey team.

I see things very differently. Aside of Keogh, who looked like he'd never seen a football before, let alone been a professional footballer, every other Derby player played to the usual standard I've seen them play. The difference was that Leicester's manager has a bit of intelligence, and if I can see that Derby very rarely enter the opposition area in open play, I guarantee that he would've noticed too. So what he did was hold a high defensive line, and set the challenge for Derby to try and knock it over the top, but as our strikers are asked to play on the back foot, with back to goal, we'd never get around the back.

I've been saying, whilst 'debating' with some of the more supportive Derby fans, that when they say "we play some lovely attacking football" or similar, that the truth is we knock it neatly around halfway, but this does not equal "quality football", in fact it's about 20% of what you need. You also need to know how to defend and how to attack.

With Keogh playing like a dog trapped in a human's body, running into Leicester players with the ball when he's still last line of defence, combined with our attackers actually playing midfield roles, we aren't going to win easily.

That said, there could easily have been 3 or 4 Derby goals. Keogh missed from point blank header, Hughes choked from 10 yards out, Freeman managed to hit Schmeichel's shins, and Martin might've scored on another day.

Owd 2 weliies talking about attendances

23k for a local derby.

I think the 1000 or so difference at PP was more than made up by the away fans.

You are aware of the concept of 'away fans'?

279.

Think there is too much being read into one result. The contributors on here are becoming as bad as tabloid journalists. In a close game the element of luck comes in at times. Had Forsyth's clearance gone out for a throw in rather than bouncing back off Grant the game would probably have ended 0-0 and we would have thought it a reasonable if not good performance.

When was I talking about attendances KB?

Possibly true Spart but I think we'd have still been moaning had it been 0-0. Not often you see so many Derby players off their game.

Being able to knock it down neatly on the halfway line does take a lot of skill though Mostyn and I would put it at more than 20%, a lot of Championship midfields only have one player that can pass the ball.

I agree on us rarely getting into their area though and do think we need some more dynamism in our play, quick counter attacking moves, the odd lofted pass and the ability to change the tempo of our passing either with speed of movement, 1 touch or just quickening it up and I would love it if one of our midfielders learned to shoot from distance...don't ask for much do I?

Very disappointing that we could not dominate but early days yet.

Apart from much of the above, my main observation (also true for the Blackburn game) was that opposition teams deliberately foul many times around the half-way line as this disrupts any promising moves and rarely receives a caution from the ref. Refs also seem to be giving more latitude to pushing any holding. Buxton got a big shove in the bag which caused him to run the ball out for a corner - from which the goal came

comment by 2 Wellies (U6713) posted 1 day ago
When was I talking about attendances KB?

Possibly true Spart but I think we'd have still been moaning had it been 0-0. Not often you see so many Derby players off their game.

Being able to knock it down neatly on the halfway line does take a lot of skill though Mostyn and I would put it at more than 20%, a lot of Championship midfields only have one player that can pass the ball.
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If anything, 20% is generous. It could easily be 0%, quite simply the game could be won or lost without the ball being knocked around neatly in midfield whatsoever. However the defending and the attacking elements, which I put at 80% for the pair could quite easily be more important.

To back up my opinion, quite simply, we have won games with NO passers in midfield, our improvements under Clough have been nominal at best, and that's in spite of allegedly having much better passers in midfield. This would suggest that knocking the ball about is rather pointless...

Mostyn

You make an excellent point about Keogh. I thought that it was his worst performance since signing.

I'm not a fan of the way Wes Morgan plays, but I wish we had him. Solid as a rock and gave absolutely nothing to us.

Morgan's like Big Dave - only better. Much better. And bigger.

Whereas Darren Moore had Jonno beside him, Wes looks as though he's eaten him.