Bit of an incoherent rant.

Stream of consciousness ramblings, because Derby hurt my feelings and I need to externalise.

Fitness:

Tawnee said we'd be working on this hard pre-season. Okay Covid affected preparations but we were so far off game pace today and I think we often look second rate in this department like long before Tawnee and now not so long after Tawnee.

Is it stamina, desire, over training, younger players or just the optics of being a team that relies on playing as opposed to winning second balls. Have to say passing teams like Swansea and Bournemouth in general don't seem as 5hagged as us on the pitch though.

One thing that frustrates me with this team is our inability to shift a gear up especially once we've dropped down a few. When we lose our momentum we have no one, no tactic, no idea and no collective spirit it would seem to step it up a notch. Today there was a brief hope for about 5 mins when Bird came on and started to move the ball on the back line a bit quicker, then we took off Shinnie lost our shape and conceded.

I'm not sure how we can shift tempo better, but I can't remember feeling such a sense of foreboding in a Derby team's inability to pull a goal back. Even under Jewell when pretending to score was our best tactic.

I'm not sure what the answer is, I feel like it's tempo but how we actually raise it doesn't seem so simple. 1 touch and into space for the player to run onto is maybe a bit too much to ask of this team. Potentially stick with Fozzy and long diagonals out to Waggy right and Fozzy left, might allow us to switch play quicker. The answer looked like it might be chasing the second ball hard but feel like Sheff Wed did us with that one, just siting back and absorbing and then Rotherham just were better at it than us today.

I get that it's a 5hitshow off the pitch as well, I can cope with 5hit quite immune to it now, but the feeling of hopelessness and that gut feeling of we'll never score I don't think has been so strong.

It feels like we're a team that can only go down a gear and that's not a lot of fun to watch, especially when you start off in the lowest gear like today. Resilience is maybe the key ingredient we're missing.

I was reading an article about plan B being a bad thing as it can dilute the effort you put into plan A. Also watching a Bielsa talk on tactics where he distills formations into 10 categories and says a decent side can play pretty much any of them with their starting eleven.

With that in mind I'd like us to focus on:

Quicker tempo: 1 touch to the man in space....rapido.

Quick balls in between the lines to Shinnie or Knight then back out wide to wide man or full back.

I'm assuming 2nd worst case scenario - not adding to the squad but able to keep a hold onto players.

If we stick to the 4-3-3 as plan A then subs wise I think we need to stop panicking and like for like if winning, potentially diamond if chasing. I think you need one of Shinnie or Bielik to see the game out in MF currently.

.................Bielik...................
.......Knight..........Shinnie...... *
..Waggy......CKR......Joz.......

I feel like Shinnie, Knight, Bird and Sibley can compete possibly Gordon for those two spots ahead of Bielik.

then when chasing

...............Bielik................
.......Knight.......Shinnie....
............Sibley....................
.........Waggy...CKR...........

Advance the full backs on here. Fozzy going wide and Waggy going wide if we're so bad we need to hoof. Knight n Shinnie alternating to cover when the other is attacking. HI, Stretton, MW I think could be replacements late on in the game for Waggy and CKR.

Number 10 is harder, Sibley first choice for me at the moment, Knight (with Bird slotting in behind), Joz and Gordon potential back up. I think we really need to explain to the youngers what there jobs are here though. Less of the the round pegging in square holes of the academy kids I think is what's needed.

Then begin the hard work on the training ground to create, practice and execute patterns of play that puncture the opposing team instead of us losing our way, second guessing, losing our shape, second guessing, losing the ball, getting overun, losing a goal and losing all hope of getting a goal back.

Don't go chasing waterfalls....etc etc.