I watched the Championship play- off final yesterday ...Brentford v Swansea. I was pleased Brentford won as they, along with Watford and Norwich were the best teams in the Championship. Brentford have played good football for a number of years and have been unlucky not to get promotion before. They (Brentford) had a really good balance of defence / midfield / attack for which Swansea had no answer. Swansea I have to say were poor and illustrated the fact that the Championship is (generally) not a particularly high standard. Clearly not an easy league to get out of – but one of the main characteristics a team needs is consistency to finish in the top six. The commentator said that Swansea now have no parachute payments to bolster their income so they will now form part of the ‘have nots’ in the Championship. It will therefore be interesting to see how they do from now on. It was also interesting to note that only 2 years ago it was Derby playing at Wembley in the final….and this season we only avoided relegation by the skin of our teeth. How things can quickly change.
So, on to Derby. 2021/2022 will be a critical season for us having played so badly this season. We got off the a bad start and never recovered. We have a massive rebuilding needed. Many of the players are out of contract and of course an equal amount have been loanees – none of which I expect to return. We also need to balance the books too and not have to pay the huge wages we have in the past. There’s also the fact that Mel wants to sell the club. Judging by the ‘tyre kickers’ he’s had interested in the last couple of years that’s not going to be an easy task. We also have the ‘good ole boys’ at the EFL breathing down our necks making planning for next year nigh on impossible.
So, our defence for too may years have been unable to defend crosses. A dreadful statistic and it seems that whoever has played there has been unable to cope and we are a bit of a laughing stock in that department. Midfield is kind of ok although lacking a couple of ingredients. I like Shinnie and Knight but they need help. Up front, well CKR is good but cant do it on his own. OK we have Lawrence who could play off him, Waggie I cant see us affording to keep. That leaves the largely untried Stretton who could make it. We also have the 2 lame ducks in Marriott and Ibe. We all know that they can play – but both need to knuckle down. So yes we have other fringe players like Sibley who I rate – but Wayne & Co have their work cut out. Rooney should have sufficient contacts in the game to be able to pull some decent players in – but it all remains to be seen….
Where do we go from here ???
posted on 30/5/21
I didn't watch the game yesterday but like you Terry I'm glad Brentford won. I have admired the way Brentford have played and been run for several years. I liked Warburton's team and thought Fredericks and Pritchard were fantastic. I wanted Warburton as our manager but he has had mixed fortunes at the several clubs he's managed since, but QPR are well above us. I admire the way Brentford get young hungry players from the lower leagues and turn them into good footballers and sell them on for a huge profit, unlike some clubs I could mention. (How does Joe Mclaren keep his job?)
I was surprised Swansea got to Wembley, but they were playing Barnsley in the semis. There isn't that much difference from the 4th place team than us, in fact Derby only went down the nick when I foolishly predicted that we would make the playoffs when we were having our good run.
In a way I'd like Rooney to continue as manager, but then I wonder if we would do better with a more experienced man who might be able to organise the defence to stop all these crosses going in.
Good post Terry except for one little bit.....
posted on 30/5/21
comment by VC10Ram (U18980)
posted 7 minutes ago
I didn't watch the game yesterday but like you Terry I'm glad Brentford won. I have admired the way Brentford have played and been run for several years. I liked Warburton's team and thought Fredericks and Pritchard were fantastic. I wanted Warburton as our manager but he has had mixed fortunes at the several clubs he's managed since, but QPR are well above us. I admire the way Brentford get young hungry players from the lower leagues and turn them into good footballers and sell them on for a huge profit, unlike some clubs I could mention. (How does Joe Mclaren keep his job?)
I was surprised Swansea got to Wembley, but they were playing Barnsley in the semis. There isn't that much difference from the 4th place team than us, in fact Derby only went down the nick when I foolishly predicted that we would make the playoffs when we were having our good run.
In a way I'd like Rooney to continue as manager, but then I wonder if we would do better with a more experienced man who might be able to organise the defence to stop all these crosses going in.
Good post Terry except for one little bit.....
----------------------------------------------------------------------
After re-reading the article I felt I should've mentioned both Bielik and Joz. Our best period came when Bielik came into the team. He breathed life into the midfield area and it was a massive loss when he got injured (again). Joz, although talented never seemed to quite know what his job should be on the pitch and he often flattered to deceive....maybe the new season will see him become the player we hoped he'd be. I must admit VC10, like you I felt we could push for promotion given that other than the top three clubs there was nothing to frighten us. Alas, we were both wrong eh !!
posted on 30/5/21
It's not much of a consolation but when you hit rock bottom the only way is up. I fink next season for you will be defined by the F.F.P. people. No one likes them,same as Millwall.
posted on 31/5/21
Interesting what Rooney said in his Sunday Times column : "I was very honest in my first meeting as manager. I told the squad: 'I know you’ll make mistakes, I know you’ll have bad games and bad training sessions, and that’s fine. But what I can’t take is anyone messing around. We cannot carry passengers and if you don’t want to work, the door’s there.'
"The players bought into it except one or two — who I made sure left in January. The rest put their bodies on the line for me and you could see a big lift in the physical stats of the team."
Well we know the players that left / went out on loan in January and its a sad indictment on them as professionals....
posted on 31/5/21
comment by Terry Hennessey (U22420)
posted 1 hour, 48 minutes ago
Interesting what Rooney said in his Sunday Times column : "I was very honest in my first meeting as manager. I told the squad: 'I know you’ll make mistakes, I know you’ll have bad games and bad training sessions, and that’s fine. But what I can’t take is anyone messing around. We cannot carry passengers and if you don’t want to work, the door’s there.'
"The players bought into it except one or two — who I made sure left in January. The rest put their bodies on the line for me and you could see a big lift in the physical stats of the team."
Well we know the players that left / went out on loan in January and its a sad indictment on them as professionals....
-----------------------------------------
Or considering what happened an accurate prediction of what would happen to this team. Our only hope for next season is that enough teams are so financially hamstrung so struggle more than us. Our best player last year was the legal team. Better than Wednesday's so they dropped down a division not us.
posted on 1/6/21
Clubs are going to cut back wherever they can. Players worth a few bob will be sold if possible and those coming to the end of their contracts will be released. Squads will be trimmed to the minimum numbers they think they can get away with, backed up by kids. So that might work in our favour a bit considering the strength of our Academy but significant recruitment into the first team is still necessary. I thought Brentford were very impressive the other day but I also noticed how dominant in the air players like Jansen and Pinnock were. How we need a couple of centre halves who can do the basics properly. Hopefully we can pick up a couple on the cheap. Getting an Ivan Toney for peanuts might be a bit more difficult.
posted on 1/6/21
Well we thought we had an Ivan Toney in Jack Marriott - but he went awol somewhere along the way. Sad really as I think there's a good player in there somewhere.
Totally agree about having 2 good Centre Backs. I don't know why but whatever players we've had in those 2 positions over the last few years have always had a tendency to switch off at crucial moments.....
posted on 1/6/21
Strange you say that the midfield is OK when to me thats where the problem is
I like Sibley and Belik is class but the rest
Knight runs around a lot but I dont know his game, can someone tell me?
He's not a playmaker, ball winner or goal scorer
If you run the midfield you win the game more often than not
Chelsea are European champions and their top goal scorer got 7 goals season just gone
posted on 1/6/21
Can we get at least one centre-half who can score with his head too, (or is this too much to ask)?
When was the last time a Derby Central defender scored?
posted on 1/6/21
I read that our old friend Mad Bobby Madley is back reffing and making a total idiot of himself in the Morecambe v Newport playoff final. Nothing changes and I will always think we would have gone up if he hadn't disallowed that goal and then sent Martin off. Just wonder where we would be now with that team.