The age of the squad is catching up with us.

It's the reluctance of GR to be ruthless is most worrying especially when we could now easily drop out out of the play off places which from where we were would be a disaster.

I asked this question when we were winning games but not many thought it worth a reply. Check back in the threads.

What puzzled me last night was how quickly we went onto the back foot, (after almost making it 0-2 when Davies header was saved).

We played more football in the first 5-10 minutes of the second half than the whole of the first).

Anyone who starts talking about replacing Rowett it a nutcase though!

comment by I'm not Spartacus, resilience and character (U4603)
posted 2 minutes ago
I asked this question when we were winning games but not many thought it worth a reply. Check back in the threads.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
...and yet here you are, not replying to it either.

Useful contribution, thanks

31 is not old for a central defender and its not old for a number 9 or a decent defensive midfielder either.
Many a successful team has had these attributes.


I think Rowett has got these positions right.

It's the rub of the green is what it is.

That's the difference in this league if you don't have parachute payments or are prepared to cheat.

We have enough games left for the worm to turn back in our favour.

#wegotthis

comment by 666 ⚽️ #team666 (U11795)
posted 11 minutes ago

comment by I'm not Spartacus, resilience and character (U4603)
posted 2 minutes ago
I asked this question when we were winning games but not many thought it worth a reply. Check back in the threads.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
...and yet here you are, not replying to it either.

Useful contribution, thanks

----------------------------------------------------------------------

As I'd already brought this up I don't see a need to reply, especially to someone who isn't in a position to judge.

comment by Rameses (U7190)
posted 9 minutes ago
31 is not old for a central defender and its not old for a number 9 or a decent defensive midfielder either.
Many a successful team has had these attributes.


I think Rowett has got these positions right.

It's the rub of the green is what it is.

That's the difference in this league if you don't have parachute payments or are prepared to cheat.

We have enough games left for the worm to turn back in our favour.

#wegotthis








































----------------------------------------------------------------------
Maybe for a 38 game season, not so for 46 plus hopefully 3.

comment by I'm not Spartacus, resilience and character (U4603)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by 666 ⚽️ #team666 (U11795)
posted 11 minutes ago

comment by I'm not Spartacus, resilience and character (U4603)
posted 2 minutes ago
I asked this question when we were winning games but not many thought it worth a reply. Check back in the threads.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
...and yet here you are, not replying to it either.

Useful contribution, thanks

----------------------------------------------------------------------

As I'd already brought this up I don't see a need to reply, especially to someone who isn't in a position to judge.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So what you've said there is that I've posed a question but you won't answer it because I don't know the answer to the question that I've asked.

Quite the tw@t, aren't you, if you don't know how questions work.

We make mistakes and have things go against us as do other teams.
The other teams fans become suicidal when it happens to them as we do when it happens to us.

In the cold light of day we are decent championship side and given a 60/40 split of luck over a season would give us a shot of auto promotion a 50/50 split would see us playoff bound and 40/60 split would be mid table mediocrity. It would take a 30/70 luck split top see us in relegation trouble as we have too many quality players for that.

I think the fortune prior to Christmas has now been evened out by this poor run and as I say an average run from now on would see comfortably in the top 6.

I agree Rameses.

The teams with parachute money usually take a while to get going but end up fighting for promotion unless something outside of football has an effect. More expensive players are more expensive for a reason.

Of the rest, it is usually again down to how much you spend, like Wolves. You can add an amazing team spirit like Bournemouth and Huddersfield. These high spending or well motivated teams usually make the top six.

Those with stupid owners or less money will be bottom half.

So we are where we are, top six spend, average motivation = top six team. If Gary can't motivate this team then he needs some transfer windows to get the team he can motivate.

comment by 666 ⚽️ #team666 (U11795)
posted 16 minutes ago

comment by I'm not Spartacus, resilience and character (U4603)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by 666 ⚽️ #team666 (U11795)
posted 11 minutes ago

comment by I'm not Spartacus, resilience and character (U4603)
posted 2 minutes ago
I asked this question when we were winning games but not many thought it worth a reply. Check back in the threads.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
...and yet here you are, not replying to it either.

Useful contribution, thanks

----------------------------------------------------------------------

As I'd already brought this up I don't see a need to reply, especially to someone who isn't in a position to judge.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So what you've said there is that I've posed a question but you won't answer it because I don't know the answer to the question that I've asked.

Quite the tw@t, aren't you, if you don't know how questions work.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

No that isn't what I have said but your English comprehension is too poor to understand that. I suggest you go back to threatening chairs and cease from commenting on things of which you have little or no knowledge (which effectively means you cease commenting).

"I asked this question before and nobody answered it"
'Well now I've asked it, why don't you answer?'
"As I've asked it before I don't see the need to to someone who doesn't know the answer"
'Do you know how questions work?'
"That's not what I said"

Righto, Thicko.

You can call me all the names you like 666 but I am confident in my cognitive abilities and have a fair amount of documentary evidence of my competence. I doubt whether you could make a similar claim. Cycling proficiency badges and swimming certificates don't count but I also doubt you ever received either of these. I am also intelligent enough not to put my health at risk through over eating.

People are entirely predictable in how they respond when results aren't going our way. Many simply blame their favourite scapegoat. At the moment it is Lawrence for many, as if he is singly responsible for our failing to win for six games. Earlier in the season, before we started winning games, Carson, Keogh, Davies and others received a lot of flak from fans who have long since forgotten it. Last season I remember players like Vydra and Baird being trashed by many fans. We seem to feel better if we can convert our disappointment to hate and focus it all on an individual. Others like to try to prove how wise they are by saying that they and they alone sort of predicted this all along, forgetting that the widespread view among all Derby fans was that we were not playing good football but rather functional football. The odd one like Rameses stands out because he is above this sort of pettiness and and can give a proper perspective on things.

Vidal, you were lucky you couldn't get a train home last night, it saved you witnessing a terrible performance.

I suppose some players are like other workers, in that when things get tough some are good at hiding? Singling-out Lawrence last night may seem harsh as generally the whole team had a shocker, but like Griff says, he was particularly bad.

He played a bit like he had his best suit on and didn't want to get it creased.

Vidal

comment by lastapostleofvidal (U1491)
posted 13 minutes ago
People are entirely predictable in how they respond when results aren't going our way. Many simply blame their favourite scapegoat. At the moment it is Lawrence for many, as if he is singly responsible for our failing to win for six games. Earlier in the season, before we started winning games, Carson, Keogh, Davies and others received a lot of flak from fans who have long since forgotten it. Last season I remember players like Vydra and Baird being trashed by many fans. We seem to feel better if we can convert our disappointment to hate and focus it all on an individual. Others like to try to prove how wise they are by saying that they and they alone sort of predicted this all along, forgetting that the widespread view among all Derby fans was that we were not playing good football but rather functional football. The odd one like Rameses stands out because he is above this sort of pettiness and and can give a proper perspective on things.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I blame Vidals; his incessant happy-clapping is the green light for the substandard performance levels as there's no unpleasant consequence to just not bothering. Why, he's probably even dictating this kind of drivel to an already overworked underling so he can keep his own hands free for clapping.

#LoveDerbyHateVidals #ToughLove #CB4forever #SaveDru

Vidal, players do have poor runs of form so can't be expected to be praised. Some players seem to run hot and cold as you mentioned in an earlier post. Johnson and Vydra both come in to this category. Unfortunately Johnson seems to be stuck in a bad period where his contribution seems to be mainly to the free kicks against us tally. I have seen Lawrence over 20 times this season and don't recognise a lot of the criticism from other fans. He may have had a shocker last night but I would bet he wasn't half as bad as some fans are making out. Like Vydra last season though, because of the money paid fans expect more and if he doesn't deliver then they exaggerate how badly they played.

Is it, as suggested on other sites, that the players are consciously or subconsciously sabotaging their own season as they know they’ll have to move if we do achieve promotion?

I think that's spot on. That and having a beard.

TEG wouldn't be a contributor to these sites would he? They sound like a 9/11, climate change, holocaust denier sites for foil lined hat wearers.

And just to dispense with the targeting of frustration at one player unjustifiably, Tom Lawrence is, and consistently has been very poor for Derby. His last worthy contribution was the trough ball he played to Vydra at Birmingham.
Lawrence hasn't had one bad game, he's had more than 20.
I hate terms like 'improving' and 'clearly has ability'. I'm not seeing it and I think he is a League One player at best.

People also start stating things as fact that are merely their opinion. Such-and-such a player "is" etc.

I'm not a great believer in stats but for what little it's worth Lawrence has more assists than any other Derby player this season with 6. I think he looks flimsy and not keen on the physical stuff and for me that is his biggest failing as it is hard to coach that into a player. I think he has a lot of natural ability. It's always interesting to me that haters refuse to have anything good to say about the focus of their ire and seem compelled to crank up their criticism to ludicrously hyperbolic levels. "League One player at best" for example.

Who's the next player in the charts for assists?

We've scored 55 so if Lawrence has over 10% of those, who has the credits for the rest? 7 penalties so far, so 42 goals left unaccounted for... how many from direct free-kicks? How many solo efforts? There's still 75% of our goals-for to be attributed to someone or another; have we really used so many outfield players that nobody else has more than 3?

For those with a flimsy grasp of the English language these are questions to which I do not have the answers, hence the use of the "?"

Keogh , Johnson and Weimann all have 4 apparently. Vydra and Nugent 3.