Derby(home)predictions

[AucklandRover]

Champs - I am not just disagreeing with you. I have spent many years as a football supporter trying to get away from the notion that the manager is responsible for everything.
Every game is made up of hundreds of unpredictable moments, completely beyond one person's control. You played at a good level. You must know that.
Overall patterns are what get them sacked, and fair enough.
The fact remains, though. We could put the same team out against Derby and get beaten 0-3. How can that conceivably be the manager's fault?

Incidentally, I am a bit disappointed you haven't responded to some of the individual points. That is what debate is all about.
And I never did claim "everything was all right". What I did do was to dispute that nothing was right.

[champs95]

Champs - I am not just disagreeing with you. I have spent many years as a football supporter trying to get away from the notion that the manager is responsible for everything.
Every game is made up of hundreds of unpredictable moments, completely beyond one person's control. You played at a good level. You must know that.
Overall patterns are what get them sacked, and fair enough.
The fact remains, though. We could put the same team out against Derby and get beaten 0-3. How can that conceivably be the manager's fault?

Incidentally, I am a bit disappointed you haven't responded to some of the individual points. That is what debate is all about.
And I never did claim "everything was all right". What I did do was to dispute that nothing was right.

I guess we all see things different. Some of my views I can't always fully explain.
I've always been of the belief that luck is something that will always follow good sides. At the top of the league, you get all the luck. At the bottom, you get no luck.
But I also believe that you make your own luck in football. And life.
If you constantly make mistakes then you will find you will get no luck alongside it. I felt, from a tactics point of view he was making big mistakes. Then repeating it. And repeating it again. I felt he was picking plsyers who weren't good enough, who where costing us games. And then picking them again. And again. Yes won a few, then we lost a few. Then we lost more. Then more. And overall it was all very inconsistent. The team was constantly changing, and we had spells of 20 mins here & there where yes, we played well. But never over a game. And along side all of that, some games we got no luck.

If we go on a winning run for a few more games, keep your eye out for how much bad luck we get. As I don't think we get any. Teams who have a good solid system, an identifiable way of playing, will generally be quite consistent.
Not for one second am I even suggested that TM has listened to the fans and dropped certain players. No. What I do feel, he is making changes that we have been discussing for quite a long time.
And I do feel, it's no coincidence that since he made certain changes, we have seen an immediate improvement.
But.....It's a crazy unpredictable game. And luck has played it's role in all this. We got a spark vrs Barnsley. We where bloody awful, and managed to get that undeserved win. That I feel gave us the confidence to beat Brentford. Then away at Stoke we went, with a plan. And got those 3 points we set out to get. And executed that plan. Reminiscent of last season.

Fair enough, I will respond to those other points.

[AucklandRover]

I have just been looking at one of the Derby fan-sites. Most of the posters are a bit gloomy and the majority seem to be predicting a Rovers victory. I hope that's not the kiss of death!
The general feeling seems to be that they are creating very few scoring opportunities.

[AucklandRover]

Champs - on this business of the team "constantly changing" the stats-sites show that (with injuries for all the clubs taken out of the equation), we have used fewer different players than most of our rivals.

[champs95]

Champs - on this business of the team "constantly changing" the stats-sites show that (with injuries for all the clubs taken out of the equation), we have used fewer different players than most of our rivals.

Leeds and West Brom rarely make changes to the starting 11 unless of injury, suspension. It's not doing them any harm. And since we have settled, we have won games. The rest of the division is inconsistent at best

[seventwo]

Another win for King Tony
I didn't go or see the match but all wins are welcomed.
Going up!?
I bloody hope not

[AucklandRover]

Damn - why did I do heads or tails? I started on one-nil!

[AucklandRover]

Well, the Derby fans were right about their team's struggle to create chances!
Truth be told, we weren't a great deal better in that respect.
What the run has brought, however, is composure - perhaps partly because the combination of Lenihan, Tosin and Downing also brings an air of calm to proceedings - especially in the final quarter.
I do wish we could have got that second goal, though. I was on edge from the moment we scored (even if the players weren't!).
I still find Armstrong and Rothwell a bit maddening. Neither of them looks up early enough when other players are making runs. We are getting better passing from Evans and the defenders at the moment than we are from those two.
Don't get me wrong. I like the flair they offer and it's exciting when Rothwell goes off on a run, but are we seeing enough end-product?
Incidentally, I want a dose of whatever Evans has been on for the last three weeks.

[robinrover]

Good result,even if the performance wasn't the best.
Corry Evans always seems to play better when a international break isn't coming up
Coincidence?I think not.
We have a tough game coming up against Swansea,we will see just what this team is made of.