Over The Top?

What I mean by plan B is to have a dif formation that we use fairly regularly that is a different approach to a game than our current one. A formation that is drilled regularly and offers a different kind of threat to the opponent, not just chucking on a extra striker when 2 down.

There have been many games in the last 12 months where we've been out of sight and could of tinkered with various formations. Even if we stick to going 4-4-2/4-2-4 as we did on sat and to good effect last year, throwing on a striker who has barely totalled 2 full 90 mins worth of pitch time in 4 months seems desperate. We have many wingers, we could play Russell or Ward off Martin or fit Hughes, Hendrick, Bryson and Omar/Eustace into a tighter mid.

Not upset with SMc's current work, but it is something I've though for quite a while that we should be doing. All teams and formations have a shelf life, acting instead of reacting keeps your opponent guessing and keeps you ahead of the pack. As we're falte

[quote="FindernRam" if you want auto promotion. The point is that other teams will now know exactly how to play us particularly at ipro so life is going to be even harder.
We need a style to counter this but I have seen no evidence that we know how to do it, or have the players.
Rosy Specs as worn by some are fine but blood is rose red and you can be dead before you notice anything is wrong.[/quote]



Well 3 of the last 4 defeats were away, so your point about life being hard at the Ipro doesn't stand muster at the moment.

We do change formation and tactics, well we have done at games that I have watched and McClaren makes decisive substitutions.

The point I'd make is that teams like Forest and Norwich, both of whom have good squads have had runs of poor form and these have resulted in consecutive losses and a slide down the table, that hasn't happened to us yet.

Its a bit fanciful to think that with the players we ha

This is only a "loss of form" if you want to ignore all the factors involved. Why do you think I popped up six or seven games ago to say watch closely as this happens. You set your stall out saying look at points compared to last season and now you want to ignore your own measure.

It's hillarious stuff.

The fact is now people have noticed also we struggle against the same type of team. We can't break down the better sides and look ordinary and there is no plan b evident at all. Worrying times. But you fail to acknowledge any of it. The site is littered on nearly every thread you trying to justify the same thing again and again with no evidence to support this just the we are third or one point off the top!

We are no better than we were this time last year in a weaker league. This time last year we had fester and burnley miles ahead and would now have been in fifth.

Only a few games ago you were saying look at compared to last season. So stick to the very rule YOU wanted to use

It's a complete over the top reaction from many on here.

What a lot of people seem to have forgotten is just how good we are when on song. If you've seen most games this season, you'll know when we're firing, we're the best in the league. We showed that against a very good Bournemouth team.

Yes, there's problems. We need to find a way to beat the physical teams. We also need to improve defensively.

I'm not happy we lost to Leeds or Boro in the manner we did, but that said, it highlighted our weaknesses ahead of January.

Just a couple of things to consider:

We've always traditionally had a poor spell in winter. This could be it.

Thorne will soon be back. You know, the most anticipated signing in recent memory. The player we were resigned to lose because he was just too good for this league. The guy the ends the Mascarell/Eustace debate.

A lot of our rivals are being penalized by FFP in January. Not us. That gives us a distinct advantage.

So keep positive guys, and trust in a ma

I think McClaren has done an excellent job since he arrived. He has wheeled and dealed and turned some very average players into better ones.

Every now and again their shortcomings, however, come to the fore. This squad is not good enough for the Premier, something McClaren is well aware of. He possibly thinks some of them are not good enough for the Championship but has got the best out of the resources he has got (which Clough didn't do). Hopefully he will have more room for manoeurvre in January and bring in a couple of decent players to see us into the top two come the end of the season.

Lets have a vote on whether we are enjoying the football we play now compared to the stuff we played under Clough!

My reference to harder at the iPro is this: Most teams playing at home will almost feel obliged to come at us giving us the opportunity to break on them which we are good at. Some teams are confident enough in their planning to do a Boro on us at home.
When teams come to us the expectation on them is lower so they will be happy to play a containing game and go for the draw. Having seen how some teams have done it I expect it to be more the norm for the others and very few will try to outplay us, just get in our face and press high up the pitch.

Anyway I've been to Poundland bought some Rosy Specs, will have two lucky pies before the game so I can enjoy us thrashing Chelsea. Might even lay a few quid on a Derby win.

[quote="Rattea" if you want to ignore all the factors involved. Why do you think I popped up six or seven games ago to say watch closely as this happens. You set your stall out saying look at points compared to last season and now you want to ignore your own measure.

It's hillarious stuff.

The fact is now people have noticed also we struggle against the same type of team. We can't break down the better sides and look ordinary and there is no plan b evident at all. Worrying times. But you fail to acknowledge any of it. The site is littered on nearly every thread you trying to justify the same thing again and again with no evidence to support this just the we are third or one point off the top!

We are no better than we were this time last year in a weaker league. This time last year we had fester and burnley miles ahead and would now have been in fifth.

Only a few games ago you were saying look at compared to last season.

No wonder club boards don't thik long term, here we are 3pts off top in 5th place and people seem to be in panic mode.

Realism suggests that all teams will have ups and downs and expectations of fans become ver more unrealistic - even If we were to go out and spend on 3 or so players there would be no guarantee we'd be better off, I remember the wee dwarfs panic buys, we would have been better off sticking with the squad we had.

Its 5 months until may plenty of time for things to chnage we should be enjoying the success and watching good football not bely aching about the odd loss here and there.

COYR's!

Ah well back in the groove again! And whilst many will point to Eustace's return and no doubt he did very well, the fact was the whole team seemed to be on song

COYR!!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by swaledale

Ah well back in the groove again! And whilst many will point to Eustace's return and no doubt he did very well, the fact was the whole team seemed to be on song

COYR!!!

---

What an awesome result today. So pleased with that, and I wasn't expecting it at all.

One thing about Derby since Steve took over which I think I mentioned in another thread a week or so ago, is that they consistently show they can hit a bad run of 2 or 3 league games and then bounce back. They did it last season, where we had a few ropey games but nothing prolonged, same can be said of this season. One game doesn't count for much other than a boost for confidence and 3 valuable points but if we can build on it like we have done before then thats good.

It's worth taking a look at our opposition in the last two games. Norwich looked really good against us in midweek and we looked short of the mark but we still nearly beat them and they only clawed a point with a