Interesting Test

[stamfordram]

I regard Steve MaClaren as one of the most progressive and adaptable coaches in the English game at the moment so I have every faith in his ability to take all the shortcomings of our tatics in Saturday's game and work out a Plan B. Having said that it will be a very interesting test of his and the players' ability because the way football is at the moment. You can bet your life that every Championship manager will have watched how our style and tatics fell apart with a fairly simple approach by Wigan and will have appreciated that this approach is repeatable without having world class players. Wigan made sure that the GK cannot just feed our centre halves who in turn would normally either feed Hughes and Bryson or the full backs and as a result we were left to pump a repetitive pass to Forsyth (or into touch in most cases).

The result was quite worrying for me - there was no Plan B and all the control that we normally exert just vanished.

I am sure Steve will be working on this alte

[dcfcdavecov]

I think he has one. I think it was more the players not adapting/not played it enough.

We resorted to percentage football after 60 mins, and we weren't there for the second balls.

[nickyd63]

[quote="stamfordram"]I regard Steve MaClaren as one of the most progressive and adaptable coaches in the English game at the moment so I have every faith in his ability to take all the shortcomings of our tatics in Saturday's game and work out a Plan B. Having said that it will be a very interesting test of his and the players' ability because the way football is at the moment. You can bet your life that every Championship manager will have watched how our style and tatics fell apart with a fairly simple approach by Wigan and will have appreciated that this approach is repeatable without having world class players. Wigan made sure that the GK cannot just feed our centre halves who in turn would normally either feed Hughes and Bryson or the full backs and as a result we were left to pump a repetitive pass to Forsyth (or into touch in most cases).

The result was quite worrying for me - there was no Plan B and all the control that we normally exert just vanish

[triz]

This is where we need Tony Dorigo back. The king of receiving the ball from Poooooom and lofting it aimlessly towards the opposition back 4.

[swaledale]

Sometimes the players just dont turn up..it happens, but the fulham game gave them a chance to redeem themselves and they took it!

[Rattea]

Let me point out the obvious. Both millwall and Wigan came last season and did a job on us. Did McClaren learn from this.

Well they both came and did the same job on us this season in the same way.

So the question is ... Why wasn't plan B used if it exists???

[FrenchTrimmed]

Let me point out the obvious. Both millwall and Wigan came last season and did a job on us. Did McClaren learn from this.

Well they both came and did the same job on us this season in the same way.

So the question is ... Why wasn't plan B used if it exists???

Possibly because Steve, unlike some of his critics, is not perfect but then again he's not as flawed as some of his predecessors. By the way Rat have you considered answering the question I asked you on a previous posting some time ago - you remember it surely. On balance do you consider Steve McLaren to be a better manager than Nigel Clough and don't forget it's a closed question - only possible answers are yes or no

[Rattea]

No I don't think he's a better manager on the evidence at Derby. That should be clear by the fact I have constantly stated that I see no evidence of improvement as yet. He's not improved the playing squad as he's using primarily the same players and his results last season were comparable to Clough LFL and his performances against the same opposition are comparable from last season as this thread shows.

Give me some evidence he's a better "manager" than Clough and try discussing it!

BTW a coach and a manager are two different things.

I've avoided the question again haven't i ... Oh hang on

Tell me FT do llamas lay eggs

[sheffieldrams]

Rats seems to be out on his own with analysis of if we have improved or not. There are some interesting pointers compared to last season.
Up until one month ago any comparisons against last season were against Nigel's results, results which of course got him the sack, so you would hope/expect to see some improvement.
After 14 games last season 26 points would only put you in 5th place and 3 clubs had already passed the 30 point mark. Coincidently these are the 3 teams that eventually went up.
We had scored 26 goals against 24 this season, not that much of an improvement. We have tightened up significantly at the back, conceding only 12 compared to 23 last season.
This weekend last season we lost at QPR but then went on a 9 match unbeaten run, winning 8 and drawing one with no defeat again in the rest of the year and moving us up to second place by the New Year.
We are 7 points better off than the same time last season but to end the year with the same points as last season we will ha

[sixtiesram]

"Give me some evidence he's a better "manager" than Clough and try discussing it!

Has Clough

managed a team further away than an hours drive from Derby?

managed a team at the highest level in the English leagues?

as a manager, won a trophy open to all FL teams?

sustained a win % over 60, which is McClaren's record with the Rams?

(Not that I expect any of the above will have any impact with someone who argued Chris Porter was a quality striker!)