Apart from the one chance they put over from about 6 inches out, they didn’t look like worrying Roos who apart from one flap dealt with all the high balls perfectly. He was put under pressure by opponents when receiving the ball on the floor from teammates and, again, apart from one nearly incident got the ball safe.
Bogle had a good game, not 100% yet but he showed us why we missed him so badly. Had he not had the injury we would be higher up the table than we are.
Davies was solid both defensively and offensively. Cool,calm and collected.
Clarke was every bit as good as Davies.
Malone did as well on the left as Bogle did on the right.
As a unit the defence was good but they keep getting themselves into tricky situations because they follow Cocu’s instructions. As with every game this season, the full backs moved 20 yards and more infield thereby giving their wide men all the time in the world to put a cross in. This tactic needs amending so that the full backs take note of where the ball is and then at the angle and distance from them of the wide man. Never get too far from him that you can’t close him down or even intercept the pass. Don’t let them get a free pass.
Shinnie was my man of the match. He was brilliant in the 1st half. Less so in the 2nd but still good. Tackles, passes, covering lots of ground. Great debut.
Bielik doesn’t have the assurance of Tom H but he had a good game until forced off with a knock. Tackles, passes, interventions. He has excellent anticipation. He’s a young lad and will only get better
Paterson had another good un. He had a slow start in his Rams career but the last 3 games he has started to do for us what he did to us in the past.
Jozefzoon had his best game of the season IMO but still only rateD a 5.5 IMO. There is a good player in there but we aren’t seeing it, not even now and again as he did with previous clubs.
Martin wasn’t up to the standards he showed in his cameo at Leeds or the games against Brum and Barnsley. I can’t remember him making so many misplaced passes in a single game before. Still put a decent shift in though.
Lawrence had a better game than he has of late but still not good enough. Hopefully he is on an upward spiral and performances improve. A tad lucky with the goal IMO, it was a hit and hope but they all count. Impressed with the way he didn’t celebrate.
Derby had well the upper hand 1st half. Luton came out of the traps better 2nd half but the Rams came back into it and it was end to end stuff. Neither side created anything like enough real chances. Even the 2 goals were “lucky”.
Unbeaten in 5 games, 9 points from 2 wins and 3 draws. A decent return in between 2 international breaks although, looking at the opposition it may be less than we might have hoped for.
Still unsure about Cocu’s penchant for multiple changes most games. It’s not the way to build partnerships in a side. Luton haemorrhage goals yet, apart from the opening joke goal and Lawro’s cross annexe shot wasn’t meant to go in, we didn’t create any real chances. Yet again the final ball was found wanting.
Pleased with the results in the main but not how we are getting them.