Matchday Thread: Derby v Preston

[SithHappens]

I thought it was ok. We had chances to score, their goal was one of them the next 100 times it goes wide. I feel there was promise today.

[Andy_Faber]

First half as bad as anything last year, second half little better. We’re still playing hoofball

[ramAnag]

[QUOTE=swaledale;40752939]

Cheer up Mac! You could be a Blades or Owls supporter!!

Yes it wasn't great, but fans are somehow expecting a virtually new team to start clicking within the first few games. Start slowly and build up momentum, mid table obscurity is a realistic aim and a bit of luck and we could be on the fringes of the play offs. Lets see where we are come November before predicting the worst!!

Agreed and being five points off the bottom and five points off the play offs is kinda mid table.
Nil desperandum, mac.

[macstheman]

Swale may well be right but I'll go with the here and now! Yes we won against the Baggies but we were still crap.
I'm actually not concerned even if we get bogged down in a scrap at the bottom end, a dogfight down there keeps the juices flowing.

[Ramshank72]

I feel like we could turn on a shock 4 or 5 none hammering at some point. It'll come together, we'll know in a couple of months which signings were good and which were not, too early to expect it to click.

[macstheman]

Following Oxford's win at Brizzle I see we've taken up residence in the bottom three!

[MadAmster]

A belly full of Pedi over the weekend and my mate John's birthday made it a good weekend back in Derby.

1st half, we were poor. Their goal was a cracker. Both in and out of possession there's too little movement. In possession there's no outlet as our players are marked by the oppo. Out of possession, we aren't picking up players, not tracking players. Devine got the ball, I shouted close him down. We didn't and the rest is history. Their man in possession always seemed to have 3 teammates open to receiving a pass. In the ground somebody asked "are we marking zones rather than players?" My reply was that zonal marking seems to be working perfectly... when did a zone last score against us?

Much better 2nd half. We huffed and puffed but couldn't find the onion bag. At best we might have just about deserved a point but didn't get one.

The ref? I wasn't impressed. I retired from reffing here in NL 3 years ago, aged 68. Adams yellow. To me, it wasn't even a foul. He got between man and ball, there was contact and the PNE man went down. Ebou was simply too strong for him. About 10 minutes later, Agyemang moves into their box, a PNE defender yanks at his shirt and down he went. IMO, penalty all day long. Not given. They were shirt pulling all day long, we did a bit of it too but nowhere near as much as them. I felt a lack of consistency in his decisions and some left me baffled.

One thing that does have me baffled is the formation. All summer long, JE was telling us 4231 is his preferred setup. That would leave one to assume that 4231 is the formation he'd base signings on. What are we seeing? 3 CHs every game. Depending on how you view it, that's either a back 3 or a back 5. Is he waiting for Beck to be fit to go to a back 4? Has he decided the squad is more suited to a back 3/5? Where's the creative spark? It seems to be missing. Travis and Adams are physical and get a lot of hard work done, they can both beat a man on occasions but where's the defence splitting pass you want from your midfielders. Brereton Diaz puts loads of effort in to little or no avail, thus far, will that improve? Clark, idem ditto but the nous to open up the defence hasn't been there much of the time. Morris got little to work with. There is a decent team in there, we just need the right formation and someone to decide they can (and will) open up defences with genius passes. Hopefully Brewster will be back soon and, just maybe, he can provide the missing link... UTR!

[ramAnag]

A belly full of Pedi over the weekend and my mate John's birthday made it a good weekend back in Derby.

1st half, we were poor. Their goal was a cracker. Both in and out of possession there's too little movement. In possession there's no outlet as our players are marked by the oppo. Out of possession, we aren't picking up players, not tracking players. Devine got the ball, I shouted close him down. We didn't and the rest is history. Their man in possession always seemed to have 3 teammates open to receiving a pass. In the ground somebody asked "are we marking zones rather than players?" My reply was that zonal marking seems to be working perfectly... when did a zone last score against us?

Much better 2nd half. We huffed and puffed but couldn't find the onion bag. At best we might have just about deserved a point but didn't get one.

The ref? I wasn't impressed. I retired from reffing here in NL 3 years ago, aged 68. Adams yellow. To me, it wasn't even a foul. He got between man and ball, there was contact and the PNE man went down. Ebou was simply too strong for him. About 10 minutes later, Agyemang moves into their box, a PNE defender yanks at his shirt and down he went. IMO, penalty all day long. Not given. They were shirt pulling all day long, we did a bit of it too but nowhere near as much as them. I felt a lack of consistency in his decisions and some left me baffled.

One thing that does have me baffled is the formation. All summer long, JE was telling us 4231 is his preferred setup. That would leave one to assume that 4231 is the formation he'd base signings on. What are we seeing? 3 CHs every game. Depending on how you view it, that's either a back 3 or a back 5. Is he waiting for Beck to be fit to go to a back 4? Has he decided the squad is more suited to a back 3/5? Where's the creative spark? It seems to be missing. Travis and Adams are physical and get a lot of hard work done, they can both beat a man on occasions but where's the defence splitting pass you want from your midfielders. Brereton Diaz puts loads of effort in to little or no avail, thus far, will that improve? Clark, idem ditto but the nous to open up the defence hasn't been there much of the time. Morris got little to work with. There is a decent team in there, we just need the right formation and someone to decide they can (and will) open up defences with genius passes. Hopefully Brewster will be back soon and, just maybe, he can provide the missing link... UTR!

Thanks for the constructive objectivity, MA. Must admit, from afar, I thought exactly the same when I saw the formation.

Still, as mac says, we’re keeping the relegation places ‘local’…but it’s still September. The personnel have still to gel, even begin in some cases and I seem to remember Jim Smith’s side looking horribly disjointed until late October…going back even further, I don’t think we’d had a win in the league by October 1976 when suddenly we stuck eight (!) past Pat Jennings against Tottenham.

Could do with something next weekend but I’ll reserve judgement for at least another month and glad the enjoyment of your return outweighed the frustration of the result.

[MadAmster]

Thanks for the constructive objectivity, MA. Must admit, from afar, I thought exactly the same when I saw the formation.

Still, as mac says, we’re keeping the relegation places ‘local’…but it’s still September. The personnel have still to gel, even begin in some cases and I seem to remember Jim Smith’s side looking horribly disjointed until late October…going back even further, I don’t think we’d had a win in the league by October 1976 when suddenly we stuck eight (!) past Pat Jennings against Tottenham.

Could do with something next weekend but I’ll reserve judgement for at least another month and glad the enjoyment of your return outweighed the frustration of the result.

Players coming back from operations, newbies still settling in.... Some of the starting XI, 4 of them to be exact, are that "new", they made their home debuts. We aren't the finished article and patience is required.