Huge game tonight

[roger_ramjet]

Unless we win at Blackburn, there will be some smug git on here comparing our start this year to that of last year and how Nigel did better yet was sacked.

Suddenly like for like will go out of the window and points after 7 games will be compared...

14th place is a precarious place to be in!!

[WhatsGoinOn]

It is a massive game tonight followed by Cardiff on Saturday.

If we lost both games I would still be more than happy with McLaren as manager and much prefer him than Clough.

I think as Derby fans we need to realise that top 2 this year may be out of our reach and a playoff push would still be seen as a good season.

We are taking a bit of time kicking into gear and McLaren still doesn't know his best team, only in my opinion as Dawkins continues to play and Christie was dropped for Shotton.

We are still in for an immense season, I just fear we could be on for another Wembley trip.

[hantsram]

Enormously hard to follow up on last season.

Remember we got a record points total last year. Equalling or bettering that this year will be very, very hard indeed.

Getting the players motivated again after being so very close is an almost impossible task.

Could be that some of the player's hearts just aren't in it for another battle.

[wristslasher_909]

While Thorne is out and Eustace is in, we will have to be content with scrapping for draws. We're going to end up relying on set pieces, long throws from Shotton, and the physicality of Best.

Let's hope we settle in to some kind of rhythm over the next few games.

Ibe, Ward and Christie in tonight hopefully.

[Rapid]

to give the whole thing a bit of perspective. NC I thought did a solid job but he had the best part of 5 years and never got us anywhere near promotion.

mac has had much more solid foundations when he took over but took us within a kick of a ball of promotion in his first season.

we haven't regressed but we've lost our best player to a season long injury. nothing you can do about that. not the manager's fault.

we've still extremely difficult to beat. we've only lost once all season. that's a nice spin!

we'll be there or there abouts without a doubt. and that's just league position. the quality of football under mac is light years ahead of the previous regime.

[sheeeeeeeeeep]

We have only lost 1 game. We are doing pretty well. A bit less rustyness up front and we will be flying.

[wristslasher_909]

My prediction is he'll drop Eustace and we'll get beaten comfortably. Probably 3-1

[clough08]

Big game yes but we should not worry too much if we lose tonight. Blackburn will be thereabouts at the end and we won't be far off whatever happens tonight.
Cardiff are about to sack Solsjaer so they could be lacking morale on Saturday.
We must keep the faith even if we're mid table come Christmas as we do have a good squad and are quite capable of putting a run together.

[Rattea]

Unless we win at Blackburn, there will be some smug git on here comparing our start this year to that of last year and how Nigel did better yet was sacked.

Suddenly like for like will go out of the window and points after 7 games will be compared...

14th place is a precarious place to be in!!

Surely not ... McClaren has moved us on a million miles and the results and stats show that ... dont they ...ahem!!!!

[D_D]

Unless we win at Blackburn, there will be some smug git on here comparing our start this year to that of last year and how Nigel did better yet was sacked.

Suddenly like for like will go out of the window and points after 7 games will be compared...

14th place is a precarious place to be in!!

Surely not ... McClaren has moved us on a million miles and the results and stats show that ... dont they ...ahem!!!! [/quote]

Rats, regardless of tonight's result, this and last season's points totals will be very similar at the same stage.

So, cue you to say "when directly compared, there is no evidence of improvement, if anything we've gone backwards" etc etc.

Then there will be 4-5 responses, 2-3 of which will state "Clough never took us to the play-offs in five years, the Mac got us a record points total" etc. etc.

The other two responses will be something like ":zzz