BAD late substitutions
And it's the ruing of a missed opportunity day
BAD late substitutions
Yep 2 points lost. Win Tuesday and Saturday and all will be forgotten
5-0 isn’t likely, in fact I can’t think of a game this season where we’ve ever been totally dominant. All in all this year has been even worse entertainment wise than last year, ranging this season from dross to ‘OK’
Today?
Wade just didn’t work out (again)
Sibley lost the ball unnecessarily way too much (again)
Bradley looks like a cock up waiting to happen
Hourihane and Bird were utter lightweights (nice shot by Hourihane though)
Warne shares my frustration about throw ins but doesn’t seem capable of coaching on that specialism, it really is throw and hope
As mentioned, subbing a time served full back (with a bit of a niggle) with a wing back was madness
How we are second playing such dreck I have no idea
To be fair to Warne he admitted his mistake setting up with 3 at the back in the first half, though why he didn't change it before HT is a puzzle.
One would have thought a basic throw in is within the grasp of a L1 player but it does seem as if none of the players are able to execute a good one.
Warne surely has to protect his players? Its a risk either way, but the greater risk is surely a long term injury to a kept player also why CBT wasn't used even though he may have calmed the team down. Nelson could have won it at the end.
I'm not sure why people were expecting quality football at this level, if the players could produce that consistently they'd be in the championship surely? But Derby are going to struggle against teams that come here to stifle, as has been seen all season, it takes two teams to entertain.
Fair play to Shrewsbury, they had a game plan to stifle and nick the game if they could, they did that and nicked a pt. But we can't afford to keep dropping these pts.
Warne made comment about the awful throw-in performance earlier in the season and things improved for a while, Nelson in particular taking fairly prompt ones backwards to Cashin, from wher an attack could be built. we seem to have reverted back to lobbing hopefully towards collins, and jumping for a ball with back to goal and defender on his back is clearly not a strong point
agreed there should be some protection of players, I think the balance (in taking off Nyambe) yesterday was way-off is all
I wasn't expecting high quality, just a bit of structure, Shrewsbry out-structured us yesterday
Another odd point I've never got, if wacking the ball hopefully into their area in a gung ho manner (ie last ten mins) is seen as having more chance of succeeding than the previous 85 mins approach, why bother with the earlier approach at all?
Shape was changed after 35 minutes of an absolutely awful first half of football from both sides. 0-0 was the best either side could hope for at that juncture.
2nd half was better but we have to remember that it would have been difficult to be that bad again. When Bird put the ball away for the 1-0, it was deserved as we were the better side. They then got back into it without ever looking like worrying Wildsmith. Then came that equaliser. 88th minute throw in, in the corner, we fell asleep. Collo was beaten way too easily, Wilson was out of position and couldn't get back to worry their man in possession, pass to Pierre some 12 yards out where he was totally unmarked and his shot gave JW no chance. It was their first real shot on target, the previous one had been a gentle lob into JW's arms. They did have another shot after their goal which JW saved well. Then we created a chance up the other end but Nelson's downwards header bounced up onto the bar instead of into the net.
Shrews came with the game plan I expected and executed it well, restricting us to just 8 shots with 3 on target to their 7 and 3.
We need, IMO, to look at some of our pushing and pulling in the oppo's area. Their keeper made that double save from Barks but, had one of the 2 attempts gone in, the goal would have been disallowed for Collo having pushed a defender over. Why do we do things that give refs the choice? Don't commit fouls in the opponent's box... or our own for that matter.
Ref? less than average. Let too much go, IMO. I wouldn't have complained if his (lack of) decision making had been spread evenly but we seemed to be on the wrong end of 2/3 of his Law interpretations. First half saw one of his Assistants pull us up 8 or 9 times for offside. I'm not convinced they were all correct decisions. It is, however, something our attacking players need to be more aware of and, hopefully, cut out of our play. Especially Collo who seems to wander back slowly and then get caught offside when he challenges for the ball despite having been well offside when the ball was played.