WOW! I have really enjoyed the season so far but I WAS expecting us to get a hammering at some point as part of the process. However, for some reason I didn't expect such a comprehensive defeat and my boy was ready to go home at goal 3. A tough night. I've waiting to post as could only see negatives 24 hours later, but a couple of nights sleep help turn the glass upside down a little. Just a few main thoughts
Negatives:
Out-thought, outfought and outplayed both on an individual level and as a team tactically. I've done some occasional coaching (amateur with a capital A) and was trying to work out what Derby were doing differently to other teams.....well the answer was nothing. They just did it better, faster and in greater numbers. Had us completely worked out. A REALLY high press, hunting in packs (a la Barca) and when they broke on us it was with six or seven players at PACE. Quiet exhilarating if your a Derby fan....and I imagine what it looks like as an opposition fan watching us when we are on our game.
CM - We all know it!!! Did not expect us to miss Livermore, but we did. Without his industry and experience alongside him, Brunty really looked like what he is; a player totally out of position. He can come on and make an impact in CM but he should NOT start. My first reaction was also that Sam Field was equally poor; sluggish on the ball, slow to turn so easily closed down, easily outmuscled and surprisingly beaten for pace on a number of occasions. However, we have to remember that he is still very inexperienced and was having to carry his senior pro. There may still be a role for him, but at the moment it can only be as a player that can break the lines running forward, not one who can come short to the defence and begin a movement. Could he develop this given time? A potential defender in a back three? Can't tell from that performance.
Defence - As an (ex) defender myself I don't like to jump on the back three or four as they are being asked to do a LOT. At times last night they must have been looking up and only seeing blue shirts coming at them as neither the CM's or wing backs were providing good options. As with Livermore, we missed Hegazi, although against that Derby press he may have been a bad accident waiting to happen with his Cruyf turns on the edge of his own box. Often the back 5 including the keeper seemed uncertain whether to stick or twist, they were desperate to keep passing it as per the managers instructions but JRods mistake unnerved the whole team. By the end they looked like they had lost belief in what they were doing and It got a bit embarrassing watching Bartlett being given the ball almost on our goal line as they were pressing that high, and then panicking when he looked up and saw NO out ball. We cannot play with that line-up again; we want our back three to play like Beckanbaur coming out and playing to feet, but instead we are getting the opposite and making decent (well, half decent) professional defenders look like park footballers.
Positives
Creating chances - as much as I'm sure we were completely outplayed by the RAMS, we could also still have scored three or four more goals on another day (my boy had begged me to leave before the Bartlett handball so not even counting that one) JRod finding the keeper when Gayle was free on goal, the still brilliant Harvey Barnes whistling about 3 shots just wide of the post that looked like they were heading for the corner and Sam Field bursting forward and cracking one wide. If we lose Barnes this could change, but at the moment even when we are at our worst we still carry threat.
Change of formation - as much as Darren Moore wants three at the back to work, the fact that we appeared to change formation? mid game was a minor positive for me (I hadn't picked that up I was too busy placating my boy telling me how torturous it was). We should not lose our footballing principles but we do have to change formation to match our squad against the better teams and away from home. It may dilute our threat but we cannot be left that open again, as those kind of defeats will shatter any confidence the back line and keeper have. We have a number of passing midfielders, Jimmy looked like Jimmy, Hoolahan is tidy and I would like to get a another look again at Harper (as well as, or instead of Field). Throw in Barry and Livermore and there should be a decent three in there. We may lose Barnes in the number 10 role but on paper a front three made up from Barnes, Sakho, Gayle (or JRod I guess), Phillips and Edwards is a damn good one. If we go four in the middle then Barnes can play out wide and drift in, and Phillips can put in a shift on the right to make up numbers. There has to be more options that the team can fall back into naturally. All about the training pitch - this is the real test now.
Big Dave - for some he is already becoming a negative, for me still a positive. A new, young manager who is learning on the job at the sharp end of a division. I would have been very happy with Dean Smith, as he has already done his apprentice at smaller clubs with much lower expectations. Will this translate to a bigger club? Instinct says he'll do ok at the Seal Sanctuary, but these fans are seriously fickle and a bad run will soon leads to the calls for a "bigger name"....nothing in football is guaranteed. Unless the wheels completely fall off Big Dave has my support for the duration of the season. I said from the start that play-offs would be an achievement given the position he took over as I don't buy into the line that "we have Premier League players so should be favourites" - as they are not, which is why we are not!! We had two players of genuine Premier League quality in our team, and they have both gone. Just because a player has a Premier League fee and wages, it does not mean he is a Premier League quality footballer - somewhere in-between Championship and Premier League maybe.