As I said it’s been done to death. 11 clubs complained about the outrageous behaviour of Bielsa as you admit. What some Millwall and Chelsea fans might do has got nothing at all to do with Bielsa’s behaviour. It’s bizarre that you use this to somehow excuse him. He’s a cheat and is permanently tainted with it. He then made a laughing stock of himself with the comedy “I’m a genius, me” PowerPoint presentation. No class.

Vidal. Bird was definitely the best central midfield player we had yesterday. Felt sorry for him a bit with the way Evans was going about his game. What will be interesting is whether Bird keeps his place on Tuesday after Lampard saying he was our best player. I don't expect we will play 2 holding midfielders so will Bird be that holding midfield player?

I spy fat Frank at the job centre.

Well, didn't know they opened Sunday. I think you will find that Frank is slimmer than most of the salad dodgers who attend Elland Road. If their IQ's were greater than their mass in Kg then maybe they wouldn't come on our board spouting their rubbish.

Sorry I thought this was a thread about the villa game.

I would play Huddlestone, Bird and Johnson on Tuesday. The first two seem to be our best passers and Johnson can play a bit further forward, compete for second balls and attack the box. I'm no fan of Johnson but maybe he increases our chance of scoring. Goals have dried up completely. The full backs can push right up and two of Wilson, Holmes, Josefzoon and Mitchell-Lawson can play wide assuming Bennett is injured and Lawrence still unfit. Marriott relies on service which has been non-existent so I would start with Wagstaff at centre-forward, poor though he has been lately, and ask him to use his strength to get hold of the ball rather than Marriott who only plays off the last defender and doesn't get involved in link-up play at all.

Look! there have been times when almost everything we tried resulted in a goal. In recent times once v Wolves and again v Hull City. Sometimes it happens without reason. This game v Villa comes in that category. Learn some lessons but put it behind us. Onwards and upwards. We are still in tough (just). But promotion is not essential anyway. When we are promoted - we have to be ready. Next season - maybe. But hang on to Frank Mel.

Waghorn has plenty of strength but unfortunately doesn't have the control to be effective. He is a slightly improved Conor Sammon.

Goals have dried up because we aren't getting the ball and players in to the opposition penalty area, we struggled even against Ipswich. Holmes is our only midfielder showing any sort of form so this is hardly surprising.

I can provide the cause of our current malaise but unfortunately can't see a cure without a change in personnel and that will have to be next season.

I agree with you Spart. In the meanwhile Lampard has to pick a team though and there is a danger that the season will end poorly enough to jeopardize his position as well as lose what has generally been a positive mood around club and fans since his appointment. So he's got to make the best of what he's got for the time being. Usually teams get out of bad spells by going back to basics and cutting out the daft mistakes that sap confidence.

The only player I can see who can make a difference is Flojo. Unfortunately he has under performed all season. He has good control and pace but is yet to use it to go past a defender.

Defenders hate players who run at them but all Flojo does is receive the ball, jink to either side before laying it off to another player. By this time the opposition has regrouped. If he tried to beat the player sometimes he wouldn't succeed but other times he might, or draw the foul and one thing we aren't short of is players who can take free kicks.

For 5 minutes at Forest he looked dynamite! Then he disappeared. He needs telling that ever time he gets the ball he either runs at his man or he gets subbed off.

I saw that as well Vidal but he disappears when someone is nasty and rough with him.

There are one or two like that on here.

comment by lastapostleofvidal (U1491)
posted 1 hour, 8 minutes ago
There are one or two like that on here.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello to all my favourite posters.

I feel very disappointed at the way things have gone downhill since November. I don't think I've seen a worse team than the one yesterday for a long time, particularly the midfield (what midfield?) How have we sunk so low? Why have we got a team of lightweights? Why have we spent so much money on the likes of Waghorn, Marriott (far too small for a lone striker) Malone, Evans (the worst) Jozefthing (rubbish)? Only Holmes looks worth his place.

We used to have Hendrick, Bryson and the lovely Will in midfield with Jamie Ward, Johnny Russell and Chris Martin up front.

Not one of you can tell me truthfully that our current lot are better than them, can you?

Nope, completely agree VC. And our best players are loanees anyway. We have lost our way but can still salvage something if we get a grip

Oh I forgot: folk tell me that Marriott doesn't get any service. Well perhaps he doesn't but when Kevin Hector joined Derby we were even worse than now. He used to come and get the ball and he lit the whole club up from the start. Marriott just runs around like a headless chicken.

Although as Harps pointed out - this is only our 8th year of transition so still very much a work in progress

I don't argue with you VC about Hendrick and Hughes. We got good money for Hendrick though and he is playing at a higher level so to sell him was fair enough. Selling Hughes was also likely to be inevitable but it wasn't essential at the time and the money we got was laughable. Even if he wasn't part of Rowett's plans he should have been sensible enough to use him for a while, let his value go up (it had gone down through injury) and then cash in. Obviously I would have preferred it if he had stayed.

There is something of the rose-tinted about the others though. Ward had some decent games but was very injury-prone and wasn't even good enough for Forest. JR similarly frequently frustrated through lack of final delivery and Martin was a limited albeit good player who has struggled to hold down a first-team place at any club since he left Derby, partly because of lack of fitness from illness to be fair.

Attacking players are made to look poor if they get no service or are not supported by the midfield. I feel sorry for Marriott and Waghorn in that respect. All of the players you list have done far better at other clubs than they are currently doing at Derby, so I would ask why coming to Derby has caused them to deteriorate rather than condemning them as individuals. Malone for instance always impressed me at Fulham but he has been far less effective than Forsyth at left back.

So maybe we have yet to see the best of these players. I bleeding well hope so anyway.

VC, Marriott is more in the mould of Bobby Davison rather than Kevin Hector. Not really a fair comparison as Hector was recognised (though not enough by Alf Ramsey) as one of the best English forwards of his generation. I have no problem with Marriott's play while he doesn't get the service. He makes his runs but no one provides the passes.

Also not fair to compare Marriott to Hector. Hector was an all-time great. Reminds me of Crouch's response when someone tweeted his goal stats compared to Lionel Messi: "Crouch in "not as good as Messi" shocker."

comment by HebridesRam (U2909)
posted 2 minutes ago
Nope, completely agree VC. And our best players are loanees anyway. We have lost our way but can still salvage something if we get a grip
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Heb I don't think it is the fans who need to get a grip, I think it is Frank and his backroom staff who need to.

I was sorry Frank felt the need to criticise the media and I think he meant Radio Derby. It is always the same, as soon as the team plat poorly it is RD's fault for reporting what they see. It happened when that Daily Mirror owner was in charge when they banned Graham Richards for telling the truth. It happened when Neil Hallam wrote something they didn't like. I want the radio to report what is happening and if it is bad I want them to say so. I don't want to got back to "the lad will be disappointed with that" rubbish.

It's not the media or the fans who are failing, it is the football. I sincerely hope things change starting on Tuesday and maybe we might have a few shots on goal to start things off.

Neil Hallam and Graham Richards - don't make them like that anymore

With football, the local media and fans always categorise any game as either absolutely fantastic if we win or a total disaster if we lose. If it's a draw it depends on the opposition as to whether these categories apply. The truth is always more grey and complex.

Richards was a great commentator but often ludicrously hyperbolic in his opinions. He wasn't a great judge of things. Hallam was a very good journalist though.

I agree that Marriott isn't like Hector (who is?), but I was trying to say that he came for the ball if it didn't come to him. We can't keep saying that Waggy and Marriott don't get the service, they should come and get it or we are playing with 9 men.

Vidal when I was typing I was thinking Ward was often injured, Russell sometimes wasn't so good and Martin has been struggling. But I reckon they are still much better than what we've got now.

Martin has had 2 full games for Hull recently, but hasn't troubled the scorers yet although he gave a pass to the bloke who passed to the scorer. He looks a lot slimmer as well and will be as fit as a fiddle for the big push next season.