Joe Hart 75 England caps.
Kevin Hector 2 England caps.

Makes me want to cry.

comment by VC10Ram (U18980)
posted 7 minutes ago
Joe Hart 75 England caps.
Kevin Hector 2 England caps.

Makes me want to cry.


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The Everton fans should be asking why the same players didn't pull their fingers out before.

They are all a mard arses.

I thought Carson was a poor signing when he arrived but his performances soon changed my mind. He did have the odd off day but we owed quite a few points to his performances. If only he hadn't had that off day against Hull in the first match play off. We would probably have been promoted that season.

Carson and Hart though, are not good footballers. So in the modern game where the goal keeper acts as sweeper as well, they are not flavour of the month with many coaches.

Fergusson probably uses the same tactics as BC used to in that the players are scared to death of him, (I went to school with Steve Sutton and he told me a tale or two).

Nigel Pearson tried that and we all know how well that went! Players crying to uncle Mel.

Nigel Pearson tried that and we all know how well that went! Players crying to uncle Mel.

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Not Martin, I don't think Pearson fancied his chances against Martin so he loaned him out.

There is a difference between a player getting one cap and 75. I saw Joe Hart as a very young keeper at Shrewsbury and it was clear he was destined for the top. There are quite a few keepers who stopped being flavour of the month but who have had Indian summers when they find the right club. Ben Foster is one like that who is in terrific form at Watford. All goalies will make the odd crass error of course and those are the ones we remember. I agree with Spart though that he isn’t a good footballer. I would also be happy with Ward as it happens.

It’s hard to assess a performance when you haven’t been to the game and I don’t find that Radio Derby are reliable witnesses. I saw Cocu’s interview on DCFC TV and he didn’t say anything controversial. He didn’t say we played well although he said that the defensive organisation was generally good. It seemed odd to me that he would be quoted as saying “We played well yesterday” just after the match had finished. Maybe he was referring to the Friday training session.

Is there any truth in the Joe Hart rumour? Not seen anything to indicate an interest but have seen this rumour circle. Hart's confidence is shot to pieces and I think his career is on a downward spiral fast - similar to Dowell do we need an out of form , out of confidence type player?

I saw Begovic of Bournemouth linked to the club who could be a good acquisition but given his salary of 60k per week and PL clubs interested do we want him ( or expect him at the club)?

We've attempted the expensive assemble and it's failed it's time to find players who can compete and improve at this level - without costing a fortune.

The rumour was that we had made an enquiry. Burnley have Peacock-Farrell as well as Pope so they have a surplus of keepers. I know people who know the Hart family so I will keep an ear out although I doubt the player would know too much unless the club informed him of any interest. Hart is too young for his career to have ended and I expect he will resurrect it somewhere. I reckon he could do a short-term job for us unless we can find a longer-term alternative. From what I have seen both Mitchell and Ravas look superior to Roos and Hamer.

Just wondering how we have managed to go from one of the better teams in this division (4 play offs in the last 6 seasons) to also rans in such a short time. It took us several seasons to get to that position and after spending millions and losing our ground we are basically back to where we were under Paul Jewell. I have a hunch it wasn't good management that caused us to be where we are now.

Our points tally for the games in which Mount was absent last season (11 games) was 13. 7 of those games were at home and the majority against teams near the bottom of the table. We failed to score in 6 of them and only scored 9 overall in those 11 games.

Which is additional evidence that our position last season flattered us. The rapid turnover of managers with different ideas has led to the accumulation of a hotch-potch of players many of whom aren't suited to playing with their team-mates. There hasn't been a consistent approach to recruitment to fit in with a preferred style of play. That won't come unless there is a period of stability which allows a manager to develop the squad.

comment by Spart-Derby really are the best says red dog. (U4603)
posted about an hour ago

Just wondering how we have managed to go from one of the better teams in this division (4 play offs in the last 6 seasons) to also rans in such a short time. It took us several seasons to get to that position and after spending millions and losing our ground we are basically back to where we were under Paul Jewell. I have a hunch it wasn't good management that caused us to be where we are now.

I'd say losing Mount, Tomori & Wilson & not being able to with the same quality has hindered Derby...

comment by Desicafu (U8481)
posted 1 day, 15 hours ago
comment by lastapostleofvidal (U1491)
posted 1 hour, 22 minutes ago
Understand the gloom when we are not playing well but I think we need a reality check. Cocu was appointed on a four-year contract and from the start it was clear in interviews with him and with Morris that his brief is wider than short-term improvements on the pitch but to create a longer-lasting club strategy that might prove sustainable rather than the boom and bust of recent years.

I think the only signing he has made since arriving is Bielik who looks a good player to me. So far this season he has had to contend with serious injuries to key players and out of necessity has had to chop and change with players he inherited.

It’s clear to me at least that he knew when he was appointed that there was to be significant new investment together with the arrival of Rooney. I think the hope was that we would have been somewhere near the top six at half way stage and could then kick on in the second half. With all that has happened with injuries and Boozegate that was never likely to happen and instead it seems. Cocu has decided to use the few weeks up until the next transfer window to look at as many players as possible in different systems to decide which ones will be useful going forward and which he wants to discard. At the same time he’s having a little look at some of the kids with half an eye on next season.

So I’m content to be patient and see what happens after January. You have to give a new manager the chance to create his own team. I bet that if he had the chance he would look to replace plenty of players, amongst them Roos, Davies, Dowell, Josefzoon, Marriott, Evans, Waghorn, maybe a few more. I like the way Cocu talks about the way he wants to bring the young players through and I think he is the right man to do that. If we want to have a long-term plan, and we do, then we have to accept it’s going to take a bit of time. Nigel Clough inherited a mess and he took a few seasons to create a good team. In Brian Clough’s first season we did worse than the the year before. Cocu didn’t inherit a mess but he did inherit a jumble of a team which over-achieved courtesy of a couple of stars whose magic moments masked deeper problems. Cut the guy a bit of slack.
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I like what you've said and would agree with the comments, just getting frustrated now how sh*te Saturdays are becoming when we play away from home. It's also becoming difficult to determine who will play as VC10 suggests it seems to be a lottery on team selection and formation. But it could well be a case of experimenting formations and positions.

The slim silver lining this week strangely might be Chelsea's embargo being lifted and getting Van Ginkel on loan plus a youth player or two, ideally in the Tomori mould. A very long shot we'll get Ampadu on loan, although he has managed only two appearances on loan in Germany for RB Leipzig.
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As always, though I am reluctant to keep repeating it, Vidal speaks a lot of sense and understands very well most of the issues around our club. I agree with him. We need to give Cocu a decent run at things and stick with him to put his long term plans into effect..

Spart, I would guess vidal in his day to day job, has to make decisions which otherwise may have very serious consequences if he gets it wrong?

I suspect he applies the same logic to how he sees things Derby County?

Sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture as opposed to your "swing the lump hammer harder" approach.

You're welcome.

No he doesn't Scouse, doctors bury their mistakes.

Strange how you jump to the conclusion that I was having a go at Cocu. I was actually referring to the basket of awful decisions we have made since Keogh decided to play the ball out of defence at Wembley instead of putting it in to row Z.

I don't think there are too many parallels really. There is no guarantee that giving a manager more time will result in success of course. But if you combine a trigger-happy approach with giving each new manager plenty of money to spend then that tends to spell disaster, especially if they are managers with very different ideas about how they want their teams to play. Clough, McLaren, Clement, Pearson, Rowett, Lampard, Cocu. All very different and all acquiring players that the next manager probably wouldn't have chosen to buy. Our best collection of players in the last ten years was after we had had a long period of stability which allowed a team to build, even if took McLaren to finally get them fully firing on all cylinders. At some point an owner has to hold his nerve IF he thinks he has the right man.

There are no hard and fast rules. Watford achieved success by the Pozzos changing their managers as often as they changed their underwear. Now that all seems to have gone tlt$ up.

Watford went for the coach model rather than manager so they had more stability with recruitment. I have no idea what they are thinking with Loony though.

I watched Leicester yesterday playing with a diamond formation, they were superb. I know we haven't got players like they have , but we would be much better with 2 up front with a 10 behind them. Little Tommy did quite well in that system although Vidal thinks I'm imagining this.

One thing I haven't imagined is that many goals this weekend were the result of crosses by wingers. When was the last time a Derby player put a decent cross in for someone to score? I think the answer could be Johnny Russell, but I might be wrong.

I do not want the club to keep changing managers. I would have been happy to have kept Rowett as he seemed fairly competent but with boring football. I would have kept Clement as we were 5th at the time, also boring. I'd probably have kept Wally and Nigel C. I would have loved to have kept Lampard, he lit the whole club up and made it a pleasure to go to matches.

But I wouldn't keep this man, he is clueless. It all comes down to making the cake, you have to use what you've got and do it well with a bit of passion. Then you get a nice cake like Mary Berry would make. I wonder if she has ever managed a club...........

I think that was just the one game I mentioned, VC, against the ten men of Middlesbrough, when Lawrence scored twice. I agree with you though that this is the best way to get the most out of Lawrence, Martin and Marriott. I think Cocu is worried about whether the midfield is good enough to support it or not. When Shinnie was fit I would have said that he, Bielik and either Holmes or Knight ought to have been robust enough but at present I'm not so sure we wouldn't be outgunned in that department.

I didn't think Lampard was actually that great tactically and I thought that there a lot of poor performances that were glossed over by a bit of magic in other games. I would still have wanted him to stay. His results in the games without Mount suggest to me that we don't actually have all of the necessary ingredients with which to make a satisfactory cake. Even Brian Clough needed several new ingredients as you will remember.

Can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear VC.

You could make a pig skin purse Scouse.

He is not picking the best players, I ain't the biggest fan of Jack but he can score if they give him the ball. Play him with Chris FFS. Tommy is better in the middle and Holmes isn't a midfielder, he should play on the wing.

I may be on my own on this, but I thought Evans did a good job protecting the defence against QPR. Play him and let others go forward and FFS don't play 3 centre halves, they just leave it for each other.

Talking goalkeepers, Roos, Hamer and Mitchell are nowhere near good enough for the 2nd division. Surely Ravas should be given a go and when I typed "given" it made me think we might as well play him, he doesn't seem to be a very good coach.

Vidal if you want to see how our manager said we were playing well, have a look on page 44 of the DT in the first column.

“When we had the ball first half it was unnecessary, sloppy. We made a lot of bad decisions.”

When you say that he said we played well, you aren’t quite telling the truth, VC. He was referring specifically to the period of the game when he was considering making the final two substitutions. I wasn’t at the game but I remember that on here 2Wellies, who was watching the game, commented that “we are having a spell” at the time of the match that Cocu was talking about. So that seems to fit.

I can understand not rating the manager but it’s a bit shabby just to take one quote out of context and try to pretend he said something that he didn’t. If you read the full transcript he’s actually quite critical of much of the performance.

comment by VC10Ram (U18980)
posted 1 day, 4 hours ago
No I'm not, unlike you who said I was speaking for 20,000! Coco said in his boring interview that he thought we played well for periods of the game. I heard this with my own ears! and wondered why he would come out with such nonsense after even Craig Ramage was rendered speachless with the poor play.

Nick Pickering got an England cap, are you saying he was a good player? No I know you won't, but we all know Joe Hart was never that good and he has gone worse. He has been off it for several years and ain't going to get any better. I don't want Burnley's overpaid cast offs thank you.

You are right, we desperately need a decent keeper and there are plenty about. I have mentioned Danny Ward from Leicester before and I think he would do a good job and he is only 26 . I'm sure there are others who would do a good job, but please nor butterfingers Hart. How many has beens do we need?
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Vidal, you will note what I said in the first paragraph. I did not make anything up, I quoted exactly what he said. Just like I didn’t claim to speak for twenty thousand.