Derby got back to winning ways with a hard-fought victory over Tottenham on Friday night.
The goal, courtesy of Luke Thomas, was enough to separate the two teams in what had been an entertaining contest.
The pattern of play was set early with Tottenham hoarding possession and looking to find away though the Derby defence. Similar to the first team, Derby were content to sit back and try to hit Spurs on the break.
The wide pair of Thomas and Alex Babos, always willing to do their fair share of defensive work, were quick to move forward with the ball. Thomas in particular was a constant menace with his direct charges at the Tottenham defence.
Max Lowe moves forward with the ball for Derby. (Photograph: Andy Clarke)
Tottenham probed for an opening in the Derby defence, and found it when striker Ryan Loft dropped into the space between defence and midfield to pick up the ball. With a couple of nice turns he got away from the centre back pairing of Jason Shackell and Ethan Wassall, but he scuffed his shot into the grateful arms of Josh Barnes.
Derby looked at their most threatening when they pressed high up the pitch, depriving the Tottenham defence of time on the ball. Several times they nicked the ball from the opposition and flashed dangerous balls across the face of goal that only needed a touch to go in.
This was how they got the best chance of the first half. Emil Riis Jakobson forced Luke Amos back towards his own penalty area. He failed to see Callum Guy stood in front of him and he gave the ball away. Guy fired the ball over, when he had time to take a touch and pass it into the net.
However, there was a frightening amount of space available to the Tottenham midfield when they managed to bypass Derby’s high press, so it was perhaps sensible that Derby dropped deep again in the second half.
Derby went back to trying to hit their opponents on the break and this paid off when they scored.
Luke Thomas tries to find a way though the Tottenham defence. (Photograph: Andy Clarke)
Wassall, whose passing from defence had been impressive, lifted the ball over the top for Thomas, who charged at the retreating defence. At the edge of the box he played a neat one-two with Babos and his first time shot was deflected over the helpless Brandon Austin in the Tottenham net.
This knocked the stuffing out of Spurs and they never really looked like getting an equaliser. Aside from Marcus Edwards’ curling free kick that was well kept out by Barnes, Derby marshaled them well and had chances to score more goals.
Wassall’s header from a corner was impressively blocked on the line, while Thomas’ goal bound curling shot was deflected wide.
The victory moved Derby up to sixth in the PL2 table, while Tottenham stayed in eighth position. Another victory towards beating the odds and staying in the league for another season.
Luke Thomas (right) celebrates his goal against Tottenham. (Photograph: Andy Clarke)
Man of the Match: Luke Thomas
A standout performer for the U23s this season, Thomas kept up his fine form with an all action performance. He was at the heart of Derby’s most dangerous attacks and worked hard when tracking back. He can’t be too far off a call-up to the first team based on his recent performances.
In my recent interview with Derby County Blog, they mentioned the freedom that bloggers have compared to journalists when commenting on footballing matters. So I decided to cross the divide and see if that viewpoint is shared by journalists.
Owen Bradley is well-known to Derby fans. As the host of Sportscene on BBC Radio Derby, his voice is first many hear on their way to and from matches. He very kindly took some time out of his busy schedule over the Christmas period to talk to me.
As a fan it can sometimes be difficult to step back and look at things objectively. Poor performances and bad results can ruin days and sometimes entire weekends. These days people can vent their frustration online, on social media and blogs, before calming down and looking at things in the cold light of day. Journalists however, have to go and interview managers and players minutes after the game is over. Objectivity, Bradley says, should not go out the window after a bad result.
“I acknowledge that I’m not there to give my opinion; I am not the expert. There is a bit of holding people to account, but you’ll never hear me say ‘I think you should have done this’ or ‘I thought you did this today.’ It’s a difficult job in the sense that you can never make everybody happy. The club will always think you’re too negative and you should be more supportive, whereas other people will think you should be giving the club a harder time. You just have to acknowledge that’s the job and it’s the same for however many local radio stations and however many commentary teams there are.”
Bradley likes to be the calm, collected voice you hear on the radio before, during and after matches. Despite being a season ticket holder when he was younger – his first season was the ’96 promotion season under Jim Smith – he was unable to make every game due to other commitments. This, he says, prepared him well for a career covering the Rams.
“I wasn’t a die-hard, never miss a game fan. I am a Derby fan and it’s great to cover them, but I don’t really like to talk about it. I actually think it’s helpful if you don’t support the team you’re covering, which is something Colin Bloomfield did very well. I like it when people say ‘Oh, I didn’t know you were a Derby fan’ because that shows that I’m not being overtly partisan.”
It’s not just fans who get emotional after poor performances though. Managers and players, despite what some people may say, don’t like losing. Emotions can get the better of them, even if the result goes their way, as seen by Pep Guardiola’s tense interview with Damien Johnson following Manchester City’s 2-1 victory over Burnley. For Bradley, an awkward interview doesn’t arise because of a bad result, but due to the circumstances surrounding it.
“A recent one would be Chris Powell after the Cardiff game. Derby won the game 2-0 and you think ‘Derby have won, that’s an easy interview,’ but Nigel Pearson had been suspended earlier in the day. Powell was Pearson’s number two; he owed him a lot and he was very emotional. It was a tough interview because you want to look after the person you’re interviewing, especially if it’s someone you have a relationship with, but at the same time you want to make sure you get the right stuff out of them.
Bradley also covers the Nottingham Panthers for BBC Radio Nottingham (he’s actually covering the Panthers european exploits in Italy at the time of publishing this article). An Ice Hockey fan from a young age, he smiles as he reminisces about an interview with Panthers’ coach Corey Neilson. It makes for surreal listening and you get a real sense of frustration from the Panthers’ boss. Bradley doesn’t hold a grudge.
“Lots of people heard it and said it was really disrespectful, but the disrespectful thing would have been him saying ‘No, I’m not going to talk to you.’ I knew he wasn’t annoyed at me, he was annoyed at his players and was trying to use me to make the point, so I didn’t mind it too much.”
That interview proved to be really popular on social media in following days and weeks. While social media and in particular Facebook and Twitter has become more influential in shaping political discourse, it has also done the same for football. Football phone-ins have felt the full force of this. There is an echo chamber effect, Bradley acknowledges, which means you sometimes only ever hear from the same people.
“I have conversations with people where they say, ‘Oh social media, you only ever hear from certain people.’ Yes, but you only ever heard from certain people before. It used to be the radio phone-in and those were the only fans you would hear from. I think now with Twitter, Facebook, still the phone-in and going on the forums we get a broader sense of how supporters are feeling than ever before.”
Bradley like to keep a tab on forums and message boards to get another perspective. Journalists cannot be everywhere at once and sometimes supporters may have a bit of insight that can lead to a change in opinion. That, as well as the fact that there are some genuinely funny people in the world of social media; one only has to look at the comments underneath some of Radio Derby’s post-match Facebook videos to find some laugh out loud material. What informs Bradley’s decision to actually post on forums though?
“Occasionally I’ll do it to promote things that I think people might be interested in. For example, I did a documentary about Reg Harrison and I posted about that on one of the forums. I don’t want to get into discussions about – although I have – the coverage, the balance of coverage and why we do things the way we do. I will usually only ever comment to correct a point of fact.
“There was a classic one, I think last January. Someone claimed I’d had a conversation with a player and that we (Bradley and the studio) were colluding with the club to keep it secret, which was completely wrong. I can’t even say it was a misunderstanding because it wasn’t, it was factually wrong. So I had to go on there and correct it. This often doesn’t help because when you say that the response is, ‘well you’re lying’ anyway. But I’ll go on there and do that because I don’t want to let stuff like that develop and run.”
You get the sense that despite these ‘incidents’, he loves his job. A boyhood Derby fan, following the team around the country, interviewing the players and managers. What’s not to love about that?
It seems that these days every man and his dog has a football blog. There are thousands of them. Some cover their club, some cover entire leagues while others are just brain-to-keyboard streams of whatever is going through the author’s head.
Derby County Blog is not one of the latter. Since being set up by Ollie Wright in June 2010, the site has gained a large following on social media and this increased profile has led to Ollie being contributing to several podcasts and “Monday Night Moan-In” on BBC Radio Derby.
I spoke to Ollie just before Christmas about football blogging and Derby County, in an interview that probably went on a bit too long. He was too polite to tell me to go away and that at a certain point I was just wasting his time!
The decision to set up the blog was, Ollie says, motivated by the idea that Nigel Clough wasn’t being given a fair shake by fans and trying to get his view across by the (fairly recent) tradition of using message boards was never his cup of tea.
“I can’t stand message boards really. I used to read them and it wasn’t good for my health. At the time there was very little quality content on them; someone would say something that would make you think ‘this guy has a point’, but the thread would quickly just descend into people make jokes and puns.”
If you haven’t read Derby County Blog it’s well worth a look. His prodigious use of statistics, well thought out arguments and his love of Chris Martin (the last point can be a deal-breaker for some people) all make for interesting reading.
“Back when I started it seemed like it was all about doing essays. I saw what other blogs were doing and wanted to do something a bit different. What’s the point of offering the same thing everybody else does?”
Nigel Pearson’s suspension led to a memorable ‘live blog’ on Ollie’s site. (Photograph: Andy Clarke)
One post in particular stays in the memory. Derby were due to play Cardiff City away and hours before the match Nigel Pearson was suspended by Mel Morris. Ollie had just published a lengthy post about why Derby were struggling up front and decided to do something novel.
“You aren’t supposed to be relieved when a manager is suspended but counterintuitively I was. I was so happy to find Pearson was gone and everyone else seemed to feel like that too, so I did a ‘live blog’ of the match using Radio Derby’s commentary.”
It was a funny look at what a pretty mundane match played in bizarre circumstances. There are moments in there where you can see his sanity on the verge of collapse, but it makes for a captivating read.
Ollie, however is more proud of a post made days before. His match report after Derby’s 2-1 loss to Blackburn in what would turn out to be Pearson’s last game in charge.
“In the games before hand you could see positive signs. Reasons to be hopeful, but that Blackburn match was dreadful. It was awful, I felt sick writing the article on it. But in the end, it felt like an important moment.”
Pearson’s suspension led to a lot of speculation around the club and Ollie, who is an accredited journalist, is grateful of his position as a blogger and not a sports reporter.
“When you’re a journalist you have to walk the line between asking questions the fans want asked and cozying up to the club. Bloggers don’t have to do that. The club doesn’t talk to us. We can criticise the club if it’s warranted because we don’t have that working relationship with them.”
As I alluded to earlier, Ollie is a big fan of Chris Martin. The big Scottish striker is (at the time of publication) on loan at Fulham and demanding a return to Derby. Our interviewee was not impressed with the decision to send him on loan in the first place.
“I thought the Martin decision was stupid. An appalling decision. Pearson deserved the sack for that alone. His goal record is outstanding; the only players to have scored more than him in the past three seasons were Ross McCormack and Jordan Rhodes.”
Like many fans, Ollie was happy to see Steve McClaren reappointed as Derby manager. (Photograph: Andy Clarke)
However, it hasn’t all been doom and gloom this season in his eyes. The reappointment of Steve McClaren and the good form of Bradley Johnson have both been reasons to be positive for the future.
“When Pearson was sacked I thought ‘Who would I want to manage to club? Someone like Steve McClaren,’ but I was really surprised he actually came back. I wasn’t sure him and Mel would kiss and make up. To be fair to him, he has been very humble and professional since his return; he has realised he burnt a lot of bridges last time.”
“Johnson has been my surprise of the season even though he does my head in sometimes; every game he will give the ball away in a crazy position. He has added some steel and done a good job at a time when we were seemingly out of options in that holding midfield role.”
To Ollie, it feels like the club is back and moving in the right direction. However, there are still lots of areas where we the team can improve.
“I don’t know what will happen in January; we could do with more quality up front. It would help a lot if we had George Thorne and Martin back.”
With no return date in the works for Thorne, McClaren has decided to bring in Julien De Sart on loan from Middlesbrough. The young Belgian midfielder has an eye for a pass and is similar in stature to Thorne so might be an adequate replacement.
The Chris Martin saga on the other hand looks like it rumble on for another couple of weeks as Fulham dig their heels in over his return. Still, given the fact Martin is currently on strike and refusing to play, his return to the club is definitely on the cards. Ollie might yet get his wish.
Statistics. You can say a lot with statistics and at the same time say nothing at all.
A team can have 70% possession but barely test the opposition goalkeeper.
A team can score four goals in the last 10 minutes of a match to flatter the score line.
A team can win seven matches on the trot against bottom half opposition and find themselves in a false position.
Against Fulham on Saturday Derby would face their toughest test since Steve McClaren took over. One of the toughest defences in the Championship would go face to face with one of the most potent attacking forces in the league.
Derby fans would get an inkling if the team was simply experiencing a new manager bounce, or if the team was undergoing a sustained play-off push.
As was expected, Fulham dominated possession from the start. Their defensive-midfield pairing of Kevin Macdonald and Stefan Johansen comfortably recycled possession and kept the ball moving, just out of reach of Derby’s hard-working midfield. Derby on the other hand were missing the calmness of Will Hughes on the ball and his ability to help the team keep possession.
Bradley Johnson was tenacious in midfield as Derby held off multiple Fulham attacks. (Photograph: Andy Clarke)
It was apparent that both teams were sticking to their game plans, plans that have served both teams well so far this season. Fulham moved the ball from one side of the pitch the other, the ball in a constant state of flux, looking for weaknesses in Derby’s full-backs. Derby were content to sit deep and try to hit Fulham on the break.
This was a pattern that would be followed, with varying degrees of success for both teams, until the end of the match.
Fulham, having spent the first 20 minutes of the match probing the Derby defence came to the conclusion that they were going to get no spare change from the resurgent Chris Baird and switched their attentions to Marcus Olsson. Derby’s only fit left-back, Olsson has been largely untroubled since his return to the squad, but he was given the run around by Sone Aluko and Ryan Fredericks on Saturday afternoon.
Johnny Russell was there time and time again to help Olsson and together, they were just about able to keep Fulham at arm’s length. However, when isolated, Olsson had little answer. The ball was flashed across the face of goal several times and good defending by Richard Keogh, Alex Pearce and Scott Carson was enough to ensure Fulham had no gilt-edge chances.
Amongst this, Derby’s frontline struggled to get going. Russell, very concerned with helping out Olsson in defence had little time to get forward. This left the bulk of the attacking play going through Tom Ince and Matej Vydra. Ince was his usual mercurial self, flittering in and out of the game while always giving a sense that he could change the game in an instant is he wanted to. Vydra, however, really struggled as the lone-striker and he was dominated by the Fulham defence.
Saying that though, Derby did have their chances. On more than one occasion a tireless Craig Bryson was able to pick the ball off the toes off Fulham’s defensive-midfielders and give Derby the chance to break. None of these chances really came to anything though and David Button wasn’t tested in the Fulham net.
Derby made the breakthrough against the run of play 10 minutes from halftime. Russell tried a first time ball through to Ince that went straight to Ragnar Sigurdsson. It seemed an easy enough ball to control, but the Icelandic international inexplicably slipped, allowing the ball to run through to Ince. He needed no second invitation and he slammed the ball low past Button into the goal.
Matej Vydra (right) struggled all afternoon playing as the lone-striker. (Photograph: Andy Clarke)
Derby looked to shut up shop until half time, but Fulham had other ideas. They threw themselves at Derby’s left-hand side and eventually they reaped the rewards. Tom Cairney, who was a threat all match, pushed the ball to the overlapping Frederick’s who ran into the Derby penalty are. Olsson kept backing away – if he’d gone any further back he would’ve stood on Pearce’s toes – when he really should have stood up to Fredericks. He didn’t though.
Fredericks’ low ball flashed across the face of goal where Floyd Ayité was on hand to tap the ball in. Fulham had equalised on the stroke of half-time. It was a disappointing end to the half, but you couldn’t say Fulham didn’t deserve it.
Fulham, buoyed by their late goal in the first half and tactical tweak at half time, took the fight to Derby early in the second half. It was a dominant period for Fulham and they got the goal they deserved 15 minutes after the restart.
Aluko crossed the ball in and Olsson’s clearance was poor, going straight to the feet of Johansen. His weak shot seemed to be heading straight into the grateful arms of Carson until Pearce stuck his foot out in an attempt to clear the ball. Instead he simply diverted it into the bottom corner of the goal.
Derby nearly hit back immediately. Ince’s long cross field ball was won by Russell, outmuscling Fredericks. His first time shot on the half-volley was from a tight angle, but it still drew a decent save from Button.
That was the end of Russell’s day as he and Vydra were replaced by Abdoul Camara and former Fulham player Darren Bent. Bent was not given the most welcoming response from the home crowd.
Derby pushed forward, trying to get back into the game. Pearce went down theatrically in the box, looking for a penalty that he was never going to get. He would gt his chance at redemption soon enough though.
Baird, making one of his rare forays into the opposition’s half, passed the ball onto Ince, who with three Fulham payers around him did very well to win the corner. The corner put right onto the edge of the six yard box where Pearce powered home a free header. There was more than a hint of suspect defending from Fulham, but he didn’t care and neither did the 3000-plus Derby fans in attendance. Ince has now been involved in 10 of the 17 goals scored since McClaren returned to the club.
With five minutes of normal time remaining Lucas Piazon struck the Derby bar with a superb free kick, but by the end of the match it would be Derby who would feel even more aggrieved not to have won the match.
As the fourth official raised his board to signify four minutes of additional time, Bradley Johnson robbed Michael Madl with the ball and the Fulham centre-back brought him down. Johnson quickly got up and continued running forward, but the referee pulled it back for the foul, a mind-boggling decision as Derby were two on one with the Fulham defense. That was the golden opportunity for Derby to steal the three points, but the referee decided otherwise.
Derby celebrate Alex Pearce’s (centre) equaliser late against Fulham. (Photograph: Andy Clarke)
Frustrating as the ending was, there was still much to be positive about. Fulham are without a doubt one of the most dangerous teams in the Championship and they play a similar style to Derby’s 2013/2014 team. If they can strengthen at the back then they will be a real force to contend with in this league.
Derby on the other hand will be pleased with the point, but at the same time disappointed they didn’t take all three. Fulham were dangerous and caused a Derby a lot of problems down the left hand side. Olsson had his worst game in a long time and it could have been a lot worse if Russell hadn’t been there to help him out of several tight spots.
Derby also missed a Chris Martin type figure up front; someone to get hold of the ball and keep it until the rest of the team could catch up. Vydra is not that kind of player. As a team though, Derby were incredibly resilient in defence and baring Olsson’s personal nightmare, would have most likely won the match, so there is plenty to be optimistic about.
Man of the Match – Craig Bryson
A surprise inclusion at the expense of Will Hughes, Bryson was instrumental in keeping Fulham at bay for most of the match. His high energy approach has not really been showcased much this season but his ability to pinch the ball off the toes of the opposition was vital in helping Derby break time and time again. He will have put himself firmly in contention for a starting berth in the matches after Christmas.
The name of QPR’s recently retired hero at Wembley echoed around a silent Loftus Road. It wasn’t Ranger’s fans singing though, but Derby fans taunting them with memories of better times.
Languishing in the bottom half of the table, QPR looked like they were about to be dragged into a relegation battle after a demoralising loss to bottom of the pile Rotherham at the weekend. Any kind of result against Derby would be a good one.
Derby on the other hand should have been high on confidence following their comprehensive dismantling of East Midlands rivals Nottingham Forest on Sunday. It was their sixth win on the bounce.
For the most part the match went against the form book. Ian Holloway’s team were organised with military precision. From the first whistle QPR pressed high up the pitch in an attempt to prevent Derby from passing the ball out from the back and were very successful in doing this.
Alex Pearce was a calming presence in the Derby defence. (Photograph: Andy Clarke)
Richard Keogh and Alex Pearce were basically standing level with Carson on the edge of the box to pick up the ball and due to the high press were more often than not forced to pump the ball long. Holloway has mentioned in the past while working as a pundit that Derby struggle when pressed high up the pitch and here he was putting this theory into practise.
QPR’s centre-back pairing of Joel Lynch and Nedum Onuoha were dominant in the air, beating Darren Bent to everything. This gave the home team a platform to dominate possession, but they were unable to create any clear-cut opportunities and their best chances came from Derby giving the ball away in dangerous areas.
QPR do have problems in front of goal – they are one of only three teams in the Championship to have scored less goals than Derby so far this season – and this showed against Derby. Time after time they would pinch the ball off the toes of Derby’s midfield and drive forward only to shudder to a stop at the edge of the penalty area.
Darren Bent had a fruitless evening up front for Derby, struggling to get on the ball. (Photograph: Andy Clarke)
Credit must go to the Derby defence for keeping them at arm’s length, but there was a feeling that the main thing keeping the scores level was QPR’s lack of quality going forward rather than Derby’s defensive solidity.
There was a definite disconnect between the defence and the rest of the Derby team. A combination of poor passing from the defence while under pressure and a lack of movement from the likes of Will Hughes and Jacob Butterfield meant Derby simply couldn’t get a foothold in the game.
Saying this, Derby still looked dangerous on the counter-attack. combination play between Bent, Andreas Weimann and Tom Ince led to Ince putting the ball in the net, but it was ruled out for offside. This was the correct decision, but it was still a timely reminder of what Derby are capable of.
Derby started the second half strongly, obviously fired up by the words of McClaren and Co. in the dressing room. However, the natural order of the game was soon restored and it became a case of waiting to see which manager would blink first. Would Holloway go hell for leather in his search for goals or would McClaren bring on reinforcements for the struggling midfield?
In the meantime Keogh and Pearce continued to justify their places as Derby’s first choice centre-back pairing. Keogh was dominant in the air and on the ground, while Pearce made a superb block to deny Tjaronn Chery after Carson had spilled a tame shot (not for the first time in the match either).
Keogh and Carson had a shouting match in the aftermath of that incident and McClaren clearly decided he had seen enough. Bent was replaced by Matej Vydra up front and the game became more stretched. Holloway countered by bringing on the large figures of Ben Gladwin and Sebastian Polter up front in an attempt to batter down the door.
Bradley Johnson (left) put in a superb defensive display to get Derby across the finish line. (Photograph: Andy Clarke)
Derby were forced back but again QPR couldn’t create anything. Suddenly there was a Derby chance. The very definition of route one football, Carson launched the ball downfield on the counter attack and Ince’s first touch took him into the penalty area. Just as he swung for goal James Perch leaned on him forcing him off-balance. The ball dribbled wide and Ince appealed for a penalty that maybe should have been given but ultimately wasn’t.
McClaren had one last swing of the dice (or two, to be precise). Hughes, clearly struggling to exert his influence on the match (perhaps due to the cast on his hand) and Weimann made way for Craig Bryson and Abdoul Camara. It would be a telling change.
All the substitutes were involved in Derby’s late winner. Vydra latched onto a weak clearance by Perch and passed it to Bryson who moved the ball onto Camara. Camara took one touch, opened up his body and whipped an outswinging ball into the area. The first cross of quality by either team in the match, QPR’s defenders just stood and admired the ball fly across the penalty area.
Ince, however, did not. Sneaking in at the back post, he tucked the ball right into the corner of the net and four QPR defenders stared at each other asking who was meant to be covering him. Derby didn’t care though – the game was over as soon as the ball went over the line.
QPR tried to get back on level terms, but McClaren’s side simply shut up shop and said “Thank you very much.” There was never any doubt about the result once Derby got their noses in front.
Tom Ince celebrates after sneaking in to score a late winner. (Photograph: Andy Clarke)
“Bobby Zamora! Bobby Zamora!” the away fans chanted. The irony won’t have been lost on anybody in the ground – Derby scoring a late winner against the run of play against a QPR side that had dominated possession.
That makes it seven wins in succession for Derby. Two more and the team will equal the club record set by Brian Clough’s Derby side in 1969. This run will surely come to an end and there were signs that it might be coming sooner rather than later.
Many of the players looked tired against QPR, missing that extra yard of pace and the quickness of thought that has characterised McClaren’s return to the club. It may simply have been a poor performance though and if that’s the case, then many will hope all poor performances end up being that comfortable in the end.
Man of the Match – Bradley Johnson
Johnson has really pushed on and made that defensive-midfield position his own since McClaren came back. Against QPR he was superb defensively. He won every ball in the air and his tackling was sublime. He did get caught on the ball several times and he was lucky that QPR were unable to take advantage of these chances, but his overall performance more than made up for these lapses in concentration. George Thorne may have finally met his match in that position.
Cheers erupted from the crowd at full-time on Sunday afternoon. Derby had just beaten rivals Nottingham Forest 3-0, with a superb second half display sending a warning to the rest of the division.
Lost in the immediate aftermath of the result though was a remarkable fact – Derby have not conceded a goal at home in 557 minutes. Nigel Pearson was manager when the opposition last scored a goal at the iPro stadium.
Derby’s defence have become the Championship’s immovable object since Steve McClaren returned to the club and they weren’t exactly leaky before hand. Derby had only conceded 10 goals in the 11 games before his arrival – a remarkable record for a team hovering above the relegation places and a sure sign that the main problem was further forward.
In the nine games since then, the defence have shipped only three goals. That is a rate of only one goal conceded every three games and if that holds up Derby can expect to have conceded only 22 goals by the end of the season. This would be a new club record and I would hazard a guess that it would be a record for the second tier as well.
In recent weeks nearly every defender in the first team squad has had a chance to prove their worth and none have disappointed so far. The centre-back pairing of Richard Keogh and Alex Pearce have developed a really good understanding and they seem to compliment each other. Keogh, who has been a solid defender for the majority of his time at the club, is in what could be the form of his career.
Alex Pearce (left) and Richard Keogh (right) have formed a formidable partnership in central defence. (Photograph: Andy Clarke)
Pearce has had to be patience personified at Derby County, after waiting for over a year to make his first league start for the club, in the 1-0 defeat to Ipswich. Since then his form has been imperious, getting his head on everything within a 20 yard radius of the penalty area and he has surprised many with the quality of his passing. Jason Shackell will be lucky to get back into the starting 11 at this rate.
Cyrus Christie was playing well until he season was prematurely ended with a broken bone in his foot against Wolverhampton Wanderers. To much consternation amongst Derby fans his natural replacement was Chris Baird, who isn’t the most natural of wing-backs.
However, Baird has been superb and even though he probably isn’t the long-term answer at right-back he’s becoming pivotal to the success of Tom Ince in front of him. It was common to see Ince and Christie nearly run into each other and Christie loves to take on the opposing wing-back. Baird with all his experience is much better at releasing the ball early, allowing Ince to isolate defenders and cause damage.
Chris Baird has surprised many with his good form this season. (Photograph: Andy Clarke)
Youth academy graduate Max Lowe made his first league start for the club against Cardiff City in September and he impressed a lot of people. Since then he has been in and out of the side with injuries – something he also struggled a lot with at youth level – but he has caught the eye every time he’s played. Some positional slip-ups aside he looks defensively assured and an intelligent player on the ball.
Lowe’s injuries however have given Marcus Olsson the chance to really make the left-back position his own. After a few jitters in his first matches back in the ide, he has begun to look more and more composed and he absolutely dominated the left hand side of the pitch against Forest.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the summer. With Lowe making the step up from reserve team football with ease and Craig Forsyth coming back from injury it may well be that one the three left-backs will leave. It would be difficult to say who that would be though.
Max Lowe (foreground) has impressed this season, but injuries have opened the door for Marcus Olsson (background) to take his place. (Photograph: Andy Clarke)
A special mention for Scott Carson. Carson has made a couple of errors this season, but since McClaren walked through the door he has been exemplary with his positioning and distribution. Time after time after time on Sunday, he would kick the ball right onto the head of Baird, allowing Derby to counter quickly.
It’s possible to give praise to players all day long really, but in the Championship you defend as team. It is no use having the likes of Johnny Russell and Darren Bent pressing high up the pitch when the defenders behind them are dropping deep; everyone has to be singing from the same hymn sheet.
For all the attacking football that was played during McClaren’s first period as Derby manager, he actually has a reputation for being a superb defensive coach and he is showing that this time round.
Steve McClaren has been appointed Derby manager, just 17 months after he was sacked by the club. (Photograph: Andy Clarke)
Boos rained down over the iPro stadium. Players slumped to the ground. Steve McClaren stood and stared over the pitch as one year’s worth of hard work came to nothing. It was May 2nd, 2015 and Derby County had just lost 3-0 at home to Reading. The season was over. It wasn’t supposed to end like this.
Two months earlier Derby County were top of the league, favourites for promotion to the Premier League; 12 games and an appalling 12 points later they sat eighth in the league, missing out on the play-offs on the final day of the season.
“I’m really annoyed, angry and frustrated about the last two months and am really determined to do something about it,” McClaren said in his post-match press conference.
It would have been tempting in the immediate aftermath of such an impressive collapse to blame the manager. Questions were being asked, both by the fans and the Derby County board of directors.
As injuries piled up and key players went off in search of the treatment table, why did McClaren not change the team shape? Why did he not bring in reinforcements?
For months the former England manager had been linked to the Newcastle job. Why had he not put the rumours to rest? Saying that you are flattered by the speculation is not a good way of getting fans onside just when you need them the most.
“My intention is to sort this out. No-one has told me otherwise and until somebody does, that’s my determination,” said McClaren.
In the end he was told otherwise. McClaren was sacked later that month by the club’s new owner, Mel Morris and swiftly replaced by the highly rated Paul Clement, the former assistant manager of Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid. McClaren moved into the hot seat at Newcastle the next month.
Derby owner Mel Morris wasted no time in sacking McClaren and wasted no time in reappointing him. (Photograph: Andy Clarke)
Nobody wasted any time moving on from this extremely conscious uncoupling.
The fortunes of both parties would only fall. McClaren was sacked as Newcastle manager after 28 games, leaving the club one place off the bottom of the table with only six wins on the board.
Derby in the meantime sacked two managers; Clement was dismissed in February 2016 following a run of seven games without a win, and the club were guided into the play-offs by caretaker manager Darren Wassall. They then proceeded to lose to Hull City over two legs.
Derby’s next full-time manager, Nigel Pearson fared even worse. He was suspended and eventually sacked after four months in charge, for reasons that will most likely remain under lock and key for the next 20 years.
As is usually the case following a sacking, people started making bets on who would become the next manager of Derby County. Would it be Tim “Tactics” Sherwood? Perhaps it would be Steve “The Author” Bruce? The usual names were thrown about, but nothing much actually happened.
Suddenly, there was McClaren, sitting next to CEO Sam Rush with that familiar toothy grin, enshrined by slightly less hair than there used to be, answering questions from the press. There were hints of sadness and repentance in his answers, especially when his sacking in May 2015 was raised.
“I’m very lucky to get a second chance at Derby. They had every right to sack me, I had to accept it and move on,” he said.
“I gave them an excuse and a reason to sack me – I didn’t think they would and they did. I should have committed to Derby a lot earlier than I did during the speculation regarding Newcastle.”
The phrase “never go back” inevitably comes to mind in situations like this; why bring back a manager who failed to get a team promoted two seasons in a row and then played a large part in getting his next club relegated? However, there are good reasons for Morris and McClaren to swallow their pride and make up.
Nigel Pearson was sacked in October 2016 in mysterious circumstances. (Photograph: Andy Clarke)
The main one is the infuriatingly vague term, the “Derby Way”. The idea is that from the academy up to the first team, the entire club buys into a certain style of play.
When Morris envisions his “Derby Way” he sees a team playing fast-paced, attacking, attractive football. Steve McClaren’s style of football. There was no-one else available who could give the same sort of assurances to Morris that this style of play would be implemented.
“My ultimate aspiration remains exactly what it was before, to take Derby County back to the Premier League. This football club has fantastic ambition, brilliant supporters and wonderful backing from the chairman Mel Morris,” said McClaren as his unveiling ended.
Make no mistake, McClaren has a tougher job on his hands this time around. The squad McClaren inherited from Nigel Clough in 2013 was fairly young, on low wages and had plenty of room for improvement.
The opposite is true now. After a three transfer window spending spree that would put many Premier League clubs to shame fan favourites have left, replaced by older, more expensive players on higher wages that have not been justified so far.
Matej Vydra is one of several expensive signings that have been made since McClaren was first sacked. (Photograph: Andy Clarke)
Who says you need time to make an impact though? Since his arrival, Derby have shot up the league collecting a staggering 19 points from a possible 24. No team in the league has taken more.
Derby’s granite-like defence has become even harder to breach as well. With only three goals conceded in the eight games since his appointment as manager, no other team has conceded less.
Match by match the misfiring attack that looked so lost before is beginning to click, as players rediscover their form. Midfielders are beginning to make more and more darting runs, posing the opposition problems. Successful teams are well oiled machines, and drop by drop the rustiness is slowly creeping out of the players and the system.
A season in the Championship is long and tortuous, with lots of twists and turns. There are plenty of opportunities for teams to slip up and for others to take advantage. Perhaps this time, McClaren’s surprise package will go all the way.
After a comfortable 3-0 victory over Rotherham last week Derby face what is, on paper at least, a sterner test this time round in Norwich City. The Rams recent upturn in form is down to a number of factors that can be looked at another day, but in the meantime at least, it’s time to focus on Norwich.
With the appointment of Alex Neil as manager in January 2015, Norwich moved up the table into the play-offs, which they would go on to win. It was a serene season for Neil, as he took advantage of a very talented squad that was underachieving under Neil Adams.
However, progress stalled in the premier league and they were relegated in their first back in the top flight. A leaky defence combined with an ineffective attack was a bridge too far to overcome, and they were relegated with a game to spare along with Newcastle and Aston Villa.
Before the start of the season, promotion was the aim says Paddy Davitt, Norwich City Editor at the Eastern Daily Press and the Pink’Un. “Promotion is the be all and end all. Everyone from the chief executive and the manager down have made that clear. Norwich retained the vast bulk of their squad over the summer, with perhaps the exception of Nathan Redmond, with the express aim of maximising the Premier League parachute money to try and bounce back at the first attempt.”
Norwich started this season well, just as they were expected to. The Canaries won eight out of their first 12 fixtures, launching themselves towards the top two along with fellow pre-season favourites Newcastle. Goals have not been hard to come by this season; having scored 29, only Newcastle with 36 have scored more.
Davitt says that the talented Jacob Murphy has been impressive so far this season: “Murphy was the stand-out player prior to the recent tailspin. AS one of the club’s homegrown prospects he has ben sent out on numerous loans, but looks ready to step up.”
With five goals and 2 assists so far this season, there is no doubt that the 21-year-old provides a threat from out wide and can provide sparks of magic to get Norwich out of trouble. Also pitching in is the ever-present Cameron Jerome, while Graham Dorrans and Jonny Howson have contributed goals from midfield.
However the defensive frailties of last season have remained and seem to be getting worse; Norwich have conceded 29 goals so far this season – only Rotherham and Nottingham Forest have conceded more.
Some players are finding it hard adjusting to life in the Championship according to Davitt: “The biggest surprise perhaps has been Timm Klose’s patchy form. The Swiss international was a big-money signing for Wolfsburg. He certainly looked the part in the Premier League despite the clubs relegation, but he has struggled with the physicality of the Championship.”
When your centre backs are struggling results tend to turn against you and they have recently for Norwich; they are five league games without a win and have lost four on the trot, leaving them sixth in the league. An embarrassing 5-0 defeat against Brighton has been followed by losses to Leeds and QPR which isn’t the kind of form top sides show.
Davitt says that following their recent run of form, the pressure is on Alex Neil: “Neil says it himself, he will be judged on results and right now they are not good enough. There was a feeling among the support that even when Norwich were picking up points earlier in the season it was not really clicking. Now they have hit a brick wall those sentiments have hardened and the buck stops with the manager.”
Since this conversation Neil has been given the dreaded vote of confidence from the board; a sure sign that he doesn’t have long left to turn things around.
Normally you can predict with some accuracy the starting line up of the opposition, but not this week Davitt says. “Neil stayed loyal to the lads who were hammered 5-0 at Brighton for the next game at Leeds. They lost that one and made six changes for the game at QPR, and lost that one. It’s really impossible to predict how he will line up, although he will have to make one enforced change as Graham Dorrans is suspended.”
It seems from afar that Norwich seem to be in near enough the same situation they were in two years ago; a talented squad is underperforming under the manager that took them down from the Premier League. The difference this time around is that it’s the same manager that got them promoted in the first place.
There have been suggestions in the press that even if Neil’s time at the club is limited, the players still have to shoulder some of the blame. It is difficult to disagree; there is a wealth of experience in that squad with several players that have played at international tournaments. They should be coping better than they are.
Comparing the two teams by league position would suggest a win for Norwich. The form guide would give Derby the advantage and in this case you would have to agree with the form book. A rejuvenated Derby team under Steve McClaren have all the tools to give Alex Neil his final push out of the door at Carrow Road, but they must be wary of a team that scores goals as freely as it concedes them.
Thank you to the very kind Paddy Davitt for his contributions to this article. Give him a follow @paddyjdavitt for all things Norwich.
In the week where Derby County announced that the iPro stadium would become Pride Park once again in January, it has become apparent that Derby are a club moving back in time. Steve McClaren has returned as manager, Chris Evans as technical director, all we need now is Chris Martin to return from his loan at Fulham and the time-loop will be complete.
If this truly was 2013 though, Rotherham United would not be here. Since returning to the Championship in 2014, after a 10 year absence, the Millers have battled relegation and against the odds stayed up.
Every season they start as relegation favourites (only Burton Albion had shorter odds for relegation this year), and every season they prove people wrong. Atrocious starts to the season followed by managerial sackings and late season rallies under new management have become the norm.
During this time, Derby have had some absolutely superb matches against the South Yorkshire outfit, not necessarily all in their favour. Two fairly comfortable home wins over the past couple of seasons suggest that Derby are favourites and current league form backs this up.
Derby have taken 14 points from a possible 21 since Nigel Pearson’s sacking and suspension; an average of 2 points per game which is promotion form. Rotherham on the other hand have just one win all season and are eight points from safety, even at this stage of the season.
However, as both sets of fans should know by now, games can turn on a sixpence. A pair of 3-3 away draws in the past two seasons should be warning enough for the Derby team not to take the perennial relegation contenders likely.
Kenny Jackett might just be facing the biggest challenge of his managerial career. The former Welsh international has performed well near enough everywhere he has been. He was instrumental in Swansea’s rise through the leagues by getting the club promoted from League Two in his first season at the club.
He was also able to get an unfancied Milwall promoted and kept them in the Championship for three seasons before resigning. After this, he was appointed manager of newly relegated League One side Wolverhampton Wanderers, getting them promoted with a record 103 points before establishing them as a midtable team. He was sacked by the clubs new Chinese owners in July 2016.
This Rotherham team is well known for it’s porous defence; they have conceded 38 goals so far this season which is by far the worst record in the league. A lack of funds means that Jackett will have to use the loan market or be incredibly savvy in the transfer window if he wants to improve his squad. In the short-term though, Jackett can go one of two ways. He could set up his team to go all out attack, in an attempt to outscore their opponents, or he could go in the opposite direction and make them harder to beat.
Danny Ward – Undoubtedly the highlight of Rotherham’s poor start to the season, the former Huddersfield man has scored eight goals so far this season. His goal against the Rams at the New York stadium last season was the spark his team needed as they came from three goals down to draw 3-3. The Derby defence will need to try to move him onto his weaker right foot to try to nullify him.
Peter Odemwingie – There’s a name you weren’t expecting. Yes, the man who once drove himself down to London on transfer deadline to force a move through has now driven himself to Rotherham. The 35-year-old striker is on-loan from Stoke and even though he’s probably entering the twilight of his career he has proven in the past to be deadly in front of goal.
Lee Camp – Derby fans will need no introduction to ‘Daddy’s Boy’. Still haunted by that phone call all those years ago, Camp has taken to producing Man of the Match performances against Derby as payback. Since arriving in September 2015, Camp has firmly established himself as the clubs number one, and given the weaknesses of the squad, will probably be one of the few to survive Kenny Jacket’s January purge.
Final Thoughts
There is a reason the phrase ‘there are no easy games in this league’ is used; it’s true. Even though they are at the bottom of the league, Rotherham still have the potential to provide a shock to the system, especially as they try to get some sort of momentum going into winter.
Questions remain over who will replace the injured Cyrus Christie at right back, with Chris Baird, Ikechi Anya and Jamie Hanson all vying for that spot. For what it’s worth, using a very un-scientific twitter poll, it would seem most people want Anya to start there, but each option has it’s merits.
Apart from that though, the team will most likely be unchanged after a very impressive first half performance against Wolves a couple of weeks ago.
Both Keogh and Pearce were on the bench as the Republic produced a dogged performance to beat Austria 1-0 in Vienna. James McClean scored minutes into the second half with a low shot after being slipped through by Wes Hoolahan. Ireland had chances to put the game to bed with a Jonathan Walters header ruled out for offside, but in the end it didn’t matter as Martin O’Neil’s team held on to secure their third win in four qualifying matches.
Elsewhere in Group D, Wales’ 1-1 draw with Serbia left the Irish in a commanding position at the top of the table. Barring injury, it is unlikely that Keogh or Pearce will force their way into the side now; Ireland have the best defensive record in the group and the young partnership of Shane Duffy and Ciaran Clark is seen as the future.
It wasn’t the best of days for the diminutive winger. Selected at right back, not his natural position by a long shot, he was powerless to help and was even taken off with an injury as Scotland were swatted aside by England at Wembley.
A 3-0 loss for the Scots, coupled with wins for Slovakia and Slovenia means that Gordon Strachan’s side a second bottom in the group with only lowly Malta keeping them from the bottom. It would take a remarkable string of results for them to make it out of the group.
One positive of Friday’s game was that Derby fans got a look at Anya in the right back position. There had been some chatter suggesting that Anya could deputise for the injured Cyrus Christie in the coming months, and there was nothing overly concerning about his performance. He has given McClaren some food for thought going into the Rotherham match.
England Under-21’s – Will Hughes and Jonathan Mitchell
Hughes was brought on for the injured John Swift after 30 minutes against Italy. After a slow start he impressed in the second half, hitting the post before setting up Lewis Baker for an England goal.
Given how impressive he was against Italy, it must have been disappointing for Hughes to fins out he was back on the bench against France. He was brought on in th 89th minute, far too late to have an influence on the result.
On the other hand, Mitchell was given the chance to impress in goal, but it turned out to be a mixed evening for him. He made a couple of decent saves, but he will feel he could have done better for two of the France goals given they were from direct free kicks.
So not the greatest of weeks for the international contingent at DCFC, but they’ll have the chance to put all of that behind them when they face Rotherham on Saturday at the iPro.
DCFC Weekly 