Over the many years that I have of followed the Rams, I have never made a habit of paying much attention to what the manager of the moment has said in his public statements.

I have come to expect managers’ comments to the media to be self-serving rather than enlightening; there is always going to be a tendency to blame injuries, referees or spectators, rather than publicly analyse what went wrong, or admit to any mistakes.

In contrast, I always pay more attention to a manager’s transfer policy, his team selection, results and league position than to what he says for public consumption

But in just the last couple of weeks, I have changed my view slightly, and that is due to a couple of comments by Paul Clement that have bothered me more than a little bit.

The first was after the 4-1 defeat at Burnley, when Clement said it was a night to forget. I disagree; the Burnley match was a night to remember, particularly for the coaches and players.

I have long maintained that when a team loses badly — and we lost badly at Burnley — then the losers can gain more from the match than the winners, if they look at the lessons to be learned from the defeat and make the necessary changes.

After the Burnley match, as well as several others recently, you would like to think the coaches would have spent many hours watching video, and going over in great detail with the players where things went wrong, and what they should and should not have done.

Along similar lines, Clement is quoted by the BBC saying that he is "glad to see the back of January", since, according to the Beeb, it was a month in which the Rams slipped from top spot to fifth in the Championship table and their only win in six matches was an FA Cup third-round victory at Hartlepool United.

The problem I have with Clement’s comment here is that nothing is going to change just because we have turned a page of the calendar. October was a great month: four wins and a draw out of five; have we spotted what has changed since then, apart from the calendar? Are we going to reverse the changes? Or will we just cross our fingers and hope that February is better?

The first match in February certainly brought no relief against Preston. According to the Derby Evening Telegraph, ‘Paul Clement could not hide his disappointment again after the goalless draw at home to Preston North End but says he will not abandon the playing principles that marked the Rams' excellent earlier form. The head coach…says his side will not resort to hit and hope’.

‘My belief is that if there is not a positive forward ball to play then you regain possession and look for another option to play it forward, rather than throwing a needless ball forward that ends up just being a 50-50. That's the way the opposition play. They throw those balls forward and sometimes you win the second ball and sometimes you don't. That's not our style.’"

So in Paul’s world there are only two ways to play; the way the Rams are currently playing or hit and hope. The Preston match saw the Rams have 66% of possession, 10 corners, 16 shots but not a single shot on target.

Could there not be a little tweak made that would bring a shot on target? Could one or two of those corners have been worked to produce a shot on target?

How many shots on target would Real Madrid expect to have in a home match against Preston? Would they consider zero an acceptable number?

Would Chelsea?

Yet Rams fans are expected to accept performances like this as normal… apparently.

The only real difference between coaches and fans is that coaches are understood to know what they are talking about and are able to impose their wisdom on how the players perform.

Paul Clement needs to give a lot more thought to his public pronouncements or he risks sounding like a bloke who does not know what he is talking about and his explanations falling on deaf ears.

When that perception gains wider acceptance, Paul will not be a coach for much longer.

Photo: Action Images

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