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RamsWeek 43 - Square Peg, Round Hole
RamsWeek 43 - Square Peg, Round Hole
Monday, 24th Oct 2011 02:22 by Paul Mortimer

Derby manager Nigel Clough and his backroom team were tied to new long-term contracts with the club - and the team had two tough away games to negotiate this week.

Monday brought both despair and joy to Rams fans, as we first learned that top scorer Steve Davies, so unlucky with injuries, had sustained a skull fracture during a collision late in the game against Southampton, from which he will take three months to recover. The graphic descriptions of Steve’s traumas were very sobering.

Welcome news came when Nigel Clough and his staff finally penned new deals with the club. Contract negotiations to retain the services of Clough, Martin Taylor, Johnny Metgod, Andy Garner and Gary Crosby were concluded quietly and swiftly to put an end to several weeks of speculation about the future of the management team.

Clough and his staff were pleased to confirm their futures and all are focussed on carrying on the work they have started at Derby County. They have agreed similar three-and-a-half year terms to their original contracts and they are by no means overpaid in comparison to many other Championship managers.

You can see editor DJ’s feature on the management’s new contract deals elsewhere in RamZone features published this week.

With the Academy responding under the control of Darren Wassall and the addition of Craig Short to the ranks, there is stability and continuity and the good start to this season has given Derby a platform for the club to build upon.

Having cleared out over 30 players during the past three seasons, most of whom under-performed on high wages, to bringing in fresh squad recruits  and take the club forward, Clough conceded that the ambition ‘has to be’ reaching the Premier League.  It is a strong fan expectation, no doubt.

The loss of Steve Davies and the absence of John Brayford through his thigh strain for the next five games highlighted the gaps in Derby’s squad. The Rams have strikers to deploy in Cywka and Maguire (plus their Academy boys) but they still lack a target man and a strong midfield controller.

Against Southampton, the inability to hold the ball up in attack or contain the Saints’ powerful midfield meant that the Rams spent long spells dealing with rapidly-returned balls that pressured the defence. Games against sides that have deeper squads - Burnley, Leicester and Southampton - exposed Derby’s weaknesses and there are other challengers that the Rams have yet to face.

There seems little doubt that the club can this season improve its finishing position over previous years - but that’s not saying too much in all honesty. It is high time that there was sufficient resource and conviction from above, with funds to sustain a successful challenge for promotion.

Mr Glick and Co have seen the level of support and how the stadium will buzz in the rare periods when the team has sparked into a winning run. The club is getting good value for money from the management team and Clough has built his own squad that has a greater commitment to the club - and on half the player wage budget that his awful predecessor incurred.

All the more reason for Derby’s owners to push the boat out a little financially to strengthen the Rams’ challenge and cater for the injury list that will leave the squad depleted for a good few weeks yet. 

Suspensions will also inevitably arise as the season advances. Lessons from the past should be learned; playing Shaun Barker throughout last season worsened his knee injury; he’s had to fight back to fitness since the start of May and is only now beginning to train again.

More cover and strength in depth will be needed to turn promise into serious contention. Tom Glick now says that the need to recruit if necessary is permissible - so we will see if words turn into deeds. Should Derby fall out of the top six for a spell, all is not lost, but the moment will be gone.

A club that can attract 33,000 to its stadium and arrive in the top six is a good advert to players and agents. Successful clubs build further strength on top of achievement. Under GSE, the Rams are not yet successful though have achieved economic prudence. At last, they do now have the opportunity to capitalise on the team’s more promising situation.

Too often, the club chose to act in desperation (having first sold star players) to arrest a threatening scenario at the wrong end of the table; we’ve witnessed late-season loanees taken on urgently to stave off the possibility of relegation. Fans won’t tolerate that ad infinitum and many now hope for an early demonstration of ambition from the club’s owners. 

The diabolical suggestion that Premier League owners could at some time in the future vote to oppose the possibility of relegation came under scrutiny when LMA chief Richard Bevan commented upon some club ownership attitudes that might favour a closed Premier League.

The Premier League said it would move to block any such resolution. I should hope so, too. To vote out one of the most basic competitive rules of the game would represent a death-wish for the sport should the same teams compete in perpetuity, just to juggle their places in a kind of ‘still life’ elite division. Perish the thought - because that’ll be the day I stop going to watch football.

Derby travelled to Reading on Tuesday evening, the Madejski Stadium being a less than happy hunting ground for them in recent seasons. The Royals were Wembley play-off losers last May and are only just getting into gear this season, though their home form is mediocre. There were 717 Rams fans in the 15,700 crowd.

Manager Clough was forced to make changes due to injuries and young reserve hot-shot Callum Ball was drafted into the squad. The only team change was Cywka coming in for Steve Davies, so the Polish youngster had a chance to shine after having to withdraw at the start of the win at Nothingham Forest to enable the re-shuffle following the sending-off of goalkeeper Frank Fielding.

The Rams started brightly but Reading gradually forced more possession. The ball was hoofed rather than played out of the Rams’ defence, so Derby again found that the ball would not ‘stick’ up front, with Robinson and Cywka feeding off scraps. Fielding saved a Le Fondre header on the half-hour as Derby survived somewhat uneasily.

Whilst the Royals had the better of the play, Derby proved equal to the task and went in 0-0 at the interval. If the Rams were so profligate with their very meagre possession again in the second half, however, Reading would have expected to convert their domination into three points.

Though the Royals had camped out in the Derby half, the Rams took the lead on the hour. Theo Robinson converted a flick-on from a free kick - that hit Reading with an unexpected sucker punch! The Royals hit back six minutes later when Adam Le Fondre volleyed neatly home to make it 1-1.

Conor Doyle surprisingly replaced Jamie Ward, who didn’t look too pleased with his withdrawal. Reading applied pressure but the Rams’ characteristic resistance shone through. Surprise, surprise again - Derby re-took the lead when Tomasz Cywka converted Bryson’s cross - but within seconds, it was 2-2 when poor defending allowed Le Fondre to head home and notch his double.

Russell Anderson elected to wander upfield in a Rams’ attack, gaps were exploited where a full-back should be and Le Fondre was unmarked. The striker cost Reading £300k from Rotherham in August, where he’d scored 24 goals in 49 games; he has 8 goals from 12 games already this season. Derby needs to unearth a similar inexpensive rough diamond to boost their strike-force.

Callum Ball was given a taste of the action to replace Cywka but it was largely a rearguard action for Derby. The referee somehow found five minutes of stoppage time, then played six, but the Rams held out for a 2-2 draw which maintained their fourth-placed position in the table.

The point when we are 12 matches into a season is often taken as the first yardstick of progress and the Rams have so far acquitted themselves very creditably. Now comes the difficult bit - maintaining that good form!

Leaders Southampton beat West Ham on Tuesday to go five points clear whilst Middlesbrough, surprisingly beaten at lowly Nothingham Forest, suffered their first defeat of the season.

The top half of the Championship had become extremely compressed; after Tuesday’s game Derby were level on points with 2nd-placed Middlesbrough but a gap of just two points covered 2nd to 11th position! Fancied clubs like Leeds, Cardiff and Birmingham were not yet even in the top ten on Tuesday night either, so teams will have to be consistent to stay among the leaders.

The Rams held a friendly with Chesterfield in midweek; the game was a 1-1 draw with Callum Ball scoring for the Rams but it was mainly a fitness exercise. Outcasts Stephen Pearson and Dean Leacock played, at right-back (don’t even think about it, Nigel….!) and David Martin, who has returned from loan at Walsall, had a run out too as did Buxton, Kilbane, Croft and Maguire.

The Rams’ home clash with Nothingham Forest has been moved to Sunday, 5th February with a 12.15 pm kick-off and will be televised. The good news is that the East Midlands’ ‘derby’ is to be broadcast by the BBC and so the game can be viewed free-to-air.

Nathan Tyson did not feature in the game and apparently needs another month to overcome his troublesome groin injury. At least his 20-minute contribution so far this season helped Derby to the glorious away win at the City Ground.

Would Derby find Boro still on the downturn at the Riverside Stadium on Saturday after their midweek defeat - or would the Teesiders be bristling to start another unbeaten run?

Middlesbrough fans know their team needs to win more games but they had also only lost 2 out of the last 24 matches prior to Derby’s visit to the Riverside Stadium. Derby dropped to 5th in the Championship table before kick-off, as DirtyLeeds won at Peterborough to leapfrog up the league.

With never-present Tyson out for a further month and Steve Davies sidelined until 2012, Clough drafted in Rams Academy and England schoolboy hot-shot Mason Bennett. He made his Derby County debut at just 15 years and 99 days old to become the youngest-ever player to represent the Rams and breaking Lee Holmes’ record, which had stood  for nine years.

The schoolboy thus moved ahead of Cywka and the rarely-seen Maguire in the pecking order - a proud day for him but with Lee Croft also replacing Russell Anderson at right-back, it was also a sign of how thin Clough’s squad currently is with injuries and the inability to recruit reinforcements.

The Teesiders, 2nd in the table with just one home win to their credit this season, enjoyed the majority of possession in the rather dour first period but the Rams were comfortable enough - until conceding on the stroke of half time.

Rhys Williams’s effort was deflected in to give Boro a lead; it seemed clear that he’d fouled Jason Shackell in the process, though the Derby skipper was also struggling from a knock which was impairing his performance. Middlesbrough extended their lead only 7 minutes into the second half when top scorer Marvin Emnes headed home with the Rams’ defence only half-clearing an attack.

Clough belatedly replaced the struggling Shackell (with Kilbane) but the damage was done. Substitutes Cywka and Maguire then sparked the Rams into life - but it is always difficult to come from 0-2 behind away from home. Nonetheless, Boro ‘keeper Jason Steele had a busy time and some good fortune for the rest of the game.

Derby were denied by Steele and hit the woodwork on several occasions too, including the bar denying Mason Bennett a landmark debut goal - but such bad luck doesn’t equate to a bean if you concede bad goals then don’t score to claw your way back into the game. Boro, despite their lofty position don’t look like world-beaters but took advantage with Derby’s resources well stretched.

Bennett acquitted himself creditably on his debut and is very mature for his age; he can handle himself physically and after this performance, could well feature regularly in the squad. Chris Maguire looked keen to impress manager Clough during his substitute appearance and will have moved himself up the pecking order.

Whether it was a necessary, brave, or a frivolous decision to play the schoolboy at Boro is open to conjecture. It is curious that Bennett was preferred to both Cywka (who had scored in the previous game) and Maguire - who’s had little chance to prove himself since signing - in an away game against the 2nd-placed club.

Mason was ‘a surprise package’ we’re told, as Clough was unimpressed by how some other signings have vied for a place in the forward line. The Rams aren’t shy of blooding youngsters these days and we do have some good ‘uns now, but I can’t see it as a match-winning philosophy. 

However, it will also put the youngster on the radar of elite clubs whilst there is still the chance to earn a big fee for him before the 2012-13 youth development funding reforms that will employ a fixed tariff system for junior transfer fees. Is that coincidence, or deliberate? Discuss!

Derby needs consistency and goals from more experienced squad players that are given their chance. Theo Robinson has (rather by default) become Derby’s leading striker; he works hard though often has a poor touch to lose Derby’s attacking impetus. His header wide was the Rams’ only chance of the first half and it proved a costly miss but another Theo effort hit a post later.

Even though the Rams create chances, they do not convert enough of them and their positive goal difference has now all but evaporated as the defence isn’t watertight at the moment. Both of Boro’s goals resulted from poor clearances that were put back into the danger area.

Some of the Rams’ difficulties stem from the persistent lack of cover in the squad and there is a sense that this season is mirroring the last campaign, with the ‘make do and mend’ approach to team selection and squad recruitment.

The other squads in the top six all look stronger, and there are also well-resourced squads like Ipswich, Birmingham, Leicester, Ipswich, Hull and Cardiff poised to move ahead. We often have a ‘square peg, round hole’ look to the team. Just 3 points from the last 15 does tend to bear this out, despite Mr Clough’s comments about wanting to keep the team balance with the players we have.

Centre-half Russell Anderson, still injury prone and of limited merit when fit, deputised rather unsuccessfully at full-back at Reading and midfielders Ben Davies and Lee Croft shared the job at Middlesbrough.

The lack of an available centre-half to replace the struggling Jason Shackell at Boro probably cost us the game - two bad goals were conceded before Jason had to be withdrawn. Midfielder Kilbane replaced him as the pack was shuffled again.

It could be argued that the persistent lack of a target man with a true physical presence up front is isolating the Derby strikers - when they aren’t being deployed in that role themselves. Would Steve Davies have avoided a skull fracture had there been a brutish partner alongside him taking on those aerial challenges instead? Discuss!

Neither is Theo a target man; the ball won’t ‘stick’ to him; Ward, Maguire and Cywka are too lightweight to play ‘up front’ in the centre as they are wing or inside forwards. The midfield lacks a general and can be overpowered and outnumbered; we seldom monopolise possession and there are too many positions for which the manager is plugging gaps as best he can.

Arguably, we only have good (fit) reserve cover in the goalkeeping department. Forwards Tyson and Davies are unavailable; defenders Anderson, Barker, Brayford, Buxton and Riggott are unfit; midfielders Bailey and Green are a long way from fitness.

Are there positives? Obviously we have young guns Ball and Bennett that can play a part - but youngsters (including O’Brien and Hendrick) will run out of steam as sure as eggs are eggs and several positions are threadbare. The Rams are well placed in comparison to previous campaigns though it’s debatable if we can sustain a top six placing for much longer without reinforcements.

With no wins in the past 5 games, the chasing pack has caught (and in some cases, overhauled) Derby, who will go into next Saturday’s home game against Pompey in 6th spot as one of 4 clubs now on 21 points - unless Brighton & Hove Albion win in midweek to also climb above us.

____________________________________________________________________________

RamsWeek 43 last season saw Derby ‘dwelling on the threshold’ as  a good performance lifted them to a position just outside the top six of the Championship, only for a subsequent defeat to push them back down below the top ten.

The Rams won 3-2 at Doncaster in midweek in an exciting match; Luke Moore put Derby ahead and then Commons made it 2-0. Rovers snatched two quick goals to equalise before Commons scored again to seal the points.

The weekend trip to Millwall brought an end to the optimism as the Rams went down 2-0, showing little of the verve and momentum that had swept Doncaster away. Millwall’s no-nonsense style nullified Derby’s ‘touch’ players - Bueno and Commons - and the Lions controlled the game.

The Rams remained an enigma - one day thrilling, the next, ordinary and so their potential as contenders remained unconvincing. Fans were calling for the club to invest in a proven striker…

The Rams hoped that Pride Park Stadium would be part of an England bid to host the 2013 European Under-21 Championships whilst the game’s authorities finally moved closer to building Burton’s national football centre, with all objections to planning permission now overcome.

 

Photo: Action Images



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