Anyone who read this blog may have noticed the disappearance of match reports. The answer is simply because many of them would be reporting the same game after game. Dominated possession lacking creativity up front and no width.
We have just seen our first away defeat of the season and the dismissal of manager Nigel Clough.
We didn't deserve anything from the game! Be honest for all our possession we never even tested Karl Darlow. Forest could have had two or three more goals had it not been for Lee Grant.
We have three wins on the road. Yeovil, Millwall and Brighton. I'd only expect to see the latter challenging for a top six place at the end of the season.
Prior to the summer break, Sam Rush stated that a centre half was a priority for the club. Well where is that centre half. Baptiste was way out of our price range, despite having immensely wealthy owners. We were then told by Nigel that we didn't need a centre half!
I disagree. Despite Jake Buxton upping his game and possibly being our most consistent defender we have struggled. Especially against set pieces. Freeman has had one bad game at right back and was promptly dropped. His replacement Smith is definitely not an upgrade.
Craig Forsyth has struggled at left back and most Derby fans seem to agree that he is not the answer in a position we have struggled to fill since Chris Powell left the club.
Richard Keogh, last seasons player of the season has been the biggest disappointment of all. Never have a seen a player who looked a class act one season struggle so much the next season.
Midfield has issues too. Bryson and Hughes along with Hendrick are good players, but we don't have that commanding ball winning general! A Seth Johnson style player or a player that shows leadership.
We all know that we lack any sort of threat down the wings. We only have one real winger on our books in Michael Jacobs, yet Nigel seemed reluctant to start him. Until we get our midfield general I would suggest that playing wingers would leave us vulnerable in the middle.
With regards to the strikers. Russell and Martin are capable of scoring a bucket load of goals, but they need more service.
Goalkeeping is an area that has seen constant changes. Stephen Bywater, Saul Deeney, Frank Fielding, James Severn, Brad Jones, Ross Atkins, Adam Legzdins and Lee Grant have all made an appearance between the sticks. It's an area where chopping and changing does nothing for the good of the defence. Our goalkeeping coach must share some of the blame here.
Nigel has made some good signings over the years, but there's been some poor ones too! David Martin, Chris Maguire, Ben Pringle are amongst those who failed!
Looking back, Nigel Clough inherited a pigs ear of a mess when he took over as manager. Littered with Paul Jewell's panic buys and gambles and a massive wage bill he has season by season sorted the mess out. However unless this club gets into the Premier League very soon, it will become mission virtually impossible. Parachute payments don't necessarily mean that relegated clubs will bounce straight back, but they do help deprive teams such as Derby buying players of known quality.
If the club is too move forward it needs to show some real ambition and support the manager who replaces Nigel Clough. Otherwise it would be like mending the puncture on your bicycle and riding over broken glass immediately after. It really is a show of a lack of real ambition by GSE when clubs like Doncaster and Huddersfield are signing better quality players.
I was supportive of Nigel up to the Burnley game but now we need to see a change of direction and it's time for our owners to put up or shut up and sell up.
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