Yet again Derby shoot themselves in the foot with blunders costing them points again. Mistakes by Craig Forsyth and a calamitous error by Lee Grant saw our Rams lose 2-0 in a match that they dominated statistically.
Disgraceful refereeing didn't help. I even had Forest fans saying a red card should have been issued when Bent was brought down.
The fact of the matter though is that we are struggling big time in two key areas. Scoring goals since the loss of Chris Martin and gifting them too.
It's no secret that the back four are simply not good enough at the moment and perhaps it's time to give Stephen Warnock a go at left back. At least we have the option there.
The same can't be said of the right back spot. Cyrus Christie has been very poor of late and Ryan Shotton doesn't inspire confidence either.
Richard Keogh looks a shadow of the player from two seasons ago and although Raul Albentosa will need to be given time to settle in, there are signs of weaknesses in his game. He appears to be very one footed for one!
The error of Lee Grants that gifted Wolves a second goal was equal in the blunder stakes to the one made by Jon Ruddy against us at Norwich.
Automatic promotion now looks dead and buried and the team will now have to fight their way into the play offs. Even a top six place is far from certain. On current form we could be out of the end of season lottery zone within a couple of games.
Yes we have injuries, but we also have a large squad. To rely so much on one player to create scoring opportunities shows how much we need a plan b.
There is no real plan b and we will have to hope that our main striker is back after the international break.
After that a true test of character faces the team and also a real test of Steve McClarens management expertise. The next seven games could define him as a manager.
No comments:
Post a Comment