4th – Mels Worst Eleven – Part 1

From the final whistle of the 2014 play off final up to to the appointment of Frank Lampard, the recruitment at Derby County has been widely criticised and could be described as “generally woeful”. Our work in January is normally particularly season shattering.

With only a month to the re-opening of this years window. We thought we’d review the ghosts of windows past. Thus here’s part 1 of Mel’s ‘worst’ 11 –  with subs and a manager and a youth team!

Rinse, No Repeat – Part 1

Following the back to back disasters of the Bristol City and Cardiff games, Steve McClaren appealed to Rams fans not to over react and pointed to the great turnaround in form since his arrival.

Whilst Steve has undoubtedly pulled up trees to even get the Rams in the mix at all, this same group of players are again having the same collapse in form at the same time of year.

At the time of writing, Derby sit 11 points outside the play offs (which looks a lot of ground to make up when you consider the teams above them) so thoughts are inevitably turning to next season.

I think most Derby fans would agree that something now must give with this group of players who on their day are great, but simply do not have the X factor required to get us out this league. Thus in the first of a series of articles this week, we consider who stays and who goes, starting with the goalkeepers and defenders.

Post Match Bullets – West Brom

I went to West Brom yesterday with little or no expectation, knowing that I was going to have a few beers, a top laugh with family and friends and hopeful that my team could put up a fight, maybe score a goal and anything else was a bonus. A bit like going to watch Derbyshire Cricket if you get involved in that.

What happened was a new entry into the top 5 away days that I have been to ever. Here’s my thoughts on an absolutely tremendous day for DCFC and all involved.

The Beginning of the Twist

Due to, what ended up being, the best part of a month away from Derbados, I missed all of pre-season and also the first three games. Thus all my Rams viewing up to that point was done via Twitter and YouTube.

This week, I started to play catch-up by attending both the Preston and Villa games. Thus here’s some general thoughts on those games and the progress of the Pearson era thus far.

Shacks to Riches

This week’s glorious re-signing of Jason Shackell and the subsequent bitter attack on the Rams transfer policy by Shaun Dyche has thrown up an interesting debate among some Derby fans.

Whilst the words of the flame haired, gravel voiced, legoman were heavily laced with bitterness, there is no doubt that the Rams are leading their peers in the transfer market to a level not seen since Lionel Pickering first took over the Rams in the early nineties.

With ticket sales, optimism and general positivity around the state of the club off the charts, what’s not to like? Yet there is definitely a certain genre of Derby fan to whom the current spending spree does not sit comfortably.

The Case For The Defence

It’s been an exciting start to the summer for Rams fans with a new head coach and new signings flying in left right and centre.

With the promise of more new faces, a topic that is regularly starting to crop up is how the team will shape up under Clement. With two new centre halves signed already, a bid rejected for Shacks and links to a couple of right backs (Lowton and Jaz Richards), the defence is of particular interest to me.

Keogh v Shackell the conclusion

Without doubt the strangest move of last summers trading was the sale of Jason Shackell to Burnley.

On paper, selling our most valuable player to fund multiple improvements to the team made sense as people like Jacobs and Coutts started to arrive. However to then replace Shacks (who had not done a lot wrong on the pitch) with a more expensive centre half seemed to completely contradict the plan.

Moving Forward or More of the Same?

Rather than do a direct post match thoughts (Nathan, our lawyers will be in touch) from yesterdays frustrating defeat to Burnley, with eight games gone (including Scunthorpe), I thought it would be more interesting to discuss some general early thoughts on the Rams prospects of success this year.

New Season Derby County Barometer

So the summer breaks over and normal life resumes again with the visit of Sheffield Wednesday this weekend. If the Scunthorpe games any sort of pointer we are set for another rollercoaster season, but then would you expect anything else with the Rams?

However before we get into the real action, herewith our usual Barometer of what’s been Good & Bad (&Ugly) in the world of DCFC this summer.

Reasons Undisclosed

Following the glorious signing of Richard Keogh from Coventry last week, the phrase ‘a weeks a long time in football’ has never been so apt.

Whilst the signing of Keogh is obviously great news and a massive boost for everyone (Keogh choosing us over Cardiff & Leeds, paying a decent fee, Shackell suitably replaced), the loose detail we have around the deal raises more questions than it answers about the sale of Shackell.