Derby County vs Leeds United

Derby came into this encounter on the back of four straight draws, looking for their first win. Opinion was split amongst Rams fans on whether this run of results should be particularly concerning. One school of thought was that draws can easily turn to wins when the team has time to gel and get used to the new bosses tactics. The opposing view is that they could just as easily turn to losses on a bad day, arguing that Derby have had a slice of luck in snatching points from behind in the past 3 games. Certainly, what cannot be argued is that 4 points from a possible 12 is relegation form, but there are a lot of asterisks next to that statement. Some fans will argue that Derby have deserved more than draws in a few of their games so far, most notably in the home game against Charlton. Another thing that cannot be argued is a home win against historic rivals Leeds would settle some of those fears, with the Rams even being able to boast that they are unbeaten in 5 games. Sadly from a black and white perspective, Leeds United ran out the victors on Saturday afternoon’s early kick off at the iPro Stadium.

Derby started positive, if somewhat uncreative, in the first half. In the first ten minutes the home side approached the game with a calm, measured and unpanicked passing style that saw them dominate possession. This style seemed to work even when Derby have been 1-0 down in previous games against Middlesbrough and Birmingham, as in both of those games The Rams dominated possession and got their reward with equalisers. The away side were the opposite. Leeds were the frantic live wires of the first half, battling for every ball, and playing with more pace and dogged determination. Despite this though, both sides struggled to create clear cut chances. There were no shots on target for the vast majority of the first half, but Leeds had several shots blocked by a defiant wall of Derby defenders.

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The away side’s best chance came early on as Sam Byram picked up the ball on the right hand side and played a pass inside to Lewis Cook. Byram continued his run and Cook returned the favour to Byram via Alex Mowatt. Byram faced a strong Derby backline but teed up striker Chris Wood nicely on the edge of the 18-yard box. Wood’s shot flew over the bar for a goal kick. For the home side, the best of their chances was a Johnny Russell free kick that found Chris Martin on the edge of the six-yard box. The striker got his angles wrong and his backwards looping header drifted past the far post.

The first shot on target was a Leeds one and unfortunately for Derby, was the goal that broke the deadlock. Stuart Dallas made a driving run down the right side and was shut down by Chris Baird and Tom Ince. Rams players and fans claimed the ball hit Dallas last but the referee gave the corner kick to Leeds. The controversy of the corner will be insignificant to The Rams as they will be more concerned with the defending that followed the set piece. Dallas opted to take the corner short, playing a clever one-two with Alex Mowatt, to eventually whip his cross to the back post to the unmarked Tom Adeyemi, who nodded the ball past Scott Carson to give United the lead. The short corner routine caught Derby confused and disorganised. The referee blew his whistle for half time shortly after and the home team left the field with their heads held low.

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The second half saw a different approach from Derby and The Rams started the second half the way many fans will feel they should have started the first half. The home side began attacking with speed and urgency, determined to find a response to Adeyemi’s first half goal. This reaction was exactly what Rams fans were looking for in the second half and Derby started to look threatening. In the opening moments of the half, a good move from Craig Forsyth resulted in him finding Jeff Hendrick, who carved out a chance with his driving run at the Leeds backline, shooting from distance and forcing a save from United ‘keeper Marco Silvestri. Derby continued to push for their equaliser and on 48 minutes equalised through Chris Martin. Once again it was a left-side attack with Forsyth and Thorne linking up well. Thorne found Martin who with a quick switch of feet, wrong-footed Liam Cooper and stroked the ball past Silvestri to make it 1-1.

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It seemed even then that The Rams were not content with the draw, continuing to push for a goal to give them the lead. Jamie Hanson found Jeff Hendrick with a heavily-weighted pass, but Hendrick used it to his advantage to knock the ball round the Leeds defender, setting himself up for a one-on-one with Silvestri. Hendrick smashed his shot just past the goalkeeper’s right hand post and the game stayed even. Shortly after this, George Thorne was substituted through injury for Andreas Weimann, and the Rams changed to a 4-2-3-1 system, with four recognised forwards on the pitch, to push for another goal. This system seemed to cause a few problems for the Leeds defenders initially, with Silvestri having to make two more saves from Derby half-chances turned into shots, first by Russell and then Weimann. As the game went on however, Leeds started to look more and more resolute and Rams boss Paul Clement decided the time was right on 79 minutes to bring on Darren Bent for Johnny Russell. This changed the formation again to a 4-4-2 shape, but also spelled the end of Derby's dominance. Derby looked devoid of ideas and low on confidence; another draw seemed inevitable.

It was at this point that Paul Clement made his final substitution, the most baffling of all. Defender Ryan Shotton came on for midfielder Jamie Hanson, with Shotton going to right-back and captain Chris Baird moved into the centre of midfield. Rams fans have been critical of Chris Baird's performances in midfield so far this season, believing right-back to be his best position. Furthermore there have been frustrations with the lack of game time for unused substitute on the day, Simon Dawkins. Dawkins, primarily a creative attacking midfielder, would have been the obvious choice for a team chasing a victory. Instead, the introduction of Ryan Shotton saw Derby begin to sit back and invite pressure, hoping to hold on to a draw. Leeds reacted with attacking intent, unsurprisingly netting the winner through a Chris Wood wonderstrike and taking home all 3 points.

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One of the significant influential elements in this game was the utilisation of Chris Martin. As Wigan manager, current Leeds boss Uwe Rosler claimed to have disrupted Derby's gameplan in a previous game by cutting off supply to Martin. It came as no surprise then that Leeds centre-backs Sol Bamba and Liam Cooper took it in turns to mark the talismanic Derby striker out of the game when he stayed central. In the second half, he roamed more freely to the wings and players like Johnny Russell, Tom Ince, and Andreas Weimann moved central. Martin's ability to get away from his markers made Derby more fluid and meant that Bamba and Cooper could not follow him everywhere he went. Martin’s movement opened up Leeds so much more than in the first half and it is no coincidence that this was Derby’s best spell in the game. When Darren Bent came on however, Martin struggled again as he was forced to stay central to play provider for Bent, who relies on a good supply behind him to score goals. As in the first half, Bamba and Cooper found it easy, just picking a striker each and marking them out of the game, meaning Derby struggled as a result.

Derby fans considered this a must-win game, so despite their frustrations at drawing so many games, leaving this game with no points was a bitter blow. When any team concedes first, it is always likely that they will find themselves under pressure for the rest of the game regardless of whether they find themselves an equaliser or not. The opening goal is an important psychological advantage that Derby have now given away to their opponents on four occasions this season. Going into the international break on the back of a loss could give the squad time to reflect on the results and hopefully for Derby fans this time off will inspire them to react away at Preston on 12th September.

Derby are facing a psychological battle to find the first win and Paul Clement needs to call upon his players to react better to adversity. In his post-match interview he said of his team that “they have to be men”. Clement will want his team to start giving more spirited and passionate performances that fans and coaches expect of professional sporting athletes, rather than lowering their heads and feeling sorry for themselves in such a childish manner the way they do when they start to struggle in games. The grit and determination that these very same players once had in spades is now the missing ingredient. It is up to the players themselves to find it again, but also up to Clement to inspire them to. This first loss of the season could be the catalyst for better results, but only if Derby react in the right way.

Derby County vs Middlesbrough

At the start of play, league sponsors Skybet had Middlesbrough 11/10 favourites to be promoted, with Derby County being second favourites at 7/4. Interestingly however, the bookies had Derby down as 11/8 favourites to run out winners in Tuesday night’s encounter between the two sides at the iPro Stadium. Home favourites Derby were on the back of a good display 3 days prior at home to Charlton with the Rams unfortunate to have had to settle for a draw on that occasion. Meanwhile visitors Middlesbrough came into this game on the back of a huge 3-0 victory at home to Bolton. This battle between two promotion hopefuls was a hotly anticipated event and as fans of both teams waited for their teams to emerge, you could cut the tension with a knife. Following a minute’s silence for the recently deceased Ian Magno, father of Derby academy scholar Glenn Magno, the noise levels in the ground rose to near deafening levels in expectation of an epic clash between these two sides.

The home side started the brighter and Derby were energetic all over the park creating chances. One particular bright moment came from midfielder Jeff Hendrick. His layoff to Tom Ince, who found Andreas Weimann, culminated in the Austrian international completing the passing triangle that found Hendrick space to crack off a long shot hard and low to the Boro ‘keeper’s left. The goalkeeper in question, Dimi Konstantopoulos, got a hand to the shot but could only hook it out to Chris Martin, who was dispossessed by George Friend clearing the danger. There was a good feeling for the first 15 minutes amongst Derby fans who, before to the match, saw this as a tough game and were apprehensive about coming up against one of their apparent ‘bogey teams’. Seeing their team dominate the early stages was positive for the Rams, and calmed a few nerves in the stands of the iPro.

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This good feeling was soon to turn to a sinking feeling, as Middlesbrough caught Derby napping to take the lead on the 15 minute mark. The away side found themselves 1-0 up after switching the play to find marauding left back George Friend, who cut inside for an attempt at goal on his weaker right foot. His attempt deflected off Derby centre-half Richard Keogh and fell into the lap of Kike, who needed only to apply a simple finish to give his side the lead. One rare moment of complacency is all a team like Boro need to take the lead and a poor collective lapse in focus was always likely to be extremely dangerous against such a well-drilled cerebral outfit.

After this, the game started to be played at the away team’s pace. Derby did not raise the tempo despite controlling the ball, and lacked creativity. When Middlesbrough had possession they kept the game slow and sluggish to stop Derby from being able to beat them with pace. The noise in the iPro had quietened and the home fans realised their team had not dealt well with going a goal down. The Rams looked frustrated to be trailing at home for the second time in three days. The only real chance in the half an hour that followed the opener was a Chris Martin header over the bar, after Jason Shackell played a long pass down the Derby left to Stephen Warnock. The left back crossed for the arriving Martin but the striker got his header all wrong and connected too far underneath the ball, sending it up and over the bar.

Further adversity for the Rams came when Jamie Hanson was clattered by George Friend. Friend was booked for the dangerous challenge after play continued for the Derby advantage. Unfortunately for those of a black and white persuasion, Hanson had to be substituted with a concussion, along with Jeff Hendrick who suffered a dead leg. On came Ryan Shotton and Johnny Russell to switch the system from a 4-3-3 to a 4-2-3-1. It was a necessary change as Derby have been ravaged by injuries to central midfielders with Bryson and Hughes already out. Shotton came on at right back, pushing Chris Baird into the middle with George Thorne. With a makeshift midfield and a change of game plan, things weren’t going well for Derby at the half time whistle. There was however a promising chance just before the whistle with a well-hit Tom Ince free kick being palmed away by Konstantopoulos.

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Derby started the second half with much more enthusiasm. The players at the half time break would have had a chance to digest the miserable and in some ways unfortunate first half they had and motivate themselves for the second half much more. Derby had changed style to fit the new formation and instead of expending too much energy by rushing out at Middlesbrough with a reckless tempo, they wore down their opponents with good passing and patient play. Middlesbrough by this point had begun to look slow and lethargic. This was either a deliberate tactic on their part to conserve energy and slow down the game or owing to genuine fatigue, having played so many games so early in the season. Derby stretched the opposition, switching play often to Tom Ince who was a key playmaker in the second half, combining well with Johnny Russell in the centre at times to try to create chances.

However, it wasn’t until the late stages of the game that Derby managed to look likely to break through the resolute Boro defence. The away side were definitely tired when the 82 minute mark came and Chris Martin made a good near post run to meet a Johnny Russell corner. If not for the quick reactions of Konstantopoulos to get two hands on the ball on the line, Derby would have been equal. An equaliser was inevitable at this rate though and Derby finally got their reward on 88 minutes, after Thorne’s long ball to Martin missed its intended target and bounced through to Johnny Russell, who smashed home one-on-one with the goalkeeper. A few minutes later, the final whistle blew and the two Championship giants went home with a point apiece.

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Rams fans knew this game would be a tough test, but they could not have known that the test would be made even tougher with two forced substitutions before half time that threw the game plan out of the window. The first half represented despair for the white shirts on the field. Going a goal down and losing two players to injury meant a tough tactical decision for Paul Clement. The Rams boss has talked repeatedly about his team being more adaptable this season and games like this show why. The style of play had to change so dramatically from the first half to the second, and the players had to get to grips with their new instructions quickly. It took a while, but the patience paid off for Derby in this game and there can be few arguments that a draw was a fair result.

As the saying goes, there’s no rest for the wicked. Derby find themselves back in action again on Friday night for their TV clash against Birmingham City, meaning the Rams will have played 3 games in 6 days and they’ll be hoping that will be the time and place to pick up the first league win. A failure to win just 3 games into the season should be no cause for concern though, especially with a hectic schedule like that. Derby played well enough to win on Saturday against Charlton but did not get the result, and now they can add a spirited draw against one of the promotion favourites to their record too. The result sits on the Derby record despite having to deal with key injuries, and playing their backs to the wall. There are plenty of positives and negatives with what Derby fans have seen so far this season, but the important thing to keep in mind is that confidence is still dwindling and a win on Friday against Birmingham would go a long way to kick-starting a successful season for the Rams.

Derby County vs Charlton Athletic

“We’ll play worse than that and win” declared Derby Head Coach Paul Clement in his post-match interview with Rams Player. Such a positive attitude is one that seems to be shared amongst Rams fans and players after Saturday’s game against Charlton Athletic. After exiting the Capital One Cup and losing young midfield star Will Hughes to long term injury in the 7 days prior to the game, a lot of demons needed to be exorcised in the encounter against The Addicks. Expectations were high in Derby’s first home game of the 2015/16 Championship season following disappointing performances in a 0-0 away draw to Bolton in the league a week beforehand and the aforementioned 2-1 cup loss to League Two Portsmouth 3 days beforehand. Crowdfunded supporters’ organisation The 1884 Group had arranged for flags to be distributed amongst the fans along with confetti and ticker tape to be released upon the players coming out onto the pitch. The aim of this visual display was to improve the matchday atmosphere in the iPro Stadium, but such a fanfare must then be reinforced by a good solid home performance, which many Rams fans will argue was delivered by the players.

The noise and fan displays in the iPro certainly got the home side off to a good start as Derby dominated the visitors from the very beginning. The Rams created a number of chances and nearly took the lead on a few occasions, with only fine margins keeping the ball out of the net. As far as team play goes, the best moment from a Derby perspective began with a turnover in possession thanks to Craig Forsyth picking the pocket of a Charlton man to win the ball, and the left-backs subsequent long pass to the other flank. The ball landed squarely at the feet of Tom Ince who used the overlapping right-back Chris Baird, with Baird drilling a low cross towards Chris Martin who looked set to score if not for a last ditch clearance by Charlton’s Alou Diarra.

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Despite this however, the first goal went to the visitors early in the second half after Tony Watt’s shot deflected off Richard Keogh’s attempted block deceiving the Rams ‘keeper Scott Carson. Harsher critics may look at the game’s opener and attach some blame to Carson for his lack of movement, or to Keogh for his trailing leg deflecting the ball into the net. However it would be extremely tough on either man to fault them for what was an unfortunate mishap. To give credit to the scorers though, Charlton found Watt in good space to get the shot off through some clever interplay. Certainly Addicks fans will tell you that “they all count” and perhaps that the shot was most likely going on target anyway with a lot of pace and there’s no guarantee that Carson would have been able to deal with the shot even without the deflection.

Derby continued to push for an equaliser though. The team played with the same determination and positivity that they started the game with and not an ounce of panic seemed to seep into the game – the very opposite to how Rams fans saw their team play on Wednesday night. Much more calmness and confidence saw them continue to create chances despite being behind. The Rams nearly got their much sought-after equaliser on 54 minutes with midfielder Jeff Hendrick coming close to netting for his team. The chance came from Derby skipper Chris Baird’s interception halfway into the Charlton half. The Addicks found themselves under the cosh following this as white shirts began to flood into their half to capitalise on the turnover in possession. Baird found Ince, who chose not to play in Chris Martin who was much better positioned, opting to go alone instead. Charlton defenders swarmed Ince and cut off the Martin option, leaving only a crowded out Hendrick as his only pass. Hendrick however found his way through and squeezed a shot through the wall of bodies, only to have it cleared off the line by Patrick Bauer.

The equaliser had been a long time coming when it arrived on 67 minutes. Academy graduate Jamie Hanson found Chris Martin on the edge of the box and the Suffolk-born striker turned and fired his shot on his left foot into the keeper’s bottom right corner. Even though Derby had been made to work so hard for the equaliser, they never stopped pushing for the winner, even right into added time, but sadly for the home supporters it was not to be and the match finished 1-1.

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Most impressively for those of a black and white persuasion, The Rams seemed to use the full width of the pitch, switching the play often and having full-backs overlap and stretch the compact Charlton backline as much as possible. Wingers Johnny Russell and Tom Ince seemed to cut inside less, preferring to use the midfielders and frontline striker Chris Martin with passes, allowing them to find space out wide. Having tough-tacklers in midfield like George Thorne and Jamie Hanson allowed full-backs Chris Baird and Craig Forsyth to find themselves in the final third much more often than in the previous two games. Many Rams fans had made clear their displeasure with a perceived lack of width, especially with the 4-4-2 diamond formation used in preseason and against Bolton on the opening day of the season. Paul Clement certainly knew he was going to need width in this game with the Rams boss noting prior to the game that Charlton were a “well organised and compact” team.

Also impressive however was the players for Derby today who allowed fans to breathe a sigh of relief with their performances and fitness. Chris Martin’s tally of zero goals, even including preseason, was something that worried many fans but with last season’s leading goalscorer getting himself off the mark yesterday fans will feel more relaxed about that. Similarly, injury-plagued midfielder George Thorne put in another good performance and despite taking some heavy knocks came through another game, just as he came through preseason unscathed. Undoubtedly we must ask the question “when will Derby fans be able to feel comfortable with George Thorne’s ability to stay fit?” The answer to that is as long as there is an audible gasp from fans every time the midfielder stays down for more than three seconds, we can be sure it won’t be any time soon. Last but not least an honourable mention must go to Jamie Hanson, the young midfielder who stepped in for injured Will Hughes in this game. The 19 year old was playing his fourth first team game, but he looked like a player with several years’ experience. There was some slight timidity and what seems like nervousness, but on the whole Hanson impressed Derby fans with a mature midfield performance.

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A performance like that is normally enough to do the job against most teams. Frustration with the result is useless, nothing will change as an outcome. Derby fans should instead feel proud that the team exorcised the aforementioned demons and put in a winning performance in all but the scoreline. As the Head Coach of the better team on the day, Paul Clement speaks for all Rams fans when he says “we’ll play worse than that and win”.

Pre-Season: Burton Albion vs Derby County

A trip to Burton Albion's Pirelli Stadium rounded off Derby County's pre-season with the Rams conquering the Brewers in a 3-1 victory. Over 5,000 fans were present at the game, a record attendance for the fixture, to watch their respective teams for the final time before the Football League season opens next weekend. Fresh from welcoming La Liga’s Villarreal to the iPro Stadium, Derby were the favourites to round off preseason with a resounding win against their Staffordshire rivals. Rams boss Paul Clement had his side experiment with a new 4-2-3-1 formation in this game, but admitted in his post-match comments that the players had not practised the formation in training prior to this encounter, much to the surprise of those who saw the performance of the Rams players who looked like they had been playing it for years.

This particular preseason friendly is often a regular occurrence and a staple of both teams’ preseason schedules, but this time newly promoted League One side Burton provided a tougher test for Derby than they have in previous seasons. Regardless, it was the Championship promotion hopefuls who started the brighter. Derby retained possession for the early periods and created a number of good chances. The visitors, sporting their smart new 'nightshade purple' away kit, also resolutely recovered the ball by cutting out Albion attacks with intense speed and urgency. The home side seemed to struggle with the pace that the Rams brought to this fixture, and could not seem to keep the ball to create chances.

The best example of Derby’s high tempo terrorisation of the Albion players was in the run-up to the opening goal. It was intense pressure high up the pitch that allowed ball-winning midfielder George Thorne to dispossess the Burton player, ex-Ram Tom Naylor, to slide a ball through to dangerman striker Darren Bent, who slotted the ball into the far corner to give his side the lead. Derby soon followed this up with a second goal courtesy of Andreas Weimann. One major criticism of first goalscorer Darren Bent, is that his hold up play and passing is often lacking in comparison to his significant rival for the striker position, the talismanic and often unselfish Chris Martin. However, Bent’s interplay with pacy wide man Johnny Russell created Derby’s second goal, with Russell continuing on from Bents good work to find Weimann in the box, who fired over the top of Burton’s on-loan goalkeeper Remi Matthews and into the net.

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Derby continued to apply pressure until the half time whistle, with goal-scoring opportunities by Ince and Weimann placed straight at the goalkeeper. Away fans in the Pirelli will have felt their side could have easily been 4 or 5 up at the break. Despite all these chances, the first half finished just 2-0 to the deserving visitors. In response, the home side mounted a comeback early in the second half. After the game, Rams Head Coach Paul Clement bemoaned inconsistency in his side’s performance. It is likely that he refers to this period of the game with this comment as Burton began to look the better team, capable of strolling through the previously steely Derby defence with ease. A Burton goal looked inevitable based on this play and the Brewers pulled one back with new boy Tommy Thiele. The play began with an Albion free kick on the right hand side. Loan signing Mark Duffy crossed the ball to Anthony O’Connor at the back post, whose header towards goal was inadequately cleared by the Derby man on the line, falling to the feet of Thiele, who couldn't miss from point-blank range.

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2-1 was the score, and Derby needed a response of their own before the home side found an equaliser. The catalyst for change was Derby’s four substitutions, as moments later the tide was turned with a goal. Powerful midfielder Jeff Hendrick had only been on the pitch for 3 minutes before his ambitious attempt from distance deflected to the feet of Johnny Russell, who beat the offside trap to restore the away team’s two-goal cushion. The visitors took this chance to seize control of the game once more and saw out the victory, almost making it 4-1 through Jamaican international Simon Dawkins if not for a good save from the Brewers goalkeeper.

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One of the biggest talking points of this game since the full time whistle has been the impressive return of Jason Shackell. The Rams defender left the club in 2012 for a reported figure of just over £1m, much to the frustration of many fans. His return for an undisclosed fee, believed to be around £3m, has been lauded by many fans as the best signing of the summer and many fans believe him to be the perfect man to ensure a defensive crisis like the one that hit the team towards the end of last season is not repeated. Shackell was impressive in this game and was a large part of the reason for Derby’s unyielding defending early in the game. Some fans have fears that Shackell has already hit his career peak in the ‘missing years’ while he was not at the club. In this game though, the 31-year old ex-Burnley captain seemed to still be every bit as good as he was at the Clarets, and much better than his already impressive performances in a Derby shirt back in the 2011/12 season. It is early days, but those fans who have him down as an early contender for ‘signing of the summer’ may just be right.

With preseason wrapped up, Rams fans can be pleased with their teams showing in the six friendly matches they have played in. Ever since the only loss of preseason in the first friendly against Grimsby, Derby have not looked outplayed in any of the following five games. A sense of embarrassment and determination to set things right followed that loss at Blundell Park, and with each preseason game, fans have seen more and more quality in this team, each game being better than the last. With the season opener against Bolton now less than a week away, Derby supporters will be buzzing with excitement to see how the players will step up in quality once again to rise to the challenge where it really matters – the Championship fixtures.