Derby County vs Reading

Following on from a drab 2-1 away win against Hartlepool in the FA Cup on Saturday, Derby County sought a home win against Reading on Tuesday night to keep up with league leaders Middlebrough. Ten days before the Reading encounter, Boro stretched their lead at the top of the table to four points with a 2-0 victory over the Rams, courtesy of two late goals. The need for a response against the Royals as a result of the disappointment at the Riverside Stadium did not seem to be enough to inspire Paul Clement’s men on the night as they put in a poor performance, drawing 1-1. Derby escaped with a point from a game in which they deserved to lose – and on their own turf. The impatient home crowd at the iPro Stadium were visibly and audibly displeased at the full time whistle, with some jeers ringing out through the stadium.

It was an end-to-end encounter early on and both sides had good chances. The away side seemed to have the higher quantity of chances but the best opportunity of the early exchanges fell to Derby’s new signing Nick Blackman, who arrived from none other than the Rams’ visitors, Reading FC, just six days before this match. The chance was created by Tom Ince, who drove down the left hand side of the box, then floated a cross over the heads of the Reading defenders to find the feet of Blackman who was one-on-one with Reading ‘keeper Ali Al-Habsi. Al-Habsi reacted quickly to deny his former teammate and turn the shot around the post.

The Rams struck first and broke the deadlock as Ince’s corner found Jason Shackell, who escaped his marker on the penalty spot and volleyed the ball into the roof of the net. There was a clear relief to be noted in the celebrations of both Rams fans and players. It had been a nervy game up until that point and for Derby to get their noses in front seemed to cool some nerves.

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However it cannot be said that this feeling of relief lasted long as the away side began to push Derby further and eventually found their equaliser through Danny Williams’ powerful header from Hal Robson-Kanu’s measured cross. From a Derby perspective, fans will be disappointed that Bradley Johnson's botched tackle, swinging a leg attempting to dispossess Lucas Piazon whilst already grounded from his sliding tackle on Williams, led to a great deal of space opening up causing panic in Derby's defensive line. The home team’s defensive line had lost all shape by the time the cross came in and nobody seemed to know who they were supposed to be marking. From a Reading perspective, it has to be said that the quick feet of Williams and Lucas Piazon, along with the latter's good vision to find Robson-Kanu out wide and the former's clever movement to power a header past Lee Grant, deservedly will receive the majority of the credit for a well-worked goal.

Twitter: @ReadingFC

The half time whistle blew and the chatter amongst many Rams fans in the south stand was that a change was needed. Many were expressing their disappointment not only with the shape of the team, in a 4-2-3-1 formation that differs from the usual 4-3-3, but also with the apparent lack of work rate to make such an attacking formation work.

In the second half, there was even less for Derby fans to enjoy. Reading dominated the encounter from this point and created many good chances. The pick of the lot was Hal Robson-Kanu’s long range low drive which Derby stopper Lee Grant fortunately turned onto the post and wide with a fingertip save. Derby’s gameplan in the 4-2-3-1 formation appeared to be to take the express route to the attacking third of the pitch with long balls and a more direct style. With three attacking forwards behind a central striker, there was plenty of talent to put the ball in the back of the net so on paper this was not necessarily a bad idea. Unfortunately for those of a black and white persuasion, a lack of effort and desire in the final third seemed to allow Reading’s brilliance on the counter attack to flourish as Derby’s attackers seemed to lose the ball frequently.

Twitter: @dcfcofficial

Not only this, but it was clear that with just two midfielders, Derby were losing the battles in the middle of the park. Bradley Johnson and Jacob Butterfield could not handle the task alone, which means one could only scratch their head in bemusement when the 4-2-3-1 formation survived the whole 90 minutes. Paul Clement made a midfield change bringing on Jeff Hendrick, but he replaced one of Derby’s better midfield bruisers in Bradley Johnson at a time when midfield battles were where Reading were finding all their joy. Clement could have opted to change back to 4-3-3, bringing off an attacker and replacing them with the energetic Hendrick, to revert to a formation that the players know best.

In addition to all of this, it has been clear for several weeks that top scorer Chris Martin is struggling with his form. A lethargic performance from him on Tuesday night will have done him no favours in regards to future team selection, yet he also survived 90 minutes. What the 4-2-3-1 formation did give Derby is plenty of players who could take the ball and drive towards the goal with attacking intent. If Martin was not doing his job as a frontline talisman linking all of this attacking intent together, perhaps a chance should have been given to former England striker Darren Bent who not only scored three days earlier against Hartlepool in the FA Cup, but is also a more deadly finisher than Martin. Chris Martin plays with his back to goal, seeking to support the players behind him. There was no shortage of support for the three men behind him, who in spells linked up with each other well. What was missing was someone like Darren Bent who does not play with his back to the goal. Bent tends to face the goal and makes clever runs to get on the end of good through balls, finishing with style. There were ball carriers aplenty in attacking midfield, Derby just needed someone at the end of the play to finish.

Twitter: @DerbyTelegraph

In the context of the difficulty of the Hartlepool game three days before, the lacklustre performance against Middlebrough before that, and the fortunate draw away at Leeds just before the turn of the year, this sets a worrying run of form. Paul Clement did not hold back in his criticism of the players in his post-match comments. Angrier than Rams fans have seen him before, Clement blasted the “poor application of the tactical plan” and even went as far as to say “we won’t be moving out of this division if we continue to play like that”. Strong words from the Derby boss and it is pleasing to see that he is aware of the seriousness of the situation where some managers and head coaches would opt to downplay the severity of such a poor performance. Clement has become popular with fans for his honesty but in this situation he perhaps ought to have taken some of the flak for his own tactical decisions in the way that he did following the loss to Middlesbrough. His likely reasoning for this is that he probably did not want to detract from the biggest factor in the Rams’ poor performance on the night– the lack of effort from his players.

Nonetheless, such a strong sentiment is a message to his players. If they want promotion, they’ve got to work harder for it than that.