Whooooooooooppppp!!!!

Disco dude, oh how I've missed you.

It's a terrible shame there are no Derby fans on here! Brillaint performance, terrific atmosphere from start to finish. Derby getting humiliated on TV, whilst Leicester win 4-0 on TV. What a combo. The only negative about that evening was that there weren't more Leicester, and Derby fans, there to witness it.

The formula was the same one that we used against Sothampton (in the first half) and Brighton. Nothing special or fancy, simply a confident and aggressive attitude. We went out with the bit between our teeth and Derby couldn't handle it. Now, whilst I don't doubt that we gave our all against Barnsley, Cardiff and Boro, it was that extra few percent of energy and belief that we would score more, not concede less, than the opposition that made the difference.

There is no reason why we can't play like that every game, home and away. It's not as if we threw 8 men forward on every attack, we were patient with the ball and solid at the back, and incisive when constructing attacks. If we take the initiative to them instead of the other way round we should be able to beat most teams in this division. If only we had a bit more pace and individually beat players more often we'd be unstoppable.

For me, the two key men today were Nugent and King. Nugent was our best performer before his injury and I had a sneaky feeling about him today. He's very good and holding the ball up and making something out of hopeful balls. He latched onto the ball over the top and took his goal very well, and from that moment I always thought we'd win.

King on the other hand epitomised us, he was more confident and aggressive than he's been in a while, resulting in his best performance in a while. I've been critical of him going missing a lot of the time but today he was central to everything good that we did.

Derby however played into our hands a little with the amount of space they gave us, it wasn't miles but they weren't right in our faces so to speak. The popped the ball around nicely in the early stages but like us on a bad day, had little cutting edge. They had a couple of chances when the fullbacks were caught out but they weren't golden ones and were few and far between.

I was DELIGHTED for the Schluppster that he bagged his first Championship goal and hopefully there'll be many more to come. I would have been happy with the 2-0 but to get those 2 late on was the stuff of dreams. Some people weren't so confident today with the injuries we had, and with quality players like that out, it was even more pleasing to see us cope so well.

The challenge now is being consistent with this kind of performance. This result and the unbeaten run is hopefully the start of something great. There's still a lot of work to do but lets hope this wasn't a false dawn.

 

I believe Sky described our play as "total football". I think the passing and creativity, particular in the first half, was outstanding today.

You can see they are starting to gel and instinctively know what each other is going to do. I'm not sure about King - still don't think he's back to us best and certainly wasn't man of the match (probably be Danns for me), but this result may help his confidence. Mills is really starting to look the part now - players were simply bounding off him as he dominated every ball he went for - at least we're beginning to see where the money's gone. Schlupp is showing he definitely deserves to be in the squad, and Nugent will be, I'm sure, a hero to all Foxes before the end of this season. Oh, and Kasper didn't put a foot wrong again. I'm really getting excited about this season now, not just because of the result, but the performances are coming to, as I said they would. There's so many names I could rave about (I haven't mentioned two of the goal scorers or Bamba, who was strong at back and a menace up front), it's hard not be thrilled by it.

 

Emilio... we knew this was on the horizon... glad it was on sky....so the stay aways can see what they are going to miss........1300 sheepshaggers there pitiful...I thought the fans really got behind the team today...(the early goal helps)....xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Yeh, it definitely fills the heart with optimism and excitement again.

Particularly agree about Mills, he's stepped it up the last few games and is showing exactly the form we saw he could produce at Reading. He's obviously not a fancy, thrills footballer like Bamba, but defending is his forte and they can't get past him at the moment. His passionate and commanding displays of late are certainly reminiscant of Walshie.

He, like everyone else, just needs to keep it going now.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm watching MOTD, is anyone else annoyed that Sunderland and West Brom are both wearing white striped shirts? Surely that's a colour clash...

 

Yep, well done to everyone involved. Great win. I think I said a while back that we were simmering and just coming to the boil and there would be a game where everything would click and we'd stick 4 or 5 past someone and then that'd be a catalyst for us to kick-on. Whether we do remains to be seen.

The defence again was rock solid and they really have gelled as a unit recently. Kasper's handling was very assured and the main thing for me was the communication between the back four. Constantly they were talking and pointing and gesticulating at each other and their teammates. Also, what impressed me was that in the 89th minute, with the game already won, we were still diving in for blocks and tackles and competing for 50-50's and 2nd balls and we had that desire to defend and keep clean sheets which all successful teams have. Peltier dealt well with Jamie Ward, who I think is one of the better wingers in this league, and Mills and Bamba seem to now have that understanding of each other's game and it really shows now.

In the midfield, I think today there was real fluency and the positional rotation and movement was the best its been for a while and that was key for me. It was where we won the game. King was my MOTM. He got involved more in the game and he used his technical ability to influence and to dictate games which we all knew he was capable of and all wanted him to do more of. Another who impressed was Danns. I think before you could accuse our midfield of being too narrow but Danns wasn't scared to go wide at times but he also knew when to cut inside as well. Maybe he should have done more when in possession of the ball but his positioning wider stretched their midfield and allowed the likes of King more space in which to operate. Abe as well was good at the base of the diamond and he kept his game simple. When Wellens plays there, I think he has a tendancy to look for the killer pass straight away, which is great, but he's sometimes too far away to play it and that can result in these 'Hollywood' passes. This is why I think Richie would be more effective further forward in the diamond. Abe on the other hand was very good in the way he approached the role and just kept it simple and won the ball then gave it to our more attacking players. Gelson did his job well and got up and down that left flank and gave Konchesky more support defensively than he did the last time I saw him vs Cardiff. Also made a superb pass for Nugent's goal.

Nugent was also fantastic. He always looked to run in-behind and stretch the Derby defence which gave our midfield more options when in possession as well as creating more time and space for them. It also gave Vassell the chance to drop deeper and for King to play in between the midfield and defence. Vassell was also good and played just behind Nugent at times and looked to buzz around him and win any knock on's or 2nd balls and he showed that great strikers knack of being in the right place at the right time for his goal.

What this does give is one hell of a selection headache for Birmingham. Firstly, we should wait until the International break is over and see how the injuries heal up (groin ones especially can be quite unpredictable) but if you were to compile a list of players who you'd say, when fit, are virtually cemented a place in the team then Wellens, Beckford and Johnson would be very high on it. What it will show is how much Eriksson regards reputation when picking his side because if he were to pick on form, then it should be unchanged as nobody today deserves to lose their place. For me, I would go unchanged.

The OP mentioned playing like this every game and whilst I see where he/she is coming from, I think that Sven has found an approach now that has made us difficult to beat whereby he'll set-up very conservative and pragmatic away from home and try and nick games and grind them out with the emphasis being on not losing and then open-up more at home and try to make it a fortress and beat everyone and beat them well. I think that is a sensible approach to take especially at this early stage in the season and when the team is still settling down and starting to gel together. We must not get carried away with this win and assume we're going to win 4-0 every week because we're not. But we must use this as a springboard to really start the promotion challenge and the confidence this result should breed will be very good for us. I heard Alan Young make a good point on the radio as I was driving back that we shouldn't treat this performance as an exception or a special case but as the benchmark and as the norm and say to the players (whilst not achieving the same margin of victory) that they've proved they can play like this, now go out and do it again and give us that type of performance for 3/4/5 games on the spin because that is the hallmark of good teams.

To treat your special performances as the norm.

 

Greatness - Completely agree about an unchanged team, the rest will have to earn their place after today