He was very good against Swansea, agreed, but his positioning tonight left a lot to be desired. That said, so did many.
Just back from the match. I like to pride myself on my relentless positivity when it comes to all things Hull City. But **** me, Marcus Forss was utterly **** tonight. Didn’t seem to care less from minute one to the last kick when he fluffed a tap-in. Concerning.
Shota Arveladze: “After the first goal, we lost every ball. Every second ball, every duel, every bounce was for Derby and that was difficult,” he said. ...and he's not wrong.
Quick question. I don’t know if it’s been mentioned on another thread but how come Baxter hasn’t played the last two games. Is he injured?
I was told he’s hurt his hand today hopefully not too serious though because Ingram flapping gave them the throw for the 1st and the second he palmed into the middle of the box. 3rd one I can’t make out if he should’ve done better either
Shota's comments to Burnsy don't make much sense to me, when asked why he didn't change things he said he didn't see a point in changing things?!
When you make wholesale changes this is always a danger that the performance can be disjointed and that is what happened. For the time being, Shota needs to keep the same team, as much as possible, as the Swansea game and the same system. The players are comfortable with that, clearly, last night they just didn't look comfortable all night. Derby is a better team than their position shows, if they had not had the 21 points deduction then they would be mid-table. Credit to Rooney, who has got them playing really well, and he tactically got one over on Shota last night. Shota IMO needs to go back to what has been working, and then integrate new signings gradually. I thought the Iranian lad looked sharp when he came on, Forss started okay, but just didn't get any service after the first 15 minutes. Walsh looked like a fish out of water and Coyle just looked rusty. Get mathematically safe first, then you can make a few changes if necessary.
Ye, that whole interview was bizarre. I don't think it's an overreaction to be concerned at the manager already. His CV is up and down and in all honesty, I thought he'd be more prepared as he's known he was getting the job for so long.
I was told by someone that he's our most experienced manager since Bruce which is laughable as he's more comparable with Slutsky, and has all the hallmarks of going the same way by being so tactically naive. He is similar to Bruce in one aspect though - when he panics he just throws strikers on. Forss should have come off for Eaves today, Longman or Allahyar should have come on for Coyle, and Smallwood should have come on for Walsh. Like for like changes that instantly improve our shape and structure.
In reality, he's had only a few weeks to actually interact with the players and even less time to with the new signings. Our form prior to the 3 wins under McCann was relegation. Those teams we beat in that 3 match run will have looked at our form prior and assumed they would have to do little more than turn up to beat us. The Swansea victory was a match where everything just went our way. Our last two performances is not a surprise if you discount that mini-run. This season is now just about making sure we grind out some results to keep in the division, and we can see where the owners true ambitions are if he flashes the cash in the summer.
I sit in East stand and every week I see KLP 20 yds inside in a narrow formation allowing out ball and exposure of his full back . I’ve said this so many times he gives little support or cover . As for Fleming he was murdered for pace by a very powerful guy but at the one on one he was too close and the young guy waited for him to commit then did him - he’ll learn . Defence was a shambles. Had we done a Swansea and sat deep Derby wouldn’t have used their pace so easily , as soon as we ‘gave’ them the ball , numerous times they murdered us with counters. our defence doesn’t like pace at all! We are very good at defending deep but panic when the attacks are quick
Our form before that was not relegation. We were outside the bottom 3, yes we had a dismal start but we'd recovered nicely. It's not just about the results, even when we were on a poor run, we weren't playing badly. We were making mistakes and it was costing us. The last 2, the performances have been pretty awful.
To make the four changes that he did appears to be bizarre, I honestly don’t think one of them worked. I can’t ever remember any manager bringing a long term absentee straight back into the starting line up, surely you give them a couple of cameos from the bench first so that they can feel their way back in. I’m not the biggest fan of Coyle but Shota set him up to fail last night. Walsh was absolutely invisible for most of the night, and on that performance I’m just pleased that we didn’t get him on a permanent basis. Forss never appeared to have the service that any striker needs, but why replace Eaves with him after he’s been playing out of his skin? The team appeared to have absolutely no balance last night, and many appeared to be in headless chicken mode, the only ones that I could honestly say played well were KLP and Fleming, far to many we’re off their game, and George just looked totally pissed off with it all. Oh and after watching his TV interview I now understand how Shota earned the Mr Bean nickname, he just looked like a rabbit in the headlights. Call me a poodle if you like but after the Bournemouth result I had a few quid on us to make the top six, and then after last night I’m more concerned whether this fella will take us down.
Where is Shota's assistant ? He needs someone next to him ASAP that has experience of English football & The Championship. Promote Andy Dawson. Knows The Championship & can sort our shaky defence out. Once again a striker is surrounded by 3 or 4 City defenders & still manages to score. Not signing an experienced defender in Jan was a big mistake. I really hope Shota is not going to be another Leonid Slutsky, who was a lovely guy but totally out of his depth managing in The Championship.
No idea why we brought Walsh in. Another midfielder was not needed. An experienced Championship defender was & Lee Darnborough needs to explain why one wasn't brought in
