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[FM22 > Derby County] - Managing the (not so) Mighty Rams


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Game date: Tuesday 28th December 2021

Derby face competition for free agents

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We've offered contacts to free agents Dimitris Siovas and Hatem Ben Arfa but, just like when we offered a contract to Hal Robson-Kanu and lost out on him to Swansea, we aren't the only club interested in signing them.

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Game date: Wednesday 29th December 2021

Press Conference: Stoke City (a)

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Stoke City are 20th in the Championship, one place and one point behind us, so this would be a very good game for us to get back to winning ways.

Stoke, like us, are on a bad run of form after drawing their last game and losing the three before that.

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We'll be without Festy Ebosele (suspended) and Sam Baldock (calf muscle injury).

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Nothing else seems to be working so we've been working on something different in training and hopefully it'll throw Stoke's preparations out of the window.

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Game date: Wednesday 29th December 2021

Stoke City v Derby County - Championship (25)

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Defensively we didn't get things quite right today with three at the back and two wing-backs. Without an outstanding display from Ryan Allsop in goal, Stoke would've scored more than the two they got.

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Things could've been different though as Ravel Morrison went on a superb, mazy run through the middle at 0-0, beating defenders for fun, only to see his shot bounce back off the foot of the post.

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We went back to 4-2-3-1 midway through the second half and looked much more dangerous from that point on.

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Tom Lawrence pulled a goal back with a sensational finish after a great run and cross from Jason Knight down the right.

We the came close to equalising as Josef Bursik produced two superb saves to deny first Tom Lawrence and then Louie Sibley

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Friday 31st December 2021

Transfer Embargo lifted

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Interesting? I thought the transfer embargo had already been lifted since I've been signing free agents and making loan offers.

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Game date: Saturday 1st January 2022

Press Conference: Reading (A)

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I'd like to wish all Rams a very Happy New Year and I can assure them we are doing everything we can to make 2022 a much better year on and off the pitch for Derby County.

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Reading are 16th in the Championship, seven points better off than ourselves. We'd like to close that gap with a win but we know it won't be easy.

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We've been working on utilising the width of the pitch more in training and we'll see if that makes any difference today.

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A few changes today with a recall for Colin Kazim-Richards, as our most senior striker I need him to step-up now and show that.

Festy Ebosele returns from suspension for the injured Kamil Jozwiak.

In defence, Andre Wisdom comes in for Richar Stearman.

Our new loan signing, Maurizio Pochettino will be on the bench.

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Game date: Saturday 1st January 2022

Reading v Derby County - Championship (26)

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Wow! That was something special today and I hope our 1,200 or so travelling supporters thoroughly enjoyed it and had a safe journey home.

To be 2-0 up at half-time, through two Tom Lawrence penalties was just the boost we needed and no more than we deserved. Colin Kazm-Richards was tripped for the first and Tom, himself, was fouled for the second.

But then to concede two goals after the break, with George Puscas being too quick for our back-line was disappointing, particularly as we'd made changes designed to help us manage out the game.

And then, in the last minute of added on time, Craig Forsyth crosses deep and Colin Kazim-Richards rises at the far post to power in a header and win the game. I apologised to Mick McCarthy after the game, if our celebrations in the dugout were over-the-top, but boy, those are the special moments in football you have to enjoy!

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After about an hour, we decided to sit back a little bit and contain Reading to protect our 2-0 lead.

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It didn't work though as Reading pulled one back.

The referee didn't do us any favours though. I don't mind a card happy referee, you know where you stand and deal with it, but what I don't get is an inconsistent card happy referee. Reading and us committed about the same number of fouls so how the referee can show us six yellow cards and Reading none at all baffles me.

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We went even more defensive at 2-1 but it's hard to play defensive when your defenders are on yellow cards and worried about putting tackles in for fear of being sent off.

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Reading equalised with seven minutes to go and it felt like a real punch in the stomach.

But we reacted, we changed up to a more attacking set-up, our heads didn't drop... and then came our late, late, late winner from Colin Kazim-Richards.

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Maurizio Pochettino and Colin Kazim-Richards both picked up minor knocks but we expect them to be fine for our next game.

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This is going how my first season went!

I went on a run at the start of the season which made me think staying up would be comfortable but then went on a massive run of not winning, The dressing room atmosphere is a big issue and you need to turn that around to have any chance!

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19 minutes ago, dabest said:

This is going how my first season went!

I went on a run at the start of the season which made me think staying up would be comfortable but then went on a massive run of not winning.

Thanks, @dabest. Yes, I started well too until the injuries, suspensions, fatigue caught up on us... then you start to realise exactly how threadbare the Rams squad actually is.

21 minutes ago, dabest said:

The dressing room atmosphere is a big issue and you need to turn that around to have any chance!

Fortunately, my dynamics appear to be holding up quite well...

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  • 3 weeks later...

Game date: Sunday 2nd January 2022

Rangers accept Rams bid for Defoe

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Unfortunately, despite Rangers accepting a free transfer bid for Jermain Defoe, we were unable to agree personal terms. Jermain wanted just over £6K per week and the maximum the Board would let me offer was £2.3K per week.

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My pursuit of more fire power up front continues.

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Monday 3rd January 2022

Sibley in showdown talks with Stuniverse

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After rejecting Tottenham's bid for Louie Sibley, I'd already offered him out to clubs for £25M pls future add-ons so I was happy to conceded to Louie's request to offer him out and see if there was any interest in him. 

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Friday 7th January 2022

Jozwiak sidelined through injury

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This is a double-blow.

Not only will Kamil Jozwiak be unavailable for up to six weeks but, also, the last saleable asset I'd be willing to let go is now unlikely to be sold this transfer window.

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Friday 7th January 2022

Press Conference: Brighton & Hove Albion (a)

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Brighton & Hoe Albion are doing very well in 11th place in the Premiership so a trip there in the third round of the FA Cup is going to be a very stern test for us.

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Kamil Jozwiak's injury is a real blow to us.

Tom Lawrence is looking tired and is being rested.

Ravel Morrison is refusing to enter into contract renewal talks with us as he wants to consider his options at the end of the season. I'm not going to cup-tie him as it may be worth seeing if we can get any takers for him this window.

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Saturday 8th January 2022

Brighton & Hove Albion v Derby County - FA Cup Third Round

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Against a very good Brighton & Hove Albion side I thought we played very well an can hold our heads up high.

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We went more attacking in the last half hour but, being fair, we never looked like breaking them down.

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Saturday 15th January 2022

Derby County v Sheffield United - Championship (27)

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We had to play the last half an hour with 10-men after Craig Forsyth had to go off with sprained knee ligaments after we'd already made out three substitutions.

In fact, we lost two left-backs as Craig had replaced Lee Buchanan (hamstring) in the first-half.

There wasn't much to choose between the two teams but Sheffield United too their chances and we didn't.

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22 minutes ago, Bitner said:

Tough times, but Scarlett will be firing soon, i hope...

Cheers,
Bitner 

Tough times it certainly is, @Bitner

I hope you’re right about Dane Scarlett because, at the moment, with our form I’m not confident of keeping the Rams up. But I will do my best.

Next up, is the local Derby against Nottingham Forest who are rock bottom, but only three points behind us.

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Friday 21st January 2022

Press Conference: Nottingham Forest (a)

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This is a massive game for us tomorrow, not only is it away against our local rivals Nottingham Forest but it's also against the team who are rock bottom of the Championship. We'd give ourselves a huge boost if we could win at the City Ground and stretch the gap over Forest to six points.

And we also want our amazing Rams supporters to have the bragging rights again. We beat Forest 5-1 at Pride Park earlier in the season to lift the Brian Clough Trophy and we hope our captain Curtis Davies will be lifting the trophy after tomorrow's game.

It won't be easy, but we've trained well and are confident of getting a positive result.

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To add to the knock Lee Buchanan picked up against Sheffield United, Krystian Bielik and Richard Stearman also suffered knocks in training this week. All three have been cleared by our medical staff to play but it's a question of whether we risk them or not.

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Saturday 22nd January 2022

Nottingham Forest v Derby County - Championship (28)

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For a neutral, I think that was a very entertaining game as both teams tried to win the Brian Clough Trophy. We're delighted to have retained it but we'd rather have done it with a win, not a draw.

To be honest, I thought we were the better team first half and their goal, a screamer from long-range, was very much against the run of play.

The second half was more even, and we showed great spirit to fight back and equalise through Dane Scarlett's first goal for the club.

I felt we could easily have won it - Maurizio Pochettino hit the post, Dane Scarlett hit the bar, and Samba made great saves to deny Facundo Colidio and Curtis Davies.

At the other end, Ryan Allsop kept us in it with a couple of fine saves late on, plus a last ditch saving tackle by Curtis Davies so, perhaps, a draw was a fair result in the end.

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16 minutes ago, Bitner said:

Not a bad signing in Colidio, now you got 2 CF who can score goals at this level.

Cheers,
Bitner 

Thanks, @BitnerFacundo Colidio didn't have the best of games against Forest on his debut, but I was warned he wasn't at full fitness.

Dane Scarlett came on for him and scored his first goal for the club.

I'm now wondering whether I should change to more of a 4-4-2 system (well, 4-2-2Wide-2) to try and accommodate both of them.

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Friday 28th January 2022

Press Conference: Birmingham City (H)

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Another big game today as we take on Birmingham City who were immediately below us on 24 points before they beat Sheffield United 2-0 at St. Andrews to go above us. We didn't play in midweek as our game was postponed because of the FA Cup.

It would be great to win in front of our superb supporters at Pride Park to leap-frog Birmingham City and still have a game-in-hand over them.

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We have a bit of a crisis in central defence with Craig Forsyth still not available, plus Andre Wisdom and Jordan Brown picked up injuries in training this week.

That means Richard Stearman will start, with Krystian Bielik providing cover on the bench, even though neither of them are fully fit.

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Saturday 29th January 2022

Derby County v Birmingham City - Championship (29)

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I'm not going to lie to you, I'm angry after that game. We were 2-0 up and should've been more ahead. We were 2-1 up going into the last 10 minutes of the game and somehow, we've managed to lose the game.

But the officials didn't help matters. Dane Scarlett scored what, I thought, was a perfectly good goal, only for the assistant referee to raise his flag for offside.

Even at 2-2, we could've won it in added on time when Dane Scarlett hit the post with a sensational shot. It deserved better and, on another day, Dane would've had a hat-trick.

But, if you can't win a game like that, you have to make sure you don't lose it, so it was bitterly disappointing to see an experienced defender, like Curtis Davies, totally mistime his header, allowing Scott Hogan to run clean through, with only the goalkeeper to beat, and score the winner in 90+4 minutes.

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