v Derby County (a) - 8/3/2025

[Upside Down]

Just now, Waggy76 said:

Steve, won't give a shit, he has only played 15 mins in the league! 

Not much appearance money there 👌

A nice commission though...

[alcd]

1 hour ago, DE. said:

Ismael may have found out some things about players today, but then he's going to look at the squad and realise there's very little he can do about it. He's going to receive a paltry budget in the summer and realise there's very little he can do about it.

JDT & Eustace saw the writing on the wall very quickly and got out however they could. In JDT's case going off on Suhail and Venky's until they let him go, and in Eustace's case applying for any and all jobs until he found someone - anyone - willing to pay his release clause.

Ismael will find out soon enough exactly why his predecessors were so desperate to escape. The only question is whether he can stomach working in these conditions or not. Three years is a long time, especially in football.

It'll be 9 months and a payoff then onto the next one. 

[chaddyrovers]

1 hour ago, arbitro said:

Our set pieces were abysmal today primarily down to poor delivery but I can't remember one where one of our players got the first contact on the ball. Similarly we didn't win many second balls, something we were good at with the Tronstad/Travis pairing earlier in the season.

All season they been poor..

Our set pieces need massive improvement and I noticed Whitehead seems to be in charge of them. 

It's not hard how we should set up for them but same with free kicks. You should be heading for Gueye, Carter and Hyam then Ohashi, etc feed of that.

Not rocket science tbh

[47er]

I'm often saying we will never get promoted with Venkys, I also think we'll never be promoted with Pears.

Has never commanded his area, its chaos almost every time the opposition launch the ball up there.

Obvious problem but, like the others, never addressed. 

Yet another 8th, 9th 10th-type petering-out finish probably---could be worse. But since the "ambition" at the start of the season was to "stay in this division" I suppose its job done for our owners and admin.

By the way,  Eustace's  time-wasting and shit-housery is exactly what he did at Elland Rd end of last season and we raved about it!

The fact is we've lost the manager we needed and got a replacement whose very likely not as good.

The dumbing-down, continues---at every level.

 

[windymiller7]

Ok, I've had a few beers & now having a forest (at home this time I might add!) But did we even have a shot in the last 10 mins?

Fuck off pears, fuck off everyone apart from Trav & bigmak. Noone else gives a shit & the biggest fuck off goes to those with the inflatable snakes round their necks - wake up & smell the coffee, JE is not the issue! 

[Trinidad Rover]

Not been as angry at a performance for a while.

Derby are crap.

Our lot just chose to surrender. Images at the final whistle all we needed to see.

I don’t blame the player, Ismael or Eustace. The buck stops with those wretched, repugnant, minging excuses for owners.

Edited March 9 by Trinidad Rover

[USABlue]

10 hours ago, rigger said:

Good and Pears should never appear in the same sentence.

Unless riddance is in it as.well.

[MarkBRFC]

7 hours ago, ageoftherover said:

We've beaten all 3 promoted sides this year.

Sorry, away from home I should have said.

[martonrover]

9 hours ago, jim mk2 said:

 

Supporters have perhaps found out things about Ismael too, that he’s had zero impact on the team and the players, that he’s tactically rigid and  that, really, he’s not very good.

What was that second half all about today? Rovers were all over the place, failed to put Derby under any pressure and never at any point looked like saving the game. A large part of that is down to Ismael. My worst fears about him are being realised quicker than I expected

I think we've put a square peg in a round hole.

He was 'cheap' and unemployed, and that's all our goons care about.

I'm not saying Eustace was soft, far from it, but I remember the podcast last Summer with Szmodics and Allardyce.

They were comparing JDT and Eustace.

From what Szmodics was saying, Allardyce described JDT as a "coach" and Eustace as a "pragmatic manager" in terms of methods of work and dealing with players.

Ismael has a reputation of rubbing players up the wrong way and being stubborn.

Our squad clearly enjoyed working for Eustace and were no doubt gutted to see him go.

I don't think that Ismael will be viewed in the same light. 

Edited March 9 by martonrover

[Penwortham Blue]

15 minutes ago, martonrover said:

I think we've put a square peg in a round hole.

He was 'cheap' and unemployed, and that's all our goons care about.

I'm not saying Eustace was soft, far from it, but I remember the podcast last Summer with Szmodics and Allardyce.

They were comparing JDT and Eustace.

From what Szmodics was saying, Allardyce described JDT as a "coach" and Eustace as a "pragmatic manager" in terms of methods of work and dealing with players.

Ismael has a reputation of rubbing players up the wrong way and being stubborn.

Our squad clearly enjoyed working for Eustace and were no doubt gutted to see him go.

I don't think that Ismael will be viewed in the same light. 

This club, this team, these players never turn up in matches / situations like this one. Eleven straight defeats away from home against promoted teams, I would wager Pompey will make that a perfect twelve in a few weeks, suggests yesterday had very little to do with Valerian Ismael.

[cesus]

7 minutes ago, Penwortham Blue said:

This club, this team, these players never turn up in matches / situations like this one. Eleven straight defeats away from home against promoted teams, I would wager Pompey will make that a perfect twelve in a few weeks, suggests yesterday had very little to do with Valerian Ismael.

Agreed, teams coming up from League One are all about survival, they have no issue with going route one and roughing up centre backs and SUSPECT GOALKEEPERS!! 

Therein lies our achilles heal.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

6 hours ago, windymiller7 said:

Ok, I've had a few beers & now having a forest (at home this time I might add!) But did we even have a shot in the last 10 mins?

Fuck off pears, fuck off everyone apart from Trav & bigmak. Noone else gives a shit & the biggest fuck off goes to those with the inflatable snakes round their necks - wake up & smell the coffee, JE is not the issue! 

From what it showed on the tv they were mostly kids who don’t know any better.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

3 minutes ago, cesus said:

Agreed, teams coming up from League One are all about survival, they have no issue with going route one and roughing up centre backs and SUSPECT GOALKEEPERS!! 

Therein lies our achilles heal.

That’s exactly what happened yesterday. We got turned over by a route one team. Nothing new there.

[Paul Mellelieu]

I have to say that I haver zero respect for JE, and not least his comments after the game.  We all work in tricky jobs from time-to-time and he left us in the lurch and abandoned the players who seem to really like him, and the fans when we were in a great position to get into the play offs.

He was no great shakes last season, let's be honest, and nearly got us relegated.  

Stick if out to the end of the season and move on then would be the honourable thing to do.

[...]

5 minutes ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

I have to say that I haver zero respect for JE, and not least his comments after the game.  We all work in tricky jobs from time-to-time and he left us in the lurch and abandoned the players who seem to really like him, and the fans when we were in a great position to get into the play offs.

He was no great shakes last season, let's be honest, and nearly got us relegated.  

Stick if out to the end of the season and move on then would be the honourable thing to do.

My only gripe. Didn't finish the ride.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

7 minutes ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

I have to say that I haver zero respect for JE, and not least his comments after the game.  We all work in tricky jobs from time-to-time and he left us in the lurch and abandoned the players who seem to really like him, and the fans when we were in a great position to get into the play offs.

He was no great shakes last season, let's be honest, and nearly got us relegated.  

Stick if out to the end of the season and move on then would be the honourable thing to do.

And somebody else gets the Derby job and that chance has gone.

[jim mk2]

1 hour ago, martonrover said:

I think we've put a square peg in a round hole.

He was 'cheap' and unemployed, and that's all our goons care about.

I'm not saying Eustace was soft, far from it, but I remember the podcast last Summer with Szmodics and Allardyce.

They were comparing JDT and Eustace.

From what Szmodics was saying, Allardyce described JDT as a "coach" and Eustace as a "pragmatic manager" in terms of methods of work and dealing with players.

Ismael has a reputation of rubbing players up the wrong way and being stubborn.

Our squad clearly enjoyed working for Eustace and were no doubt gutted to see him go.

I don't think that Ismael will be viewed in the same light. 

To judge from the first 2 games, and yesterday’s second half in particular, I think this is true. The players are clearly not playing for him 

[NeilInBristol]

57 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

To judge from the first 2 games, and yesterday’s second half in particular, I think this is true. The players are clearly not playing for him 

Yeh it's true

It seems that the clubs direction therefore his mission is to get youth through the ranks so he won't be man managing the older chaps too much. No point as it's not his focus 

Very different to what JE was doing, getting the best out of the older members of the squad

[arbitro]

56 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

To judge from the first 2 games, and yesterday’s second half in particular, I think this is true. The players are clearly not playing for him 

How do you explain coming back against Norwich last week to get a point. We conceded in the 90th minute and only had ten men. They clearly were playing for him then.

Yesterday we started slowly and conceded two soft goals from basic errors. The change in the system made by Ismael made us much more solid. There was no lack of effort and nothing at all to suggest the players are not playing for him.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

3 minutes ago, arbitro said:

How do you explain coming back against Norwich last week to get a point. We conceded in the 90th minute and only had ten men. They clearly were playing for him then.

Yesterday we started slowly and conceded two soft goals from basic errors. The change in the system made by Ismael made us much more solid. There was no lack of effort and nothing at all to suggest the players are not playing for him.

This “ starting slowly “ has come back to haunt us again recently. We let Norwich get their feet under the table last week. 

[Gav]

2 minutes ago, arbitro said:

How do you explain coming back against Norwich last week to get a point. We conceded in the 90th minute and only had ten men. They clearly were playing for him then.

Yesterday we started slowly and conceded two soft goals from basic errors. The change in the system made by Ismael made us much more solid. There was no lack of effort and nothing at all to suggest the players are not playing for him.

Its complete and utter bunkum that the players aren't playing for the manager, he's only been in the door 2wks, laughable comments frankly.

These players are simply not good enough to make the step to the next level as a collective in my opinion, the squad is paper thin and we are running on empty, its the same old story, nothing changes and nothing will until we get rid of these owners. 

VENKYS OUT - NOTHING ELSE MATTERS.

[arbitro]

Just now, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

This “ starting slowly “ has come back to haunt us again recently. We let Norwich get their feet under the table last week. 

As we did at Bristol, Swansea, QPR, Oxford and pretty much every game where we have gone behind.

[Gav]

1 minute ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

This “ starting slowly “ has come back to haunt us again recently. We let Norwich get their feet under the table last week. 

Norwich were a very good side Tyrone, one of the best to come to Ewood this season in my opinion.

It’s wasn’t a case of letting them settle, we couldn’t live with them for large parts of the game. 

[NeilInBristol]

15 minutes ago, arbitro said:

How do you explain coming back against Norwich last week to get a point. We conceded in the 90th minute and only had ten men. They clearly were playing for him then.

Yesterday we started slowly and conceded two soft goals from basic errors. The change in the system made by Ismael made us much more solid. There was no lack of effort and nothing at all to suggest the players are not playing for him.

Two soft goals because we have flappy hands in goal too 

I hope we upgrade on this GK department this summer 

[martonrover]

2 hours ago, Penwortham Blue said:

This club, this team, these players never turn up in matches / situations like this one. Eleven straight defeats away from home against promoted teams, I would wager Pompey will make that a perfect twelve in a few weeks, suggests yesterday had very little to do with Valerian Ismael.

I will have to disagree about that.

It’s abnormal for a new manager to suffer such a shocking defeat in his second game.

I do agree there are wider reasons, and it’s certainly only one factor.