United 1 Derby 0 - report and pod

[Webding]

I'm going with SJ's assessment. He was unhappy with how slow we played and says we need to manage the last 5 minutes much better and show more confidence.

It must irk SJ to see us revert back to the slow wilder ball football for the first hour. Hollywood passes sideways across the pitch and cumbersome triangles down the side achieved very little to-day. Derby did a job on our only two direct players in MGW and Ndiaye and the result was a stalemate until they were reduced to 10 men.

I reckon at least some of that is on him though. We seemed to be a lot more rigid and defensive than in recent games, more of a 4-4-1-1, certainly out of possession. It was bound to be slower and more laboured, especially with how Derby were set up too.

At centre half we miss a leader (a Morgan, Maguire or JOC type), someone who attacks the ball and wins nearly everything. Egan and Davies are fine as the mop-up centre halves, put them both together as a pairing and we're going to struggle to defend lump ball from the oppo (which I guess we'll encounter on a regular basis in the Championship).

Thankfully, we look as though we have enough against the poorer teams but against more robust opposition in the top half of the table I reckon we'll come unstuck.

Yeah, we said this on the podcast the other week. Egan is fine as your weaker centre half of a pair, but we’re lacking that really good, really dominant one.

 

[dublin 10 blade]

The player you couldn’t think of Deadbat
Is Richard Keogh , they were offered lifts home declined and stayed on the rip , Keogh was the one most badly injured and after his contract was cancelled he took Derby to court and won his case they had to pay him a good few Bob as a result
Currently playing for Blackpool