Team vs Derby Last Night & In October

[Rsonist]

cerny
ramage gorkss stewart borrowdale
buzsaky mahon faurlin taarabt
routledge simpson

ikeme
ramage gorkss stewart hill
cook leigertwood faurlin taarabt
vine simpson

5 months ago we destroyed derby at pride park with composed high quality passing football with more or less the same team - excluding mahon and routledge - as the one hoofing it around aimlessly last night, and which is widely judged to be in need of a massive clear-out in the summer. so the question is - were these players overachieving then; are they underachieving now; were mahon & routledge so crucial to everything after all; or is it all just in the management?

[Robsondinho]

Jimmy boys style of footy & confident players

[Sprocket]

Two main reasons - 1) Routledge was arguably our player of the season before going to Newcastle and so is a major loss and 2) Mahon was playing the defensive midfielder very well at the time and Legs is a poor man's piano lifter.

[martyhoop]

A summer clear-out wont stop the hoofball as new players that come in will be told to play hoofball by the manager.

[rangersroar]

" More or less the same team" is incorrect, only 6 of the players played in both games.

[Rsonist]

mahon & routledge aside are you really saying there's a noticeable gap in quality between the rest of the differences? (cerny - ikeme, borrowdale - hill, cook - buzsaky.)

[Rsonist]

so far that's two votes for manager and one for the 2 missing players. interesting.

[Rsonist]

just seen the other thread - i haven't got an agenda behind this question btw, genuinely seemed bit of a mystery to me...

[qblockpete]

The manager had us playing great football and we were for that period unbeatable.

We had Cook last night instead of Routledge, so its not a great difference in personnel.

Cannot believe Mahon is the major diffrence, do you?

[Rsonist]

i can definitely believe mahon is a major difference but not to that extent no.

cook bears better comparison to buszaky than routledge though, especially when he's cutting in from his unfamiliar side. we don't have anyone with what routledge added to the team at the moment.

[qblockpete]

Magilton had the players full of confidence and playing to their best ability.

Probably worked them too hard

[Rsonist]

so if the right motivation is all they need, wouldn't it be fair to conclude we don't actually need a huge overhaul in the summer?

[qblockpete]

Could be right, but we have too many loans.

Think the players should take some responsibility, bearing in mind under hart and Harford, they obviously put very little effort in