ROWETT CRITICS SHOULD BEWARE
FRESH from battering Barnsley 3-0 at Oakwell, Derby boss Gary Rowett once again attacked critics of Derby’s playing style.
“This group now has the ability to win without playing as well as you might like and that is massive,” said Rowett, whose side, pre-weekend, were fourth after eight wins from their last 11 games.
It echoed comments made in the Derby Telegraph last month. “Our philosophy has always been the same,” explained the ex-Birmingham boss. “Can we play really good football and win the game? If not, can we play any football and win the game?”
Hardly the sentiments of a purist and normally not something I’d advocate. But Derby are not a normal case.
For the best part of five years, the Rams tried to pass-and-move their way into the Premier League.
Worth the price of a ticket? Absoutely. Yet for the bulk of Pride Park – and chairman Mel Morris – it was not enough. For all the pizzazz, spectators tired of a spineless side whose flamboyance shrivelled in the face of rough-and-ready opponents.
Paul Clement was hired to toughen Derby’s soft underbelly and largely succeeded only for complaints over a dearth of entertainment to prompt his dismissal.
Do Derby really want to make the same mistake?
Winning and style are not mutually exclusive, as Man City have so emphatically proved. As Rowett himself admits, a victory with bells on is every manager’s Plan A.
Having been sacked by Birmingham City amid accusations of ugly football, Rowett is sensitive to the issue of aesthetics and irritated by what is almost certainly a minority view.
Nevertheless, that minority should be careful what they wish for. Now Rowett is delivering, is it fair to complain?