Same old problems as Roo’s Rams swim against the tide
ST ANDREW’S NO LONGER HAPPY HUNTING GROUND AS BLUES ADD TO THE TORMENT
DERBY County had not lost in eight previous visits to St Andrew’s, winning five and drawing three, and they had scored 22 goals in those matches, including four on two occasions.
A happy hunting ground in better days but the feeling after the Rams’ 2-0 defeat by Birmingham City on Friday night was that the performance and result were indicative of where the club finds itself at this moment.
The off-the-field issues in what has become a long-running saga with the EFL remain as an unhelpful, deeply-frustrating, worrying backdrop and each setback on the pitch increases the worry lines.
This continues to linger, accompanied by talk of a possible points’ deduction, and it will come as no surprise to anybody to say the matter needs a conclusion – soon.
Nor should what was seen in Derby’s display at Birmingham come as a surprise.
Wayne Rooney and the players are swimming against a strong tide and the current could become stronger with games against West Bromwich Albion and Stoke City in the next week.
A threadbare squad is battling for every inch and point in the Championship, an unforgiving environment that will highlight shortcomings over the 46 fixtures. A number of those shortcomings were evident on Friday night.
Derby managed only two shots on target from 67% possession, both coming from skipper Tom Lawrence.
A shortage of creativity and goals was a problem last season and remains an Achilles heel of the team which is making it difficult to win games.
The Rams have scored four times in six League outings this season and manged only 36 all last season.
They continue to leak soft goals, although they are not alone if the evidence of the highlights of matches played elsewhere each weekend are anything to go by.
The two goals conceded at Birmingham were avoidable, especially the first which changed the feeling and shape of the contest.
Lee Buchanan’s back pass created all sorts of problems and Lukas Jutkiewicz latched on to it.
The striker was denied by Kelle Roos’ fine save but the keeper diverted Jutkiewicz’s second attempt towards the back post, wrong-footing Phil Jagielka, and there was Scott Hogan to find the net.
The goal lifted the home side and was a severe blow to Derby, from which they never fully recovered. They had, without stretching Blues’ goalkeeper Matija Sarkic, been the better side for half an hour and had kept the home team at arm’s length with relative ease.
With the home fans up and putting pressure on Roos, whose uncertainty with his distribution did little to settle nerves as Derby stuck with a policy of playing out from the back, the test facing the Rams became tougher against opponents who have conceded only three times this season.
Fingers were, and will be, pointed at Derby’s style of play but this is how Rooney wants his team to function. There was criticism last season of the team not having an identity and the personnel within a squad tends to dictate how a team can approach games.
Rooney alluded to this following the game. “When it doesn’t work or you make a mistake and concede a goal, people can criticise – no problem, it is part of football – but we are not a team who can play long balls.
“Our strikers are not the tallest, not the biggest, we have to try and progress the ball and move forward as a team and play our way into the opponent’s half and create chances that way because there is no point playing long balls or getting the ball out wide and just lumping it into the box, we haven’t got the forward players with that style of play.”
It is a fair point, although any particular style of play is still about the decision making of the players. For example, when to and when not to play from the back.
That decision-making could have been better against Birmingham, who sensed an opportunity to jump on it with their tactics.
It all rather played into the home team’s hands.
There will be times in games when Derby’s style works and times when it doesn’t work but again that is no
surprise because it is what we have seen already this season.
Derby and many other teams in the division are not at a place where they can boss a game for 90-plus minutes.
Think of the first and second halves against Nottingham Forest as well as the Peterborough game when Derby had a victory within their grasp only to crumble in added time.
The opening 30 minutes of the Birmingham game made the outcome all the more annoying.
Indeed, there has been little to separate teams in Derby’s games but six points from a possible 18 means they have not fallen the right side of results often enough and that has to change.
Jeremie Bela drove in Birmingham’s second goal nine minutes from the end of normal time as the Blues bagged the three points.
It is easy to be critical, and parts of Derby’s performance at Birmingham deserve criticism, but circumstances must be factored in.
The return of Jason Knight and Kamil Jozwiak will add to the squad against West Brom tomorrow night, as will Craig Forsyth when he is back from his three-match ban.
But the group needs more additions which will only be possible if their is a long-awaited end to offthe-field matters.