What Dougie thought about the game - Derby

Dougie Freedman says Wanderers are moving in the right direction as his side posted a point at Derby County on Tuesday evening.

The Whites are now undefeated in their last three, after a Richard Keogh own goal on the stroke of half time was cancelled out by Jamie Ward’s late header.

Speaking in his post-match press, the manager said: “We knew Derby would start at a very high tempo and put us under a lot of pressure. They like to work the ball in the wide areas and deliver crosses into the penalty area.

“I thought we dealt with their threats well and caused problems of our own. We played with two strikers and attacked from there.

“The game-plan worked for us. I wasn’t prepared to sit back tonight because we wanted to win the game. I wanted the game to be open and attacking so we could exploit their weaknesses.

“I kept the same shape throughout. We made some straight swaps starting with Craig Davies and David Ngog.

“We were very committed, worked hard and there wasn’t a lot between the two sides. I feel we could have gone on and got a second goal after half time and finished the game off.

“We’re of course disappointed not to have won the game, but I feel it was a fair result.

“The encouraging thing is that we are going to these difficult grounds and taking the lead. We’ve got to grind away and look to get a couple of wins on the bounce.

“We’re undefeated in three and certainly tonight, and at Nottingham Forest, we could have won the game.

“I’d like to thank the fans that made the journey to the game. They were vocal and gave us great support throughout.

“The games are coming thick and fast and that is good for us. We’re back on the training ground tomorrow morning in preparation for the visit of Hull City.

“We now have back-to-back home games and it gives us a real chance to kick on.”

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Thats just the same speech from last week re-written.

He should just copy and paste his after match comments, same every fucking week, this fucker is a Scottish Megson with a personality.

He should just copy and paste his after match comments, same every fucking week, this fucker is a Scottish Megson with a personality.

MartinBWFC wrote:He should just copy and paste his after match comments, same every fucking week, this fucker is a Scottish Megson with a personality.

I see what you did there. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

"There's more in us. People might think this is a good result for Bolton, but it's not quite good enough for me." - DF
Well we all agree with this quote from DF. Needed 3 but not to be.

Couldn't follow the game tonight but just looked at the stats on the Beeb. Can somebody explain to me how a Derby has 22 shots against us and naturally most of the possession?
WTF is going on at my club !!!!
After reading the reports and comments on here etc..... I'm about done with it all.
We are truly a very poor side. Now tonight we had two strikers on which I agreed with .....and bollocks ...nothing ... ... even SKD coundn't save us.
Right now I couldn't give a theory on what to do with this lot.

I'm bored of seeing "moving in the right direction'"

Im impatient and want to be there please

The Team that was out last night should have come away with 3 points, midfield is the problem not enough creation as usual, There is more chance of Man City winning the title than we have of making the playoffs.

All the people clamouring for 2 strikers up front, in didn't work last night. 4-5-1 suits us better. It just needs to be an attacking 4-5-1. We give posession away too easily in a 442 and there was allot of loose passes last night.

Jamster26 wrote:All the people clamouring for 2 strikers up front, in didn't work last night. 4-5-1 suits us better. It just needs to be an attacking 4-5-1. We give posession away too easily in a 442 and there was allot of loose passes last night.

that's why we conceded, we just kept giving them the ball back. 442 needs a decent ball carrier like Holden was, even Muamba would occasionally make some decent drives forward with the ball.

Spearing does it rarely and Pratley didn't do it at all last night, too often they receive it back to goal and lay it off in one or two touches. Those 2 aren't dynamic enough to play together in a 442, needs somebody direct in there to drive forward when we have it.

The manager may be trying to put a positive spin on it for the media but I'm sure he's as disappointed as we are. We always said that playing two strikers was an experiment worth trying and always knew that the danger would be that we got overrun in midfield as a result. So it turned out to be. Plan A and Plan B both delivered an away draw. When we get round to Plan C the trick will be keeping the attacking threat whilst maintaining control of the midfield. Is it possible? Yes with better players. Maybe Medo will fit the bill and Stuey will come back to being the player he was, but either way if we are going to stick with two strikers we're going to need brains and brawn in the middle.

To get promotion next season we won't do it playing 4-5-1 as we don't have a midfielder who will score 15 goals.

It would be ridiculous to give up on two strikers after one poor display. A better choice of midfielders would have helped.

Can anybody honestly say this is better than under Mugson or OC ? I don't know what the stats say but it seems very poor to me.
Moving in the right direction ? it seems to be getting more dire every week. I can't fathom why our lads can't pass a ball 10 feet or have poor ball control while you see the opposition moving up and down the field like Barca ....and we are supposed to have a good squad. Maybe Holden, Wheater & Medo will make a diference although we always say this sort of thing and nowt changes. It's baffling really.

Were the stats on the Beeb better in Megsons days?

terenceanne wrote:Can anybody honestly say this is better than under Mugson or OC ? I don't know what the stats say but it seems very poor to me.
Moving in the right direction ? it seems to be getting more dire every week. I can't fathom why our lads can't pass a ball 10 feet or have poor ball control while you see the opposition moving up and down the field like Barca ....and we are supposed to have a good squad. Maybe Holden, Wheater & Medo will make a diference although we always say this sort of thing and nowt changes. It's baffling really.

It doesn't seem to matter what system or players Dougie picks, we simply can't play as a team. We haven't played well all season.

These players really do need a massive kick up the backside.

Under Mugson we stayed in the prem against much better opposition than we have now. So the stats don't count.
Nat: You can shout at me day & night and I'm still a donkey .... skill and basics are somehow missing. What's the fix besides that?

Natasha Whittam wrote:To get promotion next season we won't do it playing 4-5-1 as we don't have a midfielder who will score 15 goals.

It would be ridiculous to give up on two strikers after one poor display. A better choice of midfielders would have helped.

4231 is not a defensive formation though, we could definitely get promoted playing it properly. That's not too say never play 442 or to give up on it yet I just think people see one u front and jump to the conclusion we're aiming to shut up shop it's simply not the case.

With Freedmans policy on wanting to control posession, you'd thnk 4-5-1 would be the way to go. I just don't think Spearing, Pratley or Mark Davies are good enough in a 4-4-2. None are commanding enough. 4-5-1 with Holden, Kamara, Spearing, Lee, Eagles, would be much better.

terenceanne wrote:
Nat: You can shout at me day & night and I'm still a donkey .... skill and basics are somehow missing. What's the fix besides that?

I didn't shout.