Sacking Steve

I had originally intended to start this blog before the start of the season but events conspired against me.  However, now it's the international break and there's a nice gap in which to reflect on the first month of the season and the various happenings of pre-season.

The big story of pre-season was of course the sacking of Steve McClaren and the departure of his coaching staff. It was a bold move by CEO Sam Rush, but it had an air inevitability about it; rumours had been swirling around in the press for months about McClaren ditching Derby for Newcastle. McClarens steadfast refusal to rule out leaving; empty lines such as "I'm under contract at Derby" and his very foggy memory of what he had said in the past didn't inspire confidence amongst supporters. This was combined with a catastrophic collapse of form (2 wins from the last 13 matches is relegation form), that saw Derby drop from 5 points clear at the top of the table at the end of January, to missing out on the playoffs on the last day of the season.

To say this slump was caused solely by press speculation would be grossly oversimplifying the situation. Injuries to key players in the spine of the team knocked the stuffing out the team; John Eustace picked up a knee injury in January (out for the season), his replacement in Defensive Midfield Omar Mascarell injured some tendons in his foot in March (out for the season) which led to George Thorne being rushed back from the cruciate injury he had picked up in pre-season. Thorne was promptly back on the treatment table 2 matches after his return with a thigh strain - too much too soon. Jake Buxton, a man who would rather run through a brick wall than concede a goal, succumbed to a back problem in March (he would later require surgery to clear it up) and Chris Martin hurt his knee in early February.

Chris Martin's injury contributed to Derby's slide down the table

While all of these injuries hurt, the most painful were the ones to Martin and Buxton. It has been well documented by both supporters and opposition managers (looking at you Uwe Rössler) that Martin makes Derby tick - without him the quick passing 4-3-3 formation that Derby play goes to pot because no one holds the ball and moves it on like him. It was quickly apparent that the team would struggle to adapt even with Darren Bent as a replacement. It was here that McClaren made mistake, trying to play Bent in that type of role and system; why would you try and make a player who has made a career out of running in behind the defence and poaching goals in the 18 yard box play as a target man. It was apparent that a change in formation was required but this change never came, instead fans were treated to a more short lived experiment of playing Johnny Russell up front on his own when Bent was injured. A tireless and willing runner he may be, but Russell will never be a lone striker. When Martin was brought back from the treatment room towards the end of the season it was painfully obvious that he wasn't fit and he seemed to have put on a lot of weight during his rehabilitation.

During the post-season rush to find out what went wrong I think one of the most-overlooked things was the injury to Buxton. Admittedly, Derby had already started stuttering by the time Bucko's season was called to an end but the performances were still there. The results hadn't shown it but Derby were still creating chances, yet they were failing to take them and losing by the odd goal. Then 'Bucko' got injured and things got a lot worse - without his regular dependable partner beside him, Richard Keogh (who came in for a lot of undeserved stick at the end of last season) was caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Now Keogh had to cover his Right Back partner like he had been doing all season, whether that was Cyrus Christie or Ryan Shotton, and try to form an instant partnership with Raul Albentosa (a man who by all accounts, didn't speak basic English) at Centre Back.

Steve McClaren looks on as Derby lose to Reading

This struggle led to numerous defensive mix-ups, in turn leading to the team losing confidence. Then in a bizarre turn of events, McClaren decided that to try and fix the defense by moving Craig Forsyth, an excellent marauding Left Back (one of the best in the league in my opinion), to CB and shifting Keogh to RB. This didn't work. Shifting 'Fozzy' to CB negates one of the best aspects of his game, his ability to support the attack and replacing him with Stephen Warnock, a man who is a good 5 inches shorter, removed the potential of lofting ball out left with the hopes of getting a flick on. While moving Keogh out to RB did shore up the right hand side to a degree, his presence was missed in central defense and a CB pairing of Albentosa and Forsyth had communication problems - probably not the biggest surprise with Albentosa not speaking English and Forsyth having the temperament of a newborn kitten.

There were other worrying team selections; playing Warnock, a man who has always and will only ever be a LB, in Defensive Mid being one and the decision not to drop Lee Grant after he made mistake after mistake after mistake being another.

It wasn't all bad during the second half of the season; the arrival of Tom Ince on loan from Hull City provided a spark, with goals flying in left, right and centre from the Howitzer attached to his left leg. Bent, even though he was played in a system clearly not suited to his talents still scored a decent amount of goals  while Jamie Hanson was given his first team debut against Norwich and made several other appearances, never looking overawed or out of his depth. On the whole though, the second half of the season was bad, followed by bad, followed by worse.

Jamie Hanson was one bright point towards the end of the season

McClarens sacking split the fans, with some believing this would be a mistake that would come back to haunt the club, whilst others thought it would be best for both parties if they went their separate ways. I myself was in second camp. Steve McClaren did a great job at Derby for the first year or so of his reign; he instigated attractive, easy on the eye, attacking football that was a joy to behold - it was certainly the best football that I had seen Derby play during my time as a season ticket holder. There was no better feeling than watching Derby blow away the opposition; performances like the 5-0 demolition of Nottingham Forest and battering Birmingham City 4-0 away from home will live long in the memory.

However, this was when the going was easy, when the lucky breaks went for Derby and injuries to players were non-existent. Managers prove themselves when things aren't going well and the second half of the season was the time when McClaren needed to prove his worth. Baffling team selections, an inability to halt the teams slide from the summit of the table and a refusal to shut down rumours about the Newcastle job, to me, rendered his position untenable.

After his sacking McClaren released a statement saying he didn't believe "rumours linking me to the Newcastle United job were a factor in the team's performances". Rumours coming out of the club suggested that McClaren had lost the support of some key players in the dressing room, by refusing to explicitly rule out going for the Newcastle job. It must be disheartening to say the least, to see your manager refuse to commit to the club if you were recently persuaded to sign a new contract under the assumption he would also remain loyal to the club. Also, slightly baffling was the admission from McClaren that he'd rebuffed an approach from Newcastle in January, despite Sam Rush saying that there had been no approach when asked about the situation in March. To add more fuel to the fire, despite having said that he was never interested in the Newcastle job, upon his later arrival in the northeast, McClaren said he'd always wanted the job.

In the end, I think everyone got what they wanted; Sam Rush got the chance to try find manager who might be able to drag the club up into the promised land of the Premier League, whilst McClaren was able to move into the job he'd always wanted.