Three Centre Backs, Two Matches and One Angry Fan

It's amazing the difference 72 hours can make. At 10pm on Saturday evening I was furious and to those who know my relationship with football, that should come as a shock. I don't tend to get angry when it comes to Derby County; why bother being angry about something that is beyond your control? At 10pm on Tuesday I was on a high, having just seen Derby thrash Hull 4-0 at the iPro.

I had thought about doing a post on Saturday but that would have been a straight up character assassination of several people at the club; I would rather not have my name associated with that type of work. Thankfully, the result on Tuesday has given me the opportunity to do a classic compare and contrast - why did everything go so wrong on Saturday and why did everything go so right on Tuesday?

It would be very easy to say platitudes about round pegs in round holes. There is no doubt that team selection plays a part, but they don't explain such a huge difference in the level of team performance. They do play some part though, so I'll mention them. There were two differences in the team that beat Hull from the one that tamely surrendered to Cardiff. Jamie Hanson was replaced by Cyrus Christie and Johnny Russell came in for Jacob Butterfield. This was not a like for like swap (as can be seen below); Johnson was moved into central midfield where he's far more comfortable whilst Ince took up a position on the left wing. Hanson, a player that I have high hopes for is not a natural right back, especially when compared to the far more experienced Christie.

Against Cardiff, Johnson's lack of first touch and pace made him an ineffective outlet. This combined with Ince's one footedness hindering his ability to create with the ball at his feet. Hanson, for all of his defensive solidity very rarely made it past the halfway line and his distribution was poor. Compare this to what we saw against Hull. Johnson playing the centre of the park was able to use his strength and overall physical prowess to good effect, supporting the attack through middle. Ince on the left of the front three was able to go both inside and outside of Moses Odubajo, as opposed to just cutting inside like he does when played on the right. The introduction of Russell also added some much needed urgency to the front line. Russell also cuts inside most of the time but unlike Ince, Russell's darting runs are done at a quicker pace and are less intricate in their construction giving the opposition less time to double up on him.

These positional changes do influence results, but not to an extent that it can explain a 5 goal swing. Players, both ours and the opposition play their part. 

Cardiff
Cardiff set up with a classic 442 with two energetic central midfielders in the shape of Joe Ralls and Stuart O'Keefe who were first to every loose ball and Anthony Pilkington dropping deep to pressure Thorne. This prevented Thorne and Derby from dominating the midfield, and indeed has become a common and effective tactic used by many teams this season. Craig Noone was also very diligent in tracking back to help cover Olsson's supporting runs on the left flank; the one time Olsson slipped through he set up Martin for our goal. Ince was guided inside to the waiting Ralls by Scott Malone time and time again, and with Hanson rarely overlapping was too easy to dispossess. I can't help but feel that with an ageing Peter Whittingham on that wing Christie would've had a field day.

Bruno Manga dominated Chris Martin and scored one goal (walesonline.co.uk)

Now I'm going to go on a bit of a rant. Cardiff's two centre backs were absolutely dominant in the are with Bruno Manga being the standout and this is absolutely fine; you come up against teams like that sometimes. In the first 5 minutes it became very apparent that Martin would win nothing against Manga. With this in mind, it should have been obvious that if balls up to Martin were going to pay off, he'd have to play against Sean Morrison, the other centre back. However, every single long ball, whether it be from Carson's goal kicks or Shackell's hoofs, went in the direction of Manga. At one point Martin had moved across to Morrison's side in an effort to free himself of Manga and Carson just kicked it straight to the Gabonese! I wondered if there might some truth to the idea that footballers don't have brains. This was confirmed in the second half when no man was put on the back post for Whittingham's corners despite the fact that Cardiff's first goal had gone in at the back post. Lo and behold, the Cardiff winner goes in at the back post. Two very preventable goals, softly conceded.

Hull
Hull on the other hand went for a 451 formation with Mohamed Diame playing behind Sone Aluko. I can only assume Steve Bruce's plan was for that high energy front two to try and nick the ball off the feet of Thorne or one of the centre backs. This can be the only reason he left his top goalscorer Abel Hernandez (a very talented finisher, but poor workhorse) on the bench. This would be fine if Hull had more than two players pressing the ball, but they didn't. In ex-ram Tom Huddlestone and ex-coke head Jake Livermore, Derby came up against one of the least mobile midfields in the Championship. Ideally, one of them needed to push up and help Diame and Aluko press, but such assistance wasn't forthcoming. Thorne was able to push up into the space that Diame had vacated whilst pressing and Livermore and Huddlestone couldn't move up quick enough to pressure him. As a result Thorne had the freedom of the iPro.

Still, Bruce's game plan would've been fine if Hull hadn't shot themselves in the foot - after all, the onus was still on Derby to score. Curtis Davies, one of the best centre backs in the league slipped allowing Bryson to nip in and Derby took advantage. After that it was one way traffic as Hull panicked and left spaces for Derby to exploit as they looked for an equaliser. In contrast to the laboured forward movement against Cardiff, the team against Hull was fluid and played with a swagger reminiscent of the 13/14 season. It seemed to these untrained eyes that everyone knew their role, knew they could do it well and as a result they did. 

Curtis Davis' mistake against Derby changed the complexion of the match (skysports.com)

Jason Shackell
What to do with the enigma that is Jason Shackell? After the match on Saturday I was convinced that he should be nowhere near my club. There are good things about Shackell; he's solid defensively, very good in air and is a leader (supposedly). Against Cardiff we aw the very worst of him. Going forwards seemed to mean in his mind passing the ball five yards sideways to Keogh or twenty yards backward to Carson. For Cardiff's first goal, he assigned Keogh to mark Manga,a decision I cannot fathom. Shackell must surely know that he's our best defensive header of the ball, so why pass on the opposition's biggest threat to a poorer defender?

What really made my blood boil though was his reaction to an incident late in the first half. Shackell challenged one of the Cardiff players (Pilkington I think), who went down easily. The ref blew for the foul and while Pilkington was on the ground, Shackell kicked him. Kicked him. Whilst he was 2 yards in front of the linesman. If that linesman knew how to do his job he would've told the ref to send Shackell off and if I was Wassall I would've dragged him off at halftime. For one of our most experienced players, a player who is supposed to be a cool head, a man who many were calling to be our captain to do that is unacceptable. Words cannot explain my rage upon seeing that.

To give him his due though, Shackell was much improved against Hull. Jake Buxton had obviously decided to have a word with him in training as his passing forward actually went into the opposition half of the pitch for once. And not only that, but most of it was accurate, to the chest of Martin and as a result actually giving him a chance to bring other players into the match.

Jason Shackell was much improved against Hull (Action Images)

Final Thoughts
The annoying thing about those 72 hours is that they show just how well we can play, yet there was no sign of that level of performance against Cardiff. I'm trying to be as respectful as possible when I say this, but Cardiff are no great shakes. A functional team that punished us from set pieces, like a less efficient Burnley. They were there for the taking and we didn't do that. The important thing to do going forward is to remember what gave us this great result against Hull and what gave us this terrible one against Cardiff.