Matt Derbyshire - new signing , 18mth deal

I stand corrected Kev but I stand by my comment with regards Oliver.

 

No problem mate it wont be the first time we've disagreed with regards Bradford City, against the cohesiveness of the team behave, Thursday nights game was hardly a classic the difference between that game and the game against Carlisle was we took one of our chances.

 

£200k for Cook? A pint of what you're smoking for me please - ROFL.

 

Thought it was new year's not April fool's?

 

Terrible signing. Completely washed up and not the sort of player we need to help us push on.

I'm predicting he won't even last the 18 months and won't play more than 20 games.

 

I agree with you re Oliver Dave. He's not really impressed when he's been on as a sub, but to be fair to the lad, he had a decent game against Harrogate and I thought that the pairing with Wright showed potential.
Cook was well off the pace at Carlisle and looked jaded, hence him missing the chances that he did which he would normally have put away with ease.

I agree with MH when he said that Cook needed a rest and Oliver was given the chance that he had patiently waited for.
Another aspect is that most teams have now sussed out Cook and know how to play him to keep him quiet, with Oliver he's a bit of an unknown item and that may be to our benefit, especially with Wright being the new Nahki
When Cook did come on v. Harrogate he showed a bit more fight and looked back to his usual self, which can only be good.

However I'm sure that Hughes won't change a winning team, especially with a changed system.

 

I'm off for a couple of beers to see the New Year in, have a good one guys and gals, and see you all at Valley Parade tomorrow

 

Agreed

 

I think I'm out on a limb here but I like Oliver and reckon with the right partner he could be a real asset. It's all about managing to get the best out of the tools you're given and so far it's been shoehorning players into a system rather than creating a system with the tools available. Hopefully the window will address this, either bring in suitable players or develop a system that suits what we've got. Let's see what happens

 

No we ended a long run of defeats and had a rare win against a team that usually beat us we got on the front foot more were more physical than usual and held the ball up betted. Not great I agree but better than home performances of recent months where we have gone through games without a shot on target. We went a little more direct and we needed to

 

Hopefully you will know what day it is tomorrow.

Get runs in you tight git!

Happy New Year 2023

 

No problem Happy New Year looking forward to this afternoon.

 

With Derbyshire, you do wonder what the reason he's been playing abroad so long and hope it's a love of sun rather than money or a poor attitude. Still, with Harratt gone some time ago it's basically a free hit. Cook has looked off the boil for about 10 games and should have been given a rest long before now, it's been a long time since we've bothered the CBs and became easy to play against. I'd be giving him 20-30 mins off the bench for a while to give him a chance to have a rest, Derbyshire will help us do this. I'd still like to see us bring someone in to replace Angol too (who's lost too much from hs game with the hamstring injuries)

 

It's clear the Derbyshire signing wasn't like our previous signings of players over 35 i.e. done at the last minute of deadline day and then spun as a tactical signing rather than a desperate one.
Hughes and Gent must have seen a gap in the team pre-season that Derbyshire could fill otherwise why try and sign him in the summer? And that gap is still there because we've signed him ahead of the transfer window opening.
At least with Cook, Oliver et al this isn't a signing where we're putting all our goal scoring eggs in the basket of a thirty something with a questionable fitness record.

 

Since Cooky relies on crosses for most of his goals and MH plays a narrow formation it is no wonder he struggles for goals. The new formation will help if MH does not return to his favourite no risk no chances formation

 

Struggles for goals?? He's second leading goalscorer in the league playing Hughes's way because he's a poacher, not a traditional no 9 you can just get crosses in for. If we were just pumping balls into the box the monster CBs in this league would just eat it up all day long unless he had Oliver up there with him. The problem we've had is teams are wise to our attempts to control possession and work through them and counter this by just sitting behind the ball and waiting for us to eventually make a mistake. It's exactly because Cook isn't the sort of player you can just hit balls into the box and expect him to get on the end of it we haven't had an outlet when teams do this and quickly run out of ideas.

 

(For a reference as to what this would look like consider when we had Doyle up front by himself as a target man compared to when he went to Swindon and they played it through to him)