Steven Gerrard - into the world of management

Caught up! Derby looks like it could be fun, Mason Bennett can turn into a right talent on this if handled correctly too.
 
Goalkeeping Coach: Hi Steve, Eric Steel here, your Goalkeeping Coach. Paul Simpson asked me to see you today to discuss the 'keepers in the first team.

Steven Steven: Thanks Eric, nice to meet you. I just wanted your opinion who is the safer pair of hands. I can only watch the lads train once before we take on Blackburn and I really don't want to get this one wrong.

Goalkeeping Coach: Well' we're fortunate enough to have 2 good keeper who are both plenty good enough for the first team. Jak ALnwick has had the gloves so far this season and has't really done anything wrong although Lee Grant of course beats him for experience.

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Jak has a great future ahead of him although some of the fans feel its too early for him to be in the first team. I disagree however and think Jak can be great if given enough exposure.

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Lee Grant however has been there and done it! Championship experience through and through and been at the club a number of years now.

If you want me to be honest Steven, its a flip of the coin who's the better keeper. You can't go wrong with either choice.
 
Hmm... Derby, a team where I have only bad words for. Being a forest supporter this will be painful but I'm just going to have to live with it... I guess
 
Congrats on the success in MLS! Derby will be an interesting challenge as they have a strong squad!
 
reubomad said:
Hmm... Derby, a team where I have only bad words for. Being a forest supporter this will be painful but I'm just going to have to live with it... I guess
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Haha! Just pretend it isn't Derby - I'll try and take it easy against your Notts Forest side ;)

JamesScott2908 said:
Congrats on the success in MLS! Derby will be an interesting challenge as they have a strong squad!
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Thanks mate. The squad's pretty good, I really think promotion is achievable.
 
Right, no onto the first game in charge of Derby County!

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And we've been handed a tough one. League leaders Blackburn make the journey down to the Ipro probably expecting a fairly straight forward win.​

Lets see if that was the case ...

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The first choice I had was to choose between the two goalkeepers, Jak Alnwick and Lee Grant. After my goalkeeping coach told me they have very similar quality I decided to plump for experience and go for Grant.

Picking the back 4 was pretty simple although the squad has a real lack of quality wingers so i decided to play the two full backs as wing backs and give them license to get forward. I was a little worried how well Warnock would do here but he put a real shift in.

The midfield 3 was an easy choice and was the same as recommended by the assistant manager. However, with me playing without any wingers I was afforded another man in midfield so Verbic took the shirt to play in behind the front men.

Probably the hardest decision of the all was who to play up front. Chris Martin was a shoe in but the choice between Bennett and Russell was difficult. I went for Russell, again with experience and a better goal record.​

So onto the game.

Things didn't start well when Richard Keogh brought down Jordan Rhodes in the area to give away a penalty, Rhodes then stood up and took the kick himself, sending Grant the wrong way.

We then came right back into it then though with 2 goals in 5 minutes to reverse the tables and put us 2-1 up. Chris Martin then struck just before the hour mark to make it 3-1 and very comfortable.

Blackburn then got back into the game with a goal from John Guidetti with less than 10 minutes to go which made it a nervy finish.

On the whole though we played brilliantly and well deserved the win over the league leaders.​
 
Good start winning against league leaders! Have Derby had any youth come through worth a mention?
 
JamesScott2908 said:
Good start winning against league leaders! Have Derby had any youth come through worth a mention?
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Thanks mate :) The best youth player is defo Mason Bennett, I'll do an update on the youth tonight. None of the others are quite in the first team yet
 
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Even though we managed a very impressive win against league leaders, Blackburn, I still felt we could do with a couple more additions so we entered into the panic that is 'Transfer Deadline Day'.


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The first signing of the deadline day was forward, Cameron Jerome, who signed on loan from Championship side Norwich. Jerome had fallen down the pecking order at Norwich but I still see a space here at Derby for him. He'll challenge Chris Martin for the number 9 shirt, the contest will probably be very close and should improve both players game if nothing else.​

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Our next signing attempt was pretty ambitious and unfortunately we just couldn't get it over the line. Leicester striker, Jamie Vardy rejects our loan offer and decides to stay on the bench of Leicester. I really felt Vardy would be perfect as the second poacher striker but he seems to be just our of our league at the moment.​

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Because Vardy turned us down, we were still on the lookout for another striker. I was shocked to see Darren Bent out of contract and without a club! He'd only been on loan at the club last season without really impressing. I still think he has the quality needed though and will challenge Bennett and Russell to start at the poacher.​

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The last signing is, in my opinion, the best. Youness Kaboul signs on loan from Tottenham to help with our defence. I know Keogh and Albentosa are pretty good anyway but Kaboul is another league in front. I'm shocked he agreed to drop down to the Championship if I'm honest. It will now be tough to see who partners the big Frenchman.​
 
Next up was an away trip to 4th place Crystal Palace. A point here would be good and keep us on track for our promotion push.

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What a win!

Thats 2 out of 2 against two of the top 4 sides in the league.

Benjamin Verbic with the only goal of the game within 20 seconds. We then rode our luck a little to avoid conceeding, which included a misses penalty by Joe Ledley.

The most pleasing point from this game was the performance of new signing, Youness Kaboul which saw him go on to claim the man of the match award. He really showed his quality here and proved what an important player he's going to be for us.​
 
My third game in charge came against another side challenging for promotion. Brentford are currently lying in 7th place and are making a march for the play offs.

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Another brilliant win.

This was definitely one of our best performances since taking over. The game was pretty tight but we definitely had the better chances and deserved the win.

Will Hughes grabbed his first goal since I took over and showed real quality in doing so. Johnny Russell then carried on his good form by scoring the second to make it 2-0.

We then went on to keep our second consecutive clean sheet which was made able mostly by Youness Kaboul who again put in a brilliant performance and won his second man of the match award in as many games.


After 3 wins in a row, the table looked like this ...​

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We now move in to the all important play off spots, although its still ridiculously tight! Although looking at it now, the automatic promotion spaces are also achievable.​
 
Game number 4 saw us take on 10th place Bournemouth who are only a couple of points off the play offs themselves, another tough one then!

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Our first disappointment since taking over.

We were really poor here today! I think the previous 3 games must have taken it out of the lads as this was really poor!

Javier Patino put Bournemouth 1-0 after just minutes, we then had a couple of half chances to equalise but nothing that you could say was clear cut.

We then really went for the equaliser in the last 10 to 15 minutes which is when Bournemouth caught us on the break ... twice.

Much improvement needed!​
 
It was now really important we bounced back from that disappointment with a home game against mid-tabled Stoke.

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And bounce back we did!

Stoke set up so defensively and so deep that we really found it difficult to break them down. That was until Johnny Russell was brought down in the penalty area and Will Hughes converted the penalty.

Stoke offered very little going forward with this being probably our most dominant performance since taking over.​
 
Just before we were to face second placed Watford we had some disappointing injury news ...

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George Thorne was ruled out for 3 weeks with a twisted knee. This was a blow as the midfield trio had been working really well.​

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It didn't stop us getting a decent point away to Watford though.

Osmar came in for Thorne and had a decent game.

The game was pretty even, with us just edging it but only a few chances created for either side. I thought Darren Bent had gone on to grab the winner with his first goal since rejoining the club. However Watford equalised with an unbelievable strike in injury time.

Still a decent point though.​
 
Great start mate, Shame about the defeat against Bournemouth but looking strong still! Top notch signings to!
 
Hopefully you can still push for the automatic promotion spots. Great result against Stoke!
 
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