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Speaker 3The Rams Weekly with Malcolm Christie. Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Rams Weekly. Alongside me for this episode was Dom Dietrich and Ed Dawes. It's the international break and we're doing things a little differently. For the last couple of weeks, we've been asking you to send in your questions into the Rams Weekly inbox. And this week, it's over to you. We'll get into that inbox and as many of your questions as we can before looking ahead to Saturday's game against Wrexham. Right, let's get into it. The Rams Weekly with Malcolm Christie on BBC Sounds. So, we're nearly there. The return of football is nearly upon us on recording this episode of the Rams Weekly. There are three sleeps to go. And I come on the pod. This episode. In a bit better mood than I was last week. I think, obviously, I was chewing the fat with Gary Routt before we went on air to record the Rams Weekly. Talking about my college team with a 4-3 defeat. I was talking through some of the tactical nuances of that performance before we went on air. And I'm happy to say the little bit of information that Gary Routt gave me about how this team should perform. I'm coming off the back of a 6-0 win today for my team. So, I'm absolutely. I'm absolutely buzzing and delighted to give that little bit of information to the listeners.
Speaker 4You've been in this job for over a year now. And this is the first time we're hearing about a result. Is that any reason or.?
Speaker 3Well, you can probably guess how last season went. Yeah. Last season was a struggle, right? I think this is. For me, it was all about patience. I've had a group of people around me who have said, Look, Malcolm, you will come good. We trust you. We trust the process. And, yeah, it's. I mean, I'm quite happy now to share with the Rams listeners my team's performances and results. Because, you know, there's nothing better than coming off the back of a win. And I hope that positivity that I'm sharing with the Rams fans now is something that I can share or we can share after the game Saturday against Wrexham there as well. So, I'm absolutely delighted and buzzing.
Speaker 1Tell you what, Malcolm. There's a couple of non-league jobs going on. You know, there's a couple of vacancies. If you fancy dipping your toe with all your licenses over your shoulder like an army uniform, no?
Speaker 3Yeah. Listen, I'm happy with what I'm doing now. This job that I have now gives me the opportunity of doing a little bit of everything, really. Sort of jack of all trades, master of none a little bit, if I'm totally honest with you. Going from designing first-team kits with names and numbers. Names and numbers on the back of the shirts is something that. Actually, I took from Paris Saint-Germain when Zach, my son, played against PSG. I noticed that all the academy lads had names and numbers on the back of the shirt, squad numbers. I thought, you know what? I'm going to bring that into my college. And the players are absolutely loving it. You know, just little things that I'm trying to make this experience for them as good as I possibly can.
Speaker 4I know this is a supported Q&A episode. I'm just wondering who asked.
Speaker 3It's not a Malcolm Christie coaching. But, you know, you might not hear about my results every week. Obviously, it will do go on performances. But, yeah, absolutely. Look, we've set this up for the last couple of weeks. We've asked you, the listener, you know, you're the most important part of the show, in all fairness. We've asked you to get your questions in to myself, Dom and Ed with the inbox that we have, ramsweekly at bbc.co.uk. And lots of you have. It's been really good to. It's been really good to read through. And we're going to pick through some of the questions and, you know, some of the burning issues that you feel that we have. And, look, we're not going to come at the end of this with all the right answers. There'll probably be a little bit of debate, no doubt, as there is. Myself and Ed will probably fall out at some point in the next 40 minutes or so. No, we won't. No, I hope not. I hope that we're on the same page as everything, Ed. We will. We will. No, we won't. Yeah, so we'll get through a lot of your questions here. And at the end, we'll come up with some predictions. As well as we look on the horizon to the Wrexham game at Pride Park. So let's move straight on. So I've got the first question here. And this comes from Mark. And he asks, who carries the most responsibility for Derby's current trajectory? And he's put four blocks here together. So he's gone for players, manager, recruitment, or ownership. And I'm going to come to you first, Ed.
Speaker 1Well. One that's missing is injuries. Because if you haven't got injuries, then you've got a much stronger squad with better players. And you're more likely to pick up more points and win matches. So I would say players have it on their shoulders, perhaps. Head coach has it on his shoulders. Recruitment has it on his shoulders. I think it's a mixture of all of those things. Is John Eustace getting the best out of the players that are fit? Clearly not, because of the results. Are the players, you know, producing their best performances? Probably not, when you look at players like Sondre Langas, who's come back from the World Cup in the shadow of his former self. And the recruitment thing was, it's very weird. I just find the whole thing weird. And we talked about it on the most recent sports scene, talking about the list of people that Derby wanted to sign and that the targets didn't change, whether they had millions to spend or not. So. Yeah, I think it's a little bit of everyone and a little bit of everything. But I also think you cannot, cannot move forward when you've got the number of injuries to different players consistently from the start of the summer.
Speaker 3And I think that, you know, we can look at that. We can look at that word responsibility, isn't it? And we're looking at that and we're thinking, well, for me, it's slightly different to blame. Because at the moment, when you have such a poor start to that, we're all looking for it, aren't we? We're looking for some, you know, what is it? What part of, whether it's a squad, or around the squad, the manager or coaching staff, can we blame for this start? But I think that when you sort of separate the two responsibility, you're right, Ed. I mean, John Eustace has had to deal with a ridiculous amount of injuries and layering that on top. So there's been a few different layers, isn't there? We've got the injuries, poor start, fitness, you know, even from last season, the fall over from the players, you know, Patrick Adjeman, one of those from last season as well. But ultimately, when you just strip everything back and you look at the team, John is responsible for results and performances that we see on that pitch. And I suppose the question that we have here at the moment is, has John got the best out of that group of players that we have? Because I was speaking on Sports Scene the other night, and there has been times that I've looked at that 1-11, Dom, and I've thought, you know what? This team, they should get a result here. They should get a result. A performance, and it hasn't bared fruit. And then we go back onto the blame game. What is it? Oh, it's the injuries. We've got this player to come back, that player to come back. Loss of form, that player's not match fit. But ultimately, it all falls on the manager's head. So it's a very difficult one, I think it is, to split out and go, OK, well, there's X amount of percentage on recruitment. There's X amount of percentage on ownership, managers and players. But I think ultimately, what we're seeing out there on the pitch, and this is the challenge that John's got now, moving forward after this international break, is those players that he's got in the squad, it's about now making them or turning them into men, a far more competitive team that comes out with results, Dom.
Speaker 4Yeah, in terms of where the blame lies, per se, like you say, it's a mix of everyone. I think if you were to split this up into a pie chart, there would be percentages fairly even across the board. I think the issue with Derby at the moment and the way that they're looking, it all kind of stems from a leadership perspective. I don't think it's ever quite recovered from the takeover failing. And I think reacting to that has been slow. I think reacting to that has been almost a little bit frantic across the board. I don't think perhaps the club could have responded better to that than that, than immediately coming out and saying, look, targets are the same and want to progress on next season. They could have maybe taken stock and actually sat and looked at what they did in the transfer window i don't think anyone would have begrudged them that having gone through what they've gone through then you look at john eustace and could he have responded better to that situation as well and going through the summer i think recruitment's an interesting one because i think that plays into the injuries conversation i think there have been a couple of players that have arrived with injuries um erin cashin is obviously one of them um so i think that is an interesting one for sure i think have they recruited a squad to fit the way derby are looking to play or have indeed played i think that's a huge question mark um and i'm not sure if john eustace feels like they have done that either so look you can look at a number of things i do think players need to take more ownership in in moments but we know what football is like nowadays they they play in a system it's a very stringent system and it's normally set from the top down now john eustace is the head coach but those above him need to set some sort of direction and a trajectory in which derby need to strive towards and i don't think since the takeover happened anyone's hit the nail on the head with exactly what derby want to achieve and
Speaker 3this just actually moves nicely onto the second point that mark was was making which we can have a conversation around this as well is what what is our tactical identity right now and is it mark goes on to say is it strong enough to survive a 46 game season now i think this is the one thing for me that's that's sort of bugging me um a little bit even though we've had that dom you talk about the recruitment in of players in certain positions are we recruiting into a style of football or or as as mark says there uh and a tactical identity that we've got or are we just a team of of individuals that we're trying to get the ball into the right area we're in hoping that that things drop to us or you know again balls into the box picking up second balls and that for me is is is an issue that is rumbling on and has rumbled on for me under this uh john eustace tenure um i was fairly critical i think at the end of the paul warn um i mean it wasn't hard to be critical at the end of the paul warn reign let's be totally honest with you we had a lot of defeats that we uh we had in a row but but for me there was a little bit more understanding on how paul wanted to play we knew that he really really liked to use width he played um quite often with wingbacks um built up a sort of a round he was trying to get the the wingbacks high balls into the box um however this this team that john eustace is trying to build i am i'm still scratching my head and i'll be honest i am scratching my head a little bit to know what what we are trying to do where we've had our major successes when we do hit teams on the counter-attack but you're not going to be able to do that in every single game you know teams get wise to that you know though teams might just drop off a little bit as we have they let us have the ball and then how uh inventive can we be with it we saw that in a couple of games this season haven't we you know birmingham we couldn't break them down west brom especially um when they dropped into that low block as well i would say burnley goes into that category as well as a team that that were set up for me to be so i think that we have to be or john um ed has to be more decisive on how we play with the ball so our in possession identity i kind of know what we're going to do out of possession yeah we're going to try and be tight we're going to stop the uh the gaps in between us um the rest defense obviously needs working on as well because we've conceded too many goals from from transition there but for me this is something that i have to see over the next you know it's not going to be over the next two or three games that's fair to say over the next sort of 10 or 15 games i do not want to be having this conversation again and saying i have no idea i don't i don't know and that's not me being hypercritical of john eustace i just think that we have to have an for me now we can look at the manager say right this this is the formation he likes to play how does he play within that formation and that's something that i want to see with my own eyes at the amount of time that i watch it ed absolutely but it goes
Speaker 1back to the old argument doesn't it until you've got players you're not going to mention injuries well of course i am because that's that's the reason derby have had a terrible start um until you've got your players fit you can't work on the training ground with your best team you know you've got an idea of your principles and how you want to work on the patterns of play but you've got a left back who's come in who's being forced to play and then got a serious injury he's gonna be out for weeks you've got no faith in certain right backs for certain types of games you've got your captain who's injured you've got your talisman who's a bit fragile up front you've got your american winger who's been out for ages it what do you do do you go for safety first approach at burnley because you've lost three on the spin or do you go go gung-ho and get picked off because your defense is fragile i mean these are all the conversations and all the decisions that the head coach has paid to pay to make and and it's i just find it a very very difficult situation derby aren't the only club in this situation but we cover it and it seems like they are on
Speaker 4the injuries i do think derby's recruitment should have been wise to the amount of injuries they've got so where they're dependent and the amount of injuries that derby have got they when you when you hear john eustace wanting to sign liam miller and patrick roberts they are players that he knows will drop in and they will play 40 odd games a season and they will perform at a level that everyone knows and expects you know what they are i think where the recruitment's come unstuck at this early part of the season is these players are having to learn on the job in a really difficult situation so so that's where i think the injuries are quite costly but they won't ever have a fully fit squad derby won't this season if they do i'd love to see that and we can play this back but they won't look at how many injuries they've had since patrick adjeman was in injured since even zetterstrom was injured they've had a number of of different instances that keep happening so until they they almost just plug the gap of these injuries and the frequency that they're happening it will continue to cost them but i don't think anyone's really helped the situation injuries recruitment and and just day-to-day i think the alignment of everyone mentioned by was it mark with the question i think has a real role to play yeah and i
Speaker 3mean we're talking about like the defense i don't even know where we're at with the defense at the minute do we it's like i've no idea where we're at um you know players fit available um right let's move on to adrian from essex uh when john is considering whether to select a player or not uh to play in the next match what threshold does he have in his mind how bad a performance does a player have to have before he's able to play in the next match before john decides not to pick him is john's decision based on one single performance or multiple performances would john think about the psychological effect that his decision may have on the player if he's not selected and how much does this influence his decision ed wow how many questions
Speaker 1would you like me to answer um i think first of all it's trying to complete a consistent lineup isn't it because if you can try and name the same players every week which you can't um then you've got some consistency and it and it just revolves all the way through the training ground and onto the field on a saturday or a tuesday night um i guess if you start dropping players because they have a howler then you're going to lose them potentially you've got to encourage haven't you you've got to work through players know when they've been poor players know when they've made mistake i remember craig forsyth mouthing to somebody after that sheffield wednesday three three that darby survived in the championship in the last few minutes of the game he said i've had a beast i'm pretty sure that was what he mouthed as he came off the field no one else was there of course it was during uh covid but you know it's it's very difficult isn't it there's so many questions there that adrian is asked um i just i think we've got to move away from the influence of john's preferred signings and club signings because you know we've all got our theories and i think we've got to move on from that right now i'm more
Speaker 4interested in malcolm's point of view no disrespect on this as someone that's played because you you will have had managers malcolm surely that you will have thought if i play bandly for one game i've still got a chance and they'll trust me but you might have had managers i imagine that if you've had a clanger not that you ever would um you might not get in again oh i have yeah
Speaker 3that i think that's a really important one because i think when you're in a squad with a lot of players you're not going to get in again and you're not going to get in again with depleted injuries you know sometimes a dangerous player is the player that knows they're playing every week because again i'm not saying that that you kind of get stuck in your ways but i think the most important thing for any squad is to have at least two players in one position that's pushing each other to the to the very very highest level and i think the issue that we've had with the rams that we haven't had that you know certain players have found themselves in the team and i think where adrian's going with that is like what where do you go from like a poor performance. We've seen John Eustace this season substitute a number of players is at half time I mean I can't recall I think a couple of times in my career I've come off at half time it's horrible it's like the worst thing in the world to be dragged off at half time because it's bad for the player plus it's also bad for the manager I mean you're having to make a change at half time that's basically saying that you've you know that the other team's doing a number on you or you've had such a bad performance yourself individually or collectively that you've had to change things so again that comes into confidence so when you're trying to build a group of players who are not performing and are in a run of poor performances like that it's very very difficult to build up that confidence individually which obviously if you can build up 11 15 or so 19 obviously players as best you can outfield players to do a job for you that's exactly what we want to do the issue that John's had there is we've had games where there's been an awful performance he's felt and imagined the same thing and he's felt that there's been an awful performance he's had to change it and that's just had a knock-on effect and I think that that is until as you say Don we're not I'm going to say until we have a fit squad I don't think we're ever going to have the luxury of doing that but it would be nice that we could look at it and say we've had I don't know it's a nice way that we can save three or four injuries or whatever but I think that it's it's a it's a difficult one to keep the group of players um motivated and confident going into each and every game uh let's move on to Matt so Matt is going for another uh question about injuries we can't seem to move away from injuries at the moment um he's asked if the number of injured players across all clubs and divisions is any way linked to the number of substitutes allowed it seems to me a self-fulfilling prophecy that if players don't play full games and are brought off amongst a raft of changes on the hour mark then players are never going to be fully match fit in truth now he Matt thinks that players are now turning into be like an hour player as such Darby's player of the year he says Matt Clark barely missed a game uh last year for other than suspension um match fitness means being able to play 90 minutes plus he feels that players are set up to fail by not physically being prepared to play 90 minutes Dom I think that's where
Speaker 4John Eustace would argue that he didn't have a lot of his squad across the summer to get them physically robust enough to handle the schedule and I think he's probably got a point on that with the way he wants them to press high with the way he wants them to play with such a tempo and counter-attack and and so on um I do think in Matt Clark's instance that's a really interesting one because we were aware of him having an injury before the Lincoln City game he then got what we were told a different injury during the Lincoln game and he's then out for four to five months after that and he's in a boot so I I don't I think it was interesting here from Gary last week on the podcast talking about the extra time the the extra 15 minutes or so that the players are playing football due to the fact of the the new rules with the uh the lack of allowances for time out of play I thought that was really interesting and something I hadn't really opened my eyes up to the the different rules coming in that is trying to keep the play going that's just further demand on the players to to keep going and and they don't really get a moment um so I thought that was quite interesting so perhaps that all plays into the the the the the the the the the the to play into it as well that's
Speaker 1a fair point actually I hadn't thought of that the game never stops and everybody's being rushed consistently so yeah that that could be something I mean you'd need someone like Malcolm Christie to come up with stats and analysis on that being an obsessive um but yeah it's it 60 minutes when Paul Warren was in charge remember there was a raft of of to keep the team on the field for as long as possible and we were we noticed that at the time I don't think he likes making the substitutions um if the game is okay if they're losing clearly he wants them to freshen up but yeah it's an interesting one and you've got to ask the questions I guess about injuries and and why they're occurring are Derby the most unluckiest team in in the whole of the EFL is there something about day-to-day um or is there something about on on preparation on on coming down after games could they fly to long distance away games like some clubs do would that aid um recovery are the pitches too hard that they train on is Pride Park too hard although they do change it every season um I don't know there are so many questions and we'll never find the answers to them because you know they're not the club is not going to give us the answers to them because they're not going to give us the answers to them because they're not going to give us the answers to them because they're not going to give us the answers to them they never say that but it is the fact that they are and that is that is the reason why they're not able to get the results I think
Speaker 3you're right Ed there's a there's a number of variables isn't there that go into the pot of and it seems to be these variables we can't get the answer for don't we you know we can't seem to solve why players get injured in certain games I think that yeah absolutely so you go back to my era there was less substitutes there was less um changing of play you would you know I felt when I was a sub I'd there was no given really that I'd get on the pitch you had your 11 players who pretty much were there there would be very few rotation not you know nowadays with the squads that teams have there is a lot of chopping and changing so I can understand um where kind of Matt's coming from uh with these with his changes there because you know you you do rotate your squad there as well don't you and and you know individuals come in and out and it's having players conditioned you know we back in my era again it was you had your training schedule it would be very you know every week would look the same I don't remember there being a lot of soft tissue injuries that there is there but remembering now football it's played at a far higher intensity it really is than it was there may be playing for shorter minutes but those bursts that they have between the ball going out it is far higher intensity so you know I don't think they're necessarily being conditioned to play less I just think they're playing for shorter minutes and they're playing for longer I think the demand on the player is probably far more than than I ever experienced as a player I'm going to move on to kind of a here and now uh question uh from Joseph uh and it's something we have touched on and maybe on a previous Rams weekly is um now Lewis Travis is back fit does he make it into any of our starting 11s on Saturday Joseph's opinion is for me he doesn't as he would start fraulo but he'd love to hear what we say on it uh and I'm going to come to you first Dom thank
Speaker 4you um I I would just I would just say look he's only just got back from injury he's had a few weeks under his belt allow him to transition back into the team and make it a smooth transition for him and it probably takes a few eyes off him as well and um I think it'll help him just to bide his time and eventually get his opportunity
Speaker 1I agree with you um he the first time we knew he was back out of the injury process um was at Burnley when he was named on the substitutes bench and he did his warm down afterwards but you know once he's fit you have to put him in the team because he's the the head coach's captain and you know it's his guy and he's going to be leading that team out on the field for him so I wouldn't be surprised if you see him back in alongside David Ozo and and I wouldn't expect it to be any other result really
Speaker 3right my opinion is that he's going to be back in the team and he's going to be back in the team I wouldn't okay um but he will that is that's what I believe will happen I think that my opinion okay so Lewis Travis is a captain a leader and we have missed I think it's fair to say that type of profile of player on the pitch I want to see in the midfield alongside David Ozo uh a little bit of energy and creativity and that's why actually I agree with with Joseph's uh opinion there of starting Oscar Fraulo uh I think that's a good idea I think that's a good idea I think that's a good idea I think that's a good idea I think that's a good idea it was an opinion that I had before uh the Burnley game um however I just think that that this this period of time um that John would have had to work on the team I think he brings his captain straight back in I'd be I'd be amazed if he if he didn't okay but that that is a total complete and opposite opinion that I'd go for um but I would understand I would totally understand why he would go for that um because he is John Eustace's um man uh he is one of the reasons that uh he wanted to to come into the club was for John Eustace and I think forever all the qualities that John sees him on the pitch I think that uh John will pick him um I'd be I'd like to say I'd be absolutely amazed if I saw Lewis Travis on the substitutes bench uh against Wrexham so we'll clip that for next week when he when he starts on the bench no doubt um I'm going to move on to Ian here who has asked a question about um Derby's most experienced coach at the moment is Keith Downing however in Ian's opinion he feels like he's been sidelined um he quotes um one of the best defensive coaches that I've ever met um a quote from Steve McLaren um obviously he's saying it may be his personal reasons but we've seen him um step into a new role how do we feel now Dom you're probably the best want to ask on this because I know that you've kind of got an opinion on seeing him more farm and on the training ground as well um where is keith currently at well keith
Speaker 4was first team coach obviously joined the club with john eustace worked with him at blackburn i haven't personally seen those quotes or heard those quotes from steven claren i've heard them from eric steel on a number of occasions and that might be where it's come from in a miscommunication but eric always spoke about around not three with keith downing he said it before keith was even at derby when derby went to blackburn at ewood park on the opening day of the championship season under paul warne eric was talking about the opposition saying look defensively they will be so well set up and and as it showed on the night and going forward he was proved right on that um keith i think just took a step back this season from that role so keith's role now i believe is almost across that transition from academy first team and and how it all works so he's taken a a step back into a more strategic role so whether or not that was a decision um i think it was a personal decision of keith's to to do that um i'm happy to be corrected on that but from from what i gather on the situation he was he was he took a step back uh consciously um but he has been on the grass i think we've had this conversation earlier on this season about keith not being involved anymore and whether that could be why defensively they look a bit weaker and then suddenly on social media you see a lot of images of keith on the training ground with the players so whether that's yeah coincidence or not but he's certainly been leading some sessions so he's not out of it by any means and he's very much across it and involved ed
Speaker 3i'm going to throw this question at you as well i'm going to change tact um should players this is ian from ripley should players be allowed to have a holiday while it's international
Speaker 1break well they get time off don't they even in normal international breaks of normal length so you know you play a game on a saturday and sometimes your your head coach will say right have a few days boys you can go and we'll see you thursday um or friday whatever i mean you're the player um but yeah absolutely it's a job isn't it and it's if you're not an international getting away with the family because family is the most important thing about all of this is that you're not an international you're not an international you're all of this if you've got one so getting away and doing that and downtime is very important
Speaker 3absolutely and gary we spoke to gary about this exact um question didn't we about how he because it's not just um the players as well that goes into that mix it's the manager as well we all you know or coaches and managers all need that kind of downtime as well and it was one of the questions i picked to gary as well does that change you know depending if you're going from eight games unbeaten or eight defeats in a row you know does that look differently and i think that you have to kind of you have to look away from that and you have to do what's best for the players you know you you do uh you know what you know you look at them from a fitness point of view psychological point of view emotional point of view and make sure that you try and tick all the boxes so whenever you do come back and you full steam ahead with the preparation as it is for what it will be now for for rex and that you've kind of got all that um right as well um dom i'm gonna ask this one and ian's asked a second question uh he's asked about this five second rule so he's asked so for example referees they start counting at different times and some don't count some count to five and then don't blow for a foul surely on the count of five it should be a foul what's your opinion on that because there's obviously these new rules that have come out um this season uh regarding some of the little changes and things i mean there's been a great one with regards to the goalkeeper seeing any goalkeepers go down have they you know off the ground doing that tactical one are you got any opinion on this five second rule that seems to be as uh as ian says it's not as straight or clear cut across the board well
Speaker 4from what i gather the trigger for how that rule works if the referee decides the team is deliberately delaying a throw-in or a goal kick they can start a visual and verbal five second countdown with a raised hand so i guess that's to the referee's discretion isn't it as to whether or not they feel like it's being delayed it's not a matter of whether or not it's being delayed it's a matter of whether or not if it's purely based on the fact that a player's got to jog away down the line to go get the ball then come back and then get ready to take the throw-in i think it would probably start the five seconds from when he's ready so so there's
Speaker 1the trigger from my point of view um i think it's if you're deliberately and obviously wasting time because the from the from the we're talking throw-ins as well as goal kicks and it's all about the the opinion of the referee if you're moving the side of the six yard box to another if a player's coming over and putting the ball on the spot you know there's so many caveats to it with the time wasting i mean it's like for the throw-ins you've got to do it and if you're if somebody else is taking the throw-in you're not the normal throw-in taker then they're gonna chuck it to somebody who might not be ready to take the throw-in that isn't wasting time he's the designated throw-in taker um so referees can understand that i think we've only seen it a couple of times actually i remember it happening in a pre-season game for derby it might have been salzburg last year actually could have been where the corner was given um or it could have been i don't know anyway but they don't do it they don't do it often enough because as our questioner said they should do right on the fifth finger and and they do shout because when we've been in grounds that have a smaller crowd you can hear them shouting five four three two one so it should be um or one two three four five whichever i think for me you
Speaker 3know it's it's trying to get the consistency across the board isn't it and unfortunately that's the one thing you guaranteed uh amongst referees possibly certainly in the championship is we're going to get inconsistencies aren't we you know we're gonna have a of a referee who calls every foul as it is and and one that lets players get away with it and again for those for those rules and we're looking the ball's going out you're thinking i understand um where obviously the question comes from there is that you know sometimes we're not we're not seeing that consistency uh from referees uh there either so let's move on to a question from jordan now we're going on the front line here so henrik meister so as we know he signed on loan with an option to buy with it which he says in his words is a hefty fee of around about eight million pounds so really i think jordan's asking there the justification of that fee uh dom how many goals and assists do you think he will need in order to justify this price tag come the end of the season 40 50 60 oh i'm just looking
Speaker 4at patrick adjeman's stats from last season i'm trying to link that to it because by all accounts he's the successor to adjeman so you'd almost put him up there like that i think if we're saying patrick adjeman derby could sell for upwards of 15 to 20 million based on what he did last season i guess his marketability as well he's he's got a fantastic story a brilliant talker he's he's a great interview um he scored 10 goals got three assists last season and looked pretty terrifying for opposition defenders almost every week so i would say henrik meister's got on delivering in that respect um because other than that if there's any question marks going into the summer and i know why derby put the options in there because they didn't have the options in bobby clark they didn't have the options in david owens they didn't have the options in david owens they didn't have the options in david owens so they didn't they weren't able to start at the start of the window go get bobby clark go get david ozo and sort it out they had to play the game in the market so they put them in there for for henrik meister and for saini as well so yeah i would i would expect a similar return to that of adjeman for for that kind of fee uh 10 goals three assists and uh yeah some good
Speaker 3performances yeah look for me anywhere between the 10 to 15 goal mark i know 15 is probably looking at that as a stretch and then when we look at his past record of course you know is that even even achievable i understand what you're saying there dom you have to have something or an agreement with a club uh there where you know where you stand at the end of the season because if he does go on a real run you know we're not then in the box seat to do that plus he's got to provide as well so for me adjeman yeah he was there on the end of things but it was also what he was doing for others adjeman made uh players around him better i think that's fair to say so um it's a big ask it really is because adjeman really came into his uh into his four as as the season went on and developed and with the loss of of carlton morris there as well and it is an absolutely you know that eight million pound head that's a that's a big investment isn't it looking at uh you know where where the investment is in championship
Speaker 1level what on adjeman or meister
Speaker 3a meister if yeah well you know all them boxes are ticked eight million pounds is a lot of money
Speaker 1isn't it the thing that that's the difference is that we saw patrick adjeman's video scoring goals in the mls there were loads of them and for the american national team he was on the verge of that whereas what henrik meister's problem is is that he doesn't have a track record of scoring any goals really which is not great for a striker so what game is he what what what does he bring to the party and so far we've not seen much of him but you know eight million pounds option to buy it's an incredible thing so i either either somebody sat around the table and talked a good game and said this guy's gonna be awesome or or it's it's just a weird one um I find it really strange that Derby are signing with a mind to replace players that haven't got them anywhere near the playoffs yet, which is another story in particular.
Speaker 3But it almost, you know, that was a purchase or the loan. It's for now, isn't it? You know, I know that he had the unfortunate case where he's had the concussion and he's missed out. You know, we need, it needs to be instant, isn't it? Is it for now? You know, there's no. Do you think he's signing for now? Well, he has to be, Ed, because to justify where you're going to put your hand in your pocket and spend £8 million, he's not a project for this season, is he? He has to be a here and now.
Speaker 4You wouldn't loan someone who isn't for the here and now, would you? That's the biggest confusion about it. If the club are going to say that they're waiting for Fossaini and Meister to develop, well done, you're not developing your own players.
Speaker 3Right, well, that's just literally flown by. Thank you so much for your listeners for getting your questions in. We'll do another one come the next, international break. But remember, the way of communicating to me direct, Dom and Ed, is through that email address, ramsweekly at bbc.co.uk. Final bit of the pod, we're going to go on to predictions for Wrexham. Obviously, I'm coming off the back of getting a perfect 1-1 at Burnley, so there's no pressure on me. I'm going to go with our fan predictor. And he came with two questions during the, the Q&A. And that's Ian from Ripley. And he has gone for, I don't dare not read this out, prediction for Saturday is a 2-1 win for Wrexham. Sadly, can't see our defence keeping a clean sheet. So, nice and, I'm hoping that the three of us are going to come up with a little bit more positivity as we look ahead to that. And for that positivity first, hopefully it is, Dom, I'm going to come to you first for a prediction from you.
Speaker 4Wrexham actually have quite a good away record. Which is slightly concerning given Derby's home record. But, look, I've got to go fairly optimistic, I think. Although he's a draw optimistic. I think, quickly, quickly, Malcolm and Ed, yes or no, would you take a draw if I offered it to you now?
Speaker 1You always take a draw, if that's the minimum. I would, yeah.
Speaker 4Okay, yeah. Well, I'll lock in a one-all draw.
Speaker 3One-all draw for Dom. I'm going to come to you next, Ed, so I can keep all my options open, of course. But I've got a sneaky feeling who you're going to go for here.
Speaker 1Derby are going to win 2-1 and they're going to score very late on to win it. The whole place is going to go nuts and I'm going to have some sort of, you know, stressed Eric side thing coming out the side of my head because everyone will be so excited and they'll have a great Saturday night.
Speaker 3Well, I'm sure everyone listens to this. I've missed it so much the last two and a half weeks. Not being. You know, at the Mecca, the Arena, Pride Park. I'm so, so looking forward to going there on Saturday and I'm going to be ultra positive. You know, I've maybe been a bit of blind faith with some of our predictions or I think all of our predictions early on. But I really do think that having this break would like to think that we're going to see a different level of performance, even though I've got no idea what back four he's going to pick, which goes into another issue. But I'm going for a Rams home win and I'm going to go for a 2-0 home win for the Rams. So, let's make sure. John Eustace and get behind the boys. If you're there on Saturday for Wrexham, get behind the boys because honestly, I've been in that dressing room myself. When things aren't going so well, it's sometimes a crowd that can pull you through it. So, that's my message from me. Rams fans, get yourself there on Saturday and get behind the boys. And that's all we've got time for on this week's Rams Weekly. A huge thanks to everyone. Who sent a question in and apologies if we didn't manage to get to yours. The Rams are back in action against Wrexham on Saturday and we'll be back next week to pick through all the talking points. Big thanks as always to Dom and Ed and thank you for listening. Until next time, from one Ram to another, thanks for listening. The Rams Weekly on BBC Sounds. Sign up today for an incredible welcome bonus. Play bold, win big.
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