Bill's Take: With Bryson But A Shadow - We Need Will!
Friday, 6th Mar 2015 07:05 by Bill Riordan

They say that a week is a long time in politics. Evidently a week is quite a while in football too.

This time last week, the Rams were top of the Championship by two points over second placed Middlesbrough, and five points ahead of third placed Ipswich. Furthermore, we were looking forward to being able to extend the lead with winnable matches coming up at Fulham and Brighton.

Now, we are looking back on suffering successive Championship defeats for the second time this season — the first was when we lost to Wigan and Brentford in late October and early December — and are sitting in second place a point behind Middlesbrough and only narrowly ahead of third-placed Watford on goal difference; by a single goal.

The two recent defeats have continued a worrying trend: the Rams have begun conceding goals as never before this season. Over the last six games, the Rams have let in eleven goals, which have seen us drop ten of the eighteen available points.

There are two questions to be answered: what happened, and will it continue?

Last season I noted in this column that the Rams had been fortunate in that we had suffered few injuries. This season is slightly different; the Rams have not suffered a huge number of injuries, but the injuries the club have experienced, have been to key players.

The injury that obviously hurt was the one to George Thorne before the start of the season; this was covered well when the club had John Eustace to call on, but since John was injured in early January, the team is beginning to feel the loss.

Add to that the injuries to Chris Martin in mid-February, and the subsequent injury to his replacement, Darren Bent, and the club is struggling to adequately replace these players.

There was talk of a dip into the loan market for a striker but McClaren has ruled that out this week. Russell seems likely to lead the line again against Birmingham; before Martin and possibly Thorne hopefully returning for the trip to Norwich.

In addition to injuries, loss of form is hurting. Craig Bryson is a shadow of the player he was last season, leading to a lack of options and stresses in midfield. The other worrying factor is the increasingly error-prone Lee Grant who is undermining an already fragile defence.

Finally, to return to an issue I have touched on a number of times, we are not being helped by team selection. When Omar Mascarell starts, the Rams have now lost six times in his seventeen starts. Between George Thorne and John Eustace, the Rams have lost once in their fifteen starts.

Another interesting decision by Steve Mac was his decision to leave out Will Hughes. From all reports he has been carrying a small injury plus William is a young lad, and may need to take a rest from time to time. But we need to recognize that when Will doesn’t play, the Rams’ results tend not to be good. The team has had two wins, two draws and three defeats in the games that Will hasn’t started. If Will Hughes is fit, he needs to play!

Can we look forward to a resumption of the form that took the Rams to the top of the table? I hope so but all of a sudden it seems, we are out of sorts with the end of the season fast closing in on us. First of all, if neither Thorne nor Eustace is to return very soon, then the club needs to find a more experienced and more effective replacement than Mascarell.

Maybe the answer is to move Forsyth to defensive midfield and replace him at left back with Warnock. Or perhaps Shotton or Bryson could be used in that position.

How about the goalkeeper position — is it time to give Kelle Roos his opportunity? This is hardly the best time to bring in somebody so untried, but I have never been entirely convinced by Grant. If not Roos, then again maybe another jump into the loan market is called for.

After Saturday’s match against Birmingham, the Rams have three fairly tough games before the international break, against Norwich, Middlesbrough and Wolves. After that, the month of April looks much easier and McClaren has stated he hopes to have a fully fit squad at his disposal when the league resumes.

I still believe that the Rams are the best team in this division, and should finish the season in the top two. But with only eleven matches left to play, some decisions and actions need to be taken quickly to get the team back on the right track before time runs out.