cowl

I thought he looked out of shape. And I'm a little surprised as he's been back to fitness after his nightmare injury layoff for the best part of 8 months now.

I don't understand what your getting at. I'm merely pointing to the fact Derby's season cannot be summed up by one game in which they may have appeared to put adherence to a way of playing ahead of pragmatism. After all, they reached the play-off final, which as a yardstick to measure how successful their way of playing was under Lampard, would obviously measure more favourably than if they'd finished 15th, say.

How else do teams get better at a way of playing than to actually set about playing that way? Along the way they'll make mistakes. You can't think to appraise a team's way of playing off the back of one game, and as I say, Derby's season went quite well considering they contested the play-off final.

Stinking their way to the play-off final; not a bad way to stink.

Game by game, challenges are thrown at Bullen, and after 4 games, he's failed a few but passed most of them. I'm quite happy for the audition to continue for another few games. Should results against Preston and QPR go favourably, the clamour to appoint Bullen will really begin to surmount. But even so, we then have Huddersfield away, Fulham at home, and then Boro away; three tough games against squads with much greater quality than what we'll have faced up to that point - I'd understand if DC would prefer to assess the situation after those games instead. Gray had 11 games as caretaker manager before MM gave him the job permanently. Certainly, when Gray first took over as caretaker there weren't many backing him to take the job permanently, but just a month later the majority of fans were fully behind him, and by the time (another month later) he was actually appointed, fans were practically demanding it to the point that some were even beginning to turn on MM for not having done so yet. I think DC would be wise to let it run for now and see if there's a similar outcome.

I seem to remember Bullen once saying that he actually did some kind of sports' journalism course when he quit playing while he was deciding which direction to go in next.

Well, he's owned his decision at least, and not tried to pass it off as being merely due to injury, but it's a questionable decision to leave FF out of the 18. Certainly, I've seen FF come on and change a game more times than I've seen Rhodes do so.

I'd sooner look at the players today rather than Bullen. I'm still to be persuaded about Bullen's tactical acumen, but I was actually impressed with his substitutions today - I thought he got them all bang on (well, arguably, Nuhiu may have been a better bet than Rhodes). We were set up right, but we were just lacking that little bit of quality.

And it started off so well...!

I'm not entirely convinced by Iorfa either (though I wouldn't go so far as make a comparison with Bennett). He's looked fantastic at times as well, but yeah, with the ball at his feet he doesn't always seem to be entirely comfortable. I'd stick with Odubajo, even if he's had a few moments of uncertainty also. He's showed enough promise in those games for him to be given the benefit of the doubt. Of course, with a midweek game following on from Millwall, Bullen may choose to rotate a few players anyway, and if so, Iorfa may well get the nod for the away game, behind which I could appreciate the reasoning.

I'd be delighted if Chansiri is at least giving consideration to Cowley. When you're looking about at managerial talent, his CV is very impressive, and there aren't any better than his in League One and below. Should results begin to go against Bullen, I really hope DC gives Lincoln a call.

Reach ought to know that his first two games have been lower than his standard. And though Bannan was far from his best at Reading, he still had a good game and got an assist. Dropping Reach for Bannan is perfectly consistent with the principle of picking players that maintain their standards of performance, and dropping them and giving someone else a go when those standards drop. Furthermore, though it was less apparent in the second half, we really struggled to retain possession in the first half yesterday. To some degree, this issue was offset by our workrate and pressing game (an absolute joy to see), but our inability to keep the ball yesterday isn't in itself a good thing and against better opposition, I'm sure, would've been fatal.

I don't think I'd consider it cheating. But I'd definitely rage at the ref for missing it.

Chuffing love watching those training vids!

When exactly were Fulham supposed to have tabled this £5 million offer for Hector?