Chris looks out what is happening with Rotherham at the bottom of the Championship and how Derby are climbing up in League 1.
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00:00 The Premier League might be taking some kind of weird staggered winter break,
00:03 but there's none of that nonsense in the AFL,
00:05 where the pressure never, ever stops.
00:07 This week we're taking a look at the bottom end of the Championship,
00:10 where it looks as though it could be 3 from 5 in the battle to avoid a drop,
00:14 and later the focus switch to the top end of League 1,
00:17 where the leaders are wobbling,
00:18 and one team in particular are piling on the pressure.
00:21 I'm Chris Holt, and this is Everything But The Prem.
00:24 First stop of the Championship, we welcome to the show
00:32 one of the busiest men in the business, Stuart Rayner from the Yorkshire Post.
00:36 Stuart, where are you tonight?
00:38 I'm at Barnsley versus Carlisle United tonight in Leeds.
00:42 Quite a scene, absolutely everywhere.
00:45 We'll get straight to business,
00:48 and in the Championship we're going right to the very bottom to start off with.
00:53 Liam Richardson has come in and has done what you expect them to do at Rotherham.
01:01 Bob, is it too little too late, do you think?
01:05 It's a very limited squad at Rotherham United.
01:10 There's a lot of fight in that squad.
01:13 You can certainly guarantee in the home games at least,
01:16 that they'll be fighting right to the end to stay up.
01:19 It just feels like a lack of quality there.
01:23 They've been undermined by defensive injuries in particular as well.
01:29 They feel like a team that are comfortable playing with their backs to the wall at home
01:35 to some of the top teams to carve out draws,
01:39 but draws just won't cut it at the moment from where they are.
01:42 They've only won three league matches all season,
01:45 and that just has to improve in the second half of the season.
01:48 They're in that weird quandary where they've brought a new manager in.
01:52 He'll obviously want to strengthen.
01:55 The powers that be will be thinking to themselves,
01:57 "We may already be down, should we not hold on to our money and see what we do next season?"
02:01 It's a difficult balance, isn't it, to try and find it this time of year?
02:04 Yes, I guess they've probably got to target signings who could play for them in either division,
02:10 and not players who will flounce off if they get relegated or be out of their depth.
02:16 If they do pull it off and stay in the championship.
02:19 It is a difficult balance, but I do feel they need some sort of show of intent.
02:25 So far, the only business they've done in terms of incomings is to recall Peter Chioso,
02:31 and that's clearly not enough in the position they're in.
02:35 I do feel like they need to just send a message to the supporters to say,
02:40 "Look, we are still fighting for this."
02:42 That is another thing as well, because if you don't do anything now,
02:47 then the supporters will just almost immediately think,
02:51 "Right, well, they're not having it now. The club have decided we're going down. What's the point?"
02:58 Yes, and their away record is so terrible.
03:01 They haven't won away from home since November 22.
03:04 They really need those home fans behind them to give them any chance of fight.
03:10 They have to give something to those fans, both on the field and in the transfer market, in the next few weeks.
03:16 Moving up a little bit, we'll talk about Wednesday.
03:22 They're literally one of the strangest clubs in the division at the minute.
03:29 They've got this new manager who's absolutely heralded as being the greatest thing to walk into Hillsborough in a very long time.
03:37 Which would be quite an easy feat to do because he's been absolutely shambolic there.
03:44 But his record, it's better. It's absolutely better than it had been, than Wednesday's record was before he arrived.
03:54 But when you look at it just on its own, they're not putting up any trees.
04:01 However, there is a lot of positivity about it and there is at least a lot of...
04:10 They've got better. The performances have got better, if nothing else.
04:14 They've got belief in that stadium, exactly the reverse of what I was just talking about with Rotherham United.
04:21 The fans believe in what he's doing. In fairness, they've won six out of ten in all competitions.
04:27 That's pretty decent form for a side at that end of the table.
04:31 The problem is, they've just given everyone such a massive head start that even six wins out of ten hasn't got them out of the relegation zone yet.
04:39 But they've got momentum where it feels like other clubs are standing still.
04:44 Rotherham feel like they've ground to a halt. Huddersfield never seem to have got moving.
04:48 I know we're going to talk about them in a minute under Darren Moore.
04:51 QPR had a bit of a burst when Marty Soufou-Edters came in, but that seems to have run its course.
04:56 Sheffield Wednesday at least have some positivity, some momentum.
05:00 They made a couple of moves in the transfer market. I'm sure there'll be more to come.
05:04 I think there's a feeling that they can get out of this because, as I say, they're moving forward while others are stuck in the mud.
05:12 Just to believe in what a manager's doing as a player or a supporter is just so massive.
05:18 You look at the difference that Neil Warnock, with his track record, made to a pretty limited Huddersfield squad last season.
05:25 That's what some of the other clubs down there lack right now.
05:28 That's one big thing in Sheffield Wednesday's favour, I think.
05:32 Certainly at the minute, they're looking forward rather than over their shoulder because those two teams below them.
05:40 Certainly Rotherham, you can't really tell where they're going to pick up points.
05:45 QPR don't seem to be able to pick up any either.
05:49 They're not getting battered, but they don't seem to be able to get themselves over the line.
05:56 They've found themselves quite often on the wrong end of one or two goals when they've been in games for fair amounts of time.
06:06 You don't really look like… Basically, all I'm saying is you can't see either of those two teams jumping over Wednesday.
06:14 It's Wednesday and then what happens above them.
06:18 Likewise, the clubs above them. Stoker threatening a little bit now with Steven Schumacher, but nobody's pulled away from Wednesday.
06:25 They're all still in that battle.
06:28 For the clubs in the bottom three, there's a realistic prospect of pulling some of those teams into the battle with them.
06:37 I think that's the key thing for all of the clubs down there.
06:40 It's looked for quite a while like three from four, but actually the group above that four are quite close now.
06:48 If you can make it three from five, three from six, three from seven, obviously you're improving your chances.
06:54 Whenever you look a little bit higher, I think Plymouth are something like eight points away from Wednesday, but their form is terrible.
07:04 As you say, it only takes a couple of wins either way and a couple of defeats and all of a sudden you've got another team there where you're only a half of a point away from pulling in.
07:16 Yes, and of course, Plymouth, the big uncertainty with them is transitioning to a new manager, new at this level as well.
07:25 We just don't know which way that's going to go yet.
07:27 I saw them at Huddersfield on Saturday. They were quite resolute.
07:34 Darko Ghiabi and Ashley Phillips looked like good additions for them, but you certainly didn't look at them and think, "Oh, that's a worry for the other teams down there."
07:43 They were pretty much hanging on at times against a limited Huddersfield Town team.
07:51 That was Ian Foster's first Championship game. We wait and see if he's able to make a big effect, but right at this moment in time, it is wait and see with Plymouth as to which way they're going to go.
08:02 It's interesting that because that's one of the things that people kind of levelled at Darren Moore when he was Sheffield Wednesday manager even last year,
08:10 albeit at the opposite end of the table where he spoke about this run through football, but nobody really saw it.
08:19 They relied on better footballers to just kind of drag them out, the likes of Bannon and Vaux and people like that who just had a little bit of something extra about them to just dig in and get points.
08:34 But if you don't have somebody like that, then there's very little you can do.
08:39 Of course, Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield, very close geographically, Huddersfield fans sort of knew of that reputation when Darren Moore came and it's fair to say that they've never really warmed to him.
08:51 Again, we talked about the importance of the fans. There's not that belief from the town's supporters.
08:57 I don't think that this is the man to kick-start them. It does seem to be almost a bit of a character flaw of Moore's as a manager that he just doesn't have that extra oomph about him,
09:11 unless, of course, you're backed into a corner by losing a play-off semi-final 4-0 and you've got no choice.
09:17 Maybe he should start 4-0 down every match.
09:22 Exactly. In normal circumstances, there isn't really that attacking emphasis that there needs to be.
09:28 Part of it, they've had a lot of injuries. Their best players are defensive players anyway, but they just need to change that mindset and that emphasis to get the fans on board, to build some momentum and to get things going.
09:40 Finally, we'll talk just a little bit about Birmingham City. They've made a managerial change in recent weeks with Tony Mowbray having left Sunderland early in the season and come back in there at Birmingham to take over from Wayne Rooney.
09:56 Another one is difficult to see what way that's going to go because you've got a squad there that was put together by John Eustace, who was then replaced by Wayne Rooney, and is now being taken over by Tony Mowbray.
10:15 You have three managers having to go at a squad that was put together by one person. Tony Mowbray will make him hard to beat. That we can imagine as being very obvious. But have they got enough about them to move up the table, do you think?
10:31 Well, they were a good enough squad that they were sixth in the table before Wayne Rooney came in. I think there's enough there to work with. We know Tony Mowbray is a good manager. We've seen it countless times. He knows the course and distance. People like Ian Foster, for example, no disrespect to him, but he's learning the championship on the job. Mowbray isn't.
10:51 I think of the teams down there, I'd be a lot more optimistic as a Birmingham fan than I would with some of the other clubs. I think so long as he gets some reasonable support in the January transfer window, I think there's every possibility of Birmingham pulling away.
11:09 It is always a gamble when you change manager. You're never 100% sure, even with a good manager, how it's going to gel and how it's going to come off. There is a bit of wait and see about it. But it's a lot less of a risk bringing in someone like Tony Mowbray than it is bringing in, in fairness, people like Danny Roll, who have talked up the job he's done. It's a lot safer bet.
11:35 Stuart, that's brilliant. Thanks very much for joining us. Enjoy your flip of Barnsley tonight. I'm sure it'll be a cold one on those. Hopefully you don't have one of the wooden seats there.
11:44 No, we'll pass that now.
11:46 That's it for part one. Join us after the break where we'll be discussing the top end of League One.
11:51 To League One now, where at one point it looked as though Portsmouth might be running away with an automatic promotion and indeed the title. Not so much anymore.
12:15 Humpiers are having a wobble and there are a couple of teams very much on their heels. One of those is Derby County, the division's in-form team, who have burst through the third and at this stage, like they might have, have finally found the form to take them back to the championship.
12:28 Here to talk us through where it's all going right for the Rams is Dylan Oakley from Derby World. You must be pretty pleased with how things are going so far, certainly over the past couple of months?
12:41 Yeah, I mean, the form's been really good. It's been, I mean, since pretty much mid-November, you could say that Derby have been one of, if not the best team in League One in terms of their form and their results.
12:54 I think performances have still been quite up and down, really. There's certain games where you sort of watch them play and they don't necessarily look like a team that you would see at the top of League One.
13:06 The results are the most important thing and that's what they've been doing very well on recently. So, their scoring goals, I think they're now the second highest scoring team in League One, which towards the start of the season, the goals was a bit of an issue.
13:21 So, it's good to see that they've fixed that and again, at the moment, with the way that the top teams are sort of playing, the likes of Portsmouth starting to falter, as you sort of mentioned, you know, they've not just got a chance at getting promotion, really, they've got a chance at winning.
13:36 Yeah, I was going to mention that because, like I said at the start, it looked at one point like Portsmouth were just starting to kind of pull themselves away from everyone. They looked kind of unbeatable but since, I think probably since just before Christmas or around about that time, they've really faltered.
13:55 They're still one of the best teams in the league and you would expect them to turn their form around at some point but there must be a feeling in the Derby camp that whereas slightly before, well, say probably around October time, before things started clicking into gear, that a playoff place might have been what they were aiming for but now, certainly the title and automatic promotion is there to be won, isn't it?
14:23 Yeah, absolutely. I think, I mean, really it was sort of a case of, you know, make the playoffs and try and go up that way because, as we sort of mentioned, Portsmouth had sort of jumped ahead and even at that point in sort of September and October, Derby didn't look like a team that were anywhere near to sort of that calibre of automatic promotion, really.
14:46 So I think at that point, it was very much a feeling of, okay, well, maybe we haven't quite brought in the right players or we haven't quite got where we wanted to get. So let's try and fight for a playoff place and just improve on last season. But, you know, as you mentioned, it did all start to click, really. It took a while to sort of gel but it has started to click and, you know, now they do find themselves in this position.
15:09 I think it's the thing with Ligue 1 this season, especially compared to last year, whereas, because last year you had the likes of Ineos Ipswich, Plymouth and Sheffield Wednesday, who obviously all went up to the Championship. They were all very much, before the season, tipped to be those top teams and they were sort of a step ahead of everyone else.
15:28 Whereas this season, you know, okay, I think before the season, you probably were looking at Portsmouth and Derby as the two favourites to go up automatically, but it's so much more open. I mean, there's the likes of Peterborough who are playing really well at the moment. Bolton are in a really good position as well.
15:46 So, I think those top four teams will probably be the ones that will end up fighting for those top two places. But, I mean, as you mentioned, Derby have got a great chance, really. And if they can try and possibly bring in a couple of new faces during the transfer window as well, I really think they've got a great chance of going up automatically and maybe winning the title.
16:10 What do you think it has been? What do you think has been the reason behind the upturn in form? I think they've only lost one in the league since the end of October, early November. Whereas it was, as you said there, it was fairly sketchy form up until that point. What has been the thing that has, or has there been one particular thing that has really changed things around?
16:35 I'd say, to be honest, there's just a certain few players in the team that have stepped up to a point where I think they've raised everyone else's game. So, I think there are a few names to mention. I think Nathaniel Mendes-Lang has been a massive part of it because going forward, as I said, towards the start of the season was a bit of an issue in terms of creating chances. We had plenty of the ball, but not really doing very much with it.
17:00 Whereas a player like Mendes-Lang, because he's got pace and strength and he's got a very good delivery into the box as well, he's been able to sort of help elevate those attacking options. So, for example, the likes of James Collins up front, it wasn't really an ideal situation going into the season with Collins being our main striking option.
17:24 Because, no offence to him, but he didn't seem to be a 20-goal calibre striker yet. Now I think he's on 12 goals scored last night against Burton and he seems to be in full confidence. So, I think it's the attacking play that was what needed to improve.
17:45 Because I think defensively, they've been very good all season long. They've got a really good centre-back partnership in Aaron Kassian and Curtis Nelson. And it seems that Aaron Kassian is going to stay as well, which is, I think, crucial to their chances of going up. But I think really it is the improvements going forward. Just a certain few players that have just managed to improve their form, which has again elevated the whole team really.
18:09 And we saw that last night against Burton. As you say, some players you just look towards, Conor Herrhand being one of those with the amount of experience that he's had in the AFL coming through in divisions. He's played in the Premier League with Aston Villa. He's helped Sheffield United into play-off places in the Championship.
18:33 And then he came up trumps again against Burton in a match, which I would suggest shows that at least Derby, I mean in the past it's probably been levelled at them that they're a little bit flaky. But given that they were 2-0 up last night, had a bit of a wobble as Paul Ward said, and allowed Burton to come back into the game and draw a level.
18:55 But Conor Herrhand stepped up in the closing stages to score a winner there. That resilience is something that they're really going to need from now until the end of the season, isn't it?
19:04 Yeah, definitely. And I think you summed it up well. I think in the past, and this is going back to when they were challenging for promotion in the Championship, I think they had very much a reputation for, if they'd sort of a dip in form or any sort of setback, not really being able to deal with it.
19:21 Whereas yesterday, it wasn't 2-0 up, they seemed very comfortable. And Burton managed to get back into the game pretty well. But you didn't normally possibly expect the Derby side at that point to have faltered and just sort of faded the game out and come away with a draw, which based on the game probably was more of a fair result.
19:47 So the fact that they had that resilience and then Herrhand could score that goal at the end there, I think is vital. It's a bit of a cliche, but I know some of the top teams in any league you look in, if they can get a result like that when maybe they have had a wobble or haven't played particularly well, but they can still pick up those points, that's going to be crucial come the end of the season, I think, in terms of actually getting into that top two.
20:14 Another thing that has to be said as well, there was a fair amount of pressure on Paul Ward at the start of the season, given that he didn't manage to take them not even really close to promotion last year. Expectations are very high given the stature of Derby County, regardless of what has been happening over the past few years at the club. They're still a huge club in this division.
20:37 Again, at the start of this season, they didn't perform particularly well and the pressure had been growing on him from the fans and from pundits were talking about the fact that he may have to leave the club really, not of his own accord.
20:58 To be fair to the ownership at Derby, they've done well there to take a deep breath and say, "Look, we think Paul Warne's the man to take us forward. Let's not start panicking. Things will come good." And they have done.
21:14 When the new owner came in, he was very much focused on stability. Paul Warne was his manager, really. When he first came in, Liam Rossinia had taken over from Wayne Rooney. He did a decent job. He brought in a lot of the current squad Rossinia did, so he deserves a lot of credit for that.
21:38 He's a very fair player to him. He's doing very well at Hull City in the Championship now. But at that point, it was David Clowes, the owner, it was his decision to bring in Paul Warne specifically because he obviously really admired him as a manager.
21:52 I think, as you say, it was a very, obviously, we can look at it now and say it was a very wise decision to stick by him because the team has vastly improved and there was a lot of pressure on him.
22:04 But a lot of things that the fans did say when he first came in and one of the big benefits of him coming into Managed Derby was that he knows how to get out of League One.
22:14 I think maybe we're starting to see that now and that process of how he can help us do that.
22:21 Just finally, Dylan, before I let you go, do you have a prediction for the end of the season? Do you think play-offs, they're third in the minute but only third of goal difference with Peter Brugge. At the minute, automatic promotion is there to be won. Do you think they'll get it?
22:39 It's really tough to say. I think, I mean, they've got a great chance. I mean, what happens to Portsmouth will be interesting. If they can find their feet again like they were, you know, like they had early on in the season, they've got every chance of being up there.
22:56 I think Bolton are actually possibly more of a dangerous side to Derby. If I was to predict, I probably would put Derby in the top two just purely because of, if you look at all the sort of underlying stats and facts, they've got one of the best scoring records in the league and one of the best defensive records in the league.
23:16 And the squad that Derby have, you know, it's a team that should be in those top two places. And I think as well, the fact that the home stadium, Pride Park, is so big, such a sort of big atmosphere, for a lot of clubs in League One, it's quite a difficult place to come and visit.
23:33 So I think that could also become really crucial if they can really turn it into a bit of a fortress, which they've started to do.
23:40 Thanks a lot, Dylan. Thanks for joining us this week. We'll be back again next week on Everything But The Prem, for a look back on all the big talking points from across the EFL. We'll see you then.
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