“Unacceptable” performance shows “we’ve had to go backwards”: Derby 0-3 Swansea
- Jack Bryan
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
What’s Welsh for Blaugrana?
Between Swansea’s deep blue and red away kit, and the way they effortlessly knocked the ball around amid Derby’s calamitous defending, watching Vitor Matos’ men was like watching Barcelona.
Okay, not quite. But witnessing the way that The Rams were toyed with on a grim Saturday afternoon will have left many fans at the end of their tether. The blows have just kept on coming this week. Ben Brereton Díaz opted to rejoin Sheffield United over a Pride Park return, and now Carlton Morris is injured too.
“He’s out with a calf problem, which will probably be a couple of weeks,” according to John Eustace, who “takes full responsibility for the performance,” with Derby toothless in their number nine’s absence.
Aside from that news, Eustace’s post-match media round was full of candid, but depressing admissions. Sitting in the post-match press conference, you could feel his deflation. Some players are “not as fit as what people might think”, and he was disappointed with the body language of a couple of players in the second half too.
The starkest of all though, was that “we’ve had to go backwards a little bit” as he told BBC Radio Derby – after weeks of stressing the importance of not doing exactly that.
Eustace wants “three or four” more players through the door before Tuesday night’s transfer deadline, including Pisa striker Henrik Meister who was watching on from the stands after being “in the building [Moor Farm] yesterday [Friday]”. A penny for his thoughts given the lack of service for Lars-Jørgen Salvesen and his soon-to-be new side’s failure to hit the target at all.
Arguably, The Rams’ afternoon peaked inside 30 seconds, as Ryan Hedges found the back of the net from a clearly offside position. Otherwise, they failed to hit the target from any of their eight shots.
Swansea had no such problems, taking advantage of a calamity at the back just a minute later. Ji-sung Eom advanced down the left and cut the ball back past Max Johnston. After Sondre Langås and the slipping Lewis Travis missed the interception Joseph Opoku fired into the bottom-left corner via a deflection off Charlie Taylor.
Derby’s best – and only – chance of the half came when Max Johsnton prodded Charlie Taylor’s cross, which had been nicely cushioned by Lars-Jørgen Salvesen wide. The best entertainment for the Pride Park faithful was, to be brutally honest, probably when referee David Webb was hit in the face by Swans midfielder Melker Widell’s clearance.
On for Opoku who suffered a cut to his foot, Moussa Yeo was allowed too much space on the edge of the box to fire a lofted cross to Ji-sung Eom. Jacob Widell Zetterström parried the South Korean’s shot, which fell straight back to him to tap in from two yards.
And so came half-time, The Rams booed off as fans reeled. ‘I don’t care, I love it’ played over the speakers: “I crashed my car into a bridge, I watched, I let it burn”. A car crash was certainly an apt description of the defending on show.
Eustace made three changes at the break. On came Joe Ward, Rhian Brewster and Sam Szmodics, who “shouldn’t really have been on the pitch for more than 20 minutes, with Derby desperately searching for a route back into the game.
The first 15 minutes or so of the second half were the hosts’ brightest. Szmodics and Travis put in dangerous crosses, before the skipper saw a strike from distance deflect behind. Derby then had a handful of shots from corners blocked by a crowd of visiting defenders at the back post before one dropped nicely for Langås, who failed to hit the target.
Swansea showed the importance of strength in depth as they wrestled back control of the game – last season’s golden boot winner Zan Vipotnik is quite the trump card. The Slovenian ran Eustace’s men ragged in the final 25 minutes taking the joint-most shots of any player (4). Zetterström had to make two top stops to deny him and kept out Yeo too. Derby’s number one was on top form; without him, it could easily have been five, six, maybe more.
The Rams went down to ten men late on, Travis forced to hobble down the tunnel after all five substitutions had already been used. And substitute Ronald took advantage of the man advantage, drilling low across goal into the bottom-left corner from 20-yards-out in stoppage time.
Against a side that they did the double over last season; this was perhaps the worst Pride Park performance under Eustace. Unlike after the Valentine’s Day victory, the flock were not feeling the love at full-time.
Swansea very much were: “a moment to enjoy was really nice,” Matos said. And the travelling fans agreed. They recorded 12 shots on target, 23 total shots and 31 touches in the opposition box. Using Opta’s data, there is an argument that this was their best away performance since the site started recording these metrics in 2013-14.
Contrast this to Derby’s numbers: eight shots, zero on target, and just 12 touches in the opposition box. An xG of 0.70 to Swansea’s 3.00.
What’s Welsh for Blaugrana again?
72 vital hours
To properly analyse this display, there must be a separation of two things: that Eustace got his tactics wrong, as he admitted, and that he is stuck between a rock and a hard place thanks to factors out with his control.
Derby were too passive, sat off too much at times and offered next to nothing going forward. Eustace stressed that his team need to build confidence, as well as match cohesion. I asked him how to build this, he said: “I just think it's work on the training pitch.
“I think I've said before, we haven't been able to play a consistent team throughout pre-season or in the first three games, so I don't think we've done it in any of the games, so we're trying to chase our tail a little bit.”
But between the well-documented injury woes, and the club’s lack of movement in the transfer market, their head coach is operating with a hand tied behind his back. The 46-year-old’s disappointment with the situation is obvious, but maybe more so by omission. Asked whether he was frustrated with Brereton Díaz for choosing Sheffield United he said: “No, not at all, not by him. I don't feel let down at all by him.”
In what could be a season-defining couple of days, Derby need threat out wide, and another centre back as well as to get Meister over the line up front. Some would argue more. Meister will bring “pace and power” according to Eustace. He told me: “I think he can play across the front three positions, so I'm sure he'll fit in very well and we're looking forward to seeing him perform.”
He, and whoever else come in, will need to hit the ground running whether that is at Fratton Park on Tuesday night, or the London Stadium next weekend. For now, it feels as though Derby’s fate hinges on their end to the transfer window, so is out of their head coach’s hands. It’s over to David Clowes, Stephen Pearce, Leigh Bromby and co.
Money may be tighter than had been hoped if the takeover had gone through, but The Rams cannot afford to continue to play this poorly either.
Goals: Opoku 2’, Eom 44’, Ronald 90+1’.
Derby (4-2-3-1): Zetterström (GK); Johnston (Ward 46’), Sanderson, Langås, Taylor; Mowatt (Eames 78’), Travis (C); Hedges (Brewster 46’), Clark, Blackett-Taylor (Szmodics 46’); Salvesen (Bilbija 69’).
Unused substitutes: Vickers (GK); Forsyth, Nyambe; Fraulo.
Swansea (4-3-3): Vigouroux (GK); Key, Lissah, Welsh, Tymon; Fulton (Just 65’), Stamenić, Widell (Eustáquio 65’); Opoku (Yeo 24’), Idah (Vipotnik 65’), Eom (Ronald 85’).
Unused substitutes: Fisher (GK); Woodward, Seelt, Parente.
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